2020-03-31
(PRC, Hong Kong, 30 March, 2020) Concord New Energy Group Limited (HK stock code: 182, hereinafter referred to as “the Group”), is pleased to announce its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2019 (“The Year”).
In 2019, the Group materialized a total income of RMB1,835,922,000(2018: RMB1,414,070,000), accounting for 29.8% increase over the same period of last year. Profit attributable to equity holders of the Group amounted to RMB604,293,000(2018: RMB502,406,000), representing 20.3% increase over the same period of last year. The basic earnings per share were RMB7.22 cents (2018: RMB5.88 cents); and the fully diluted earnings per share amounted to RMB6.86 cents (2018: RMB5.87 cents).
As at the end of the Year, the net assets of the Group amounted to RMB5,969,201,000 (31 December 2018: RMB5,546,739,000) and its net assets per share was RMB0.70 (31 December 2018: RMB0.65).
Steady Growth of Power Generation
In 2019, on the principal business of power generation, the Group increased its investment in technical transformation of power plants, fully implemented intelligent operation management, so that the quality and efficiency of power plant asset further increased. During the Year, the Group’s attributable power generation notably increased, representing 20.1% increase over the same period of last year, of which the power generation of wholly-owned power plants accounted for 31.8% increase over the same period of last year. In 2019, benefiting from improvement of asset quality of current power plants as well as scale expansion of power plants, the Group’s attributable wind power generation still maintained a growth rate of 21.5%, of which power generation by wholly-owned power plants increased 36.6%, despite substantial decrease of resources in the Southern regions. Benefiting from the increase of photovoltaic resources and the drop of PV power curtailment rate in the Northern regions, attributable PV power generation increased substantially by 10.6% over the same period of last year, of which power generation by wholly-owned power plants rose by 11.0%.
In 2019, the Group’s wholly-owned power plants achieved a total income of RMB1,636,294,000, an increase of 30.8% over the same period of last year, accounting for 89.1% of the Group’s revenue (2018 same period: 88.5%), the Group’s wholly-owned power plants achieved a total net profit from power generation of RMB628,204,000, and the Group shared net profits totalling RMB170,042,000 from power generation business of its associates and joint ventures.
Development and Constuction of Power Plants
During the Year, the Group aggressively developed quality projects in the northern regions with better advantage in resources and stable revenues. At the same time, it also consolidated its advantage in the southern regions with no power curtailment by continuously developing and constructing new energy projects. In 2019, the Group has added 19 newly approved projects (886MW in total), including 17 wind power projects (741MW in total) and 2 photovoltaic projects (145MW in total). Among them, 10 projects (641MW in total) are included in the First Batch of Wind Power and PV Power Generation Grid-Parity Projects for 2019. Other than the first batch of grid-parity projects, the Group had 15 projects (457MW in total) included in the projects related to the Wind Power Development and Construction Plan for 2019 published by the provinces.
During the course of project construction, the Group actively promoted the use of new technologies and application of the latest wind turbines, and improved the construction processes. Through measures such as optimized designs, strict control of design change procedures, optimized procurement strategies, strengthened progress management of construction projects, the Group was able to control the overall budget of construction projects effectively, pursuing the lowest LCOE and enhanced the power plants’ competitiveness. The total installed capacity of the Group’s invested power plants was 1,031MW (2018: 1,068MW), and the attributed installed capacity was 963MW, 7 of which were wholly-owned, continued construction projects with installed capacity of 394MW; 9 were new construction projects with installed capacity of 637MW, with attributable installed capacity of 569MW, including 6 grid parity projects of 448MW, of which 148.5MW grid-parity projects had already been put into grid-connected operation. The development and construction of grid parity project meets the Group's past investment standard, has a high profitability and a strong market competitiveness.
Other Business
During the Year, other business segments of the Group contributed RMB199,628,000 to the Group (2018: RMB162,961,000). While focusing on its core power generation business, the Group also relied on its investments in the renewable energy industry to carry out some related business of renewable energy industry chain based on its main power generation business. In 2019, the Group continued to strengthen its development in aspects such as Energy IoT business, intelligent O&M, power plant design services, financial leasing as well as energy storage and made some achievements.
Looking ahead, Mr. Liu Shunxing, Executive Director and Chairman of Concord New Energy*, commented: “the Group has actively responded the challenges of economy and industry, optimized its assets quality, transformed operating model and adjusted its investment strategies to lead the Group entered the era of grid parity successfully with further substantial increased capabilities. In 2020, the Group will earnestly ensure safety production in power plants, increase technical transformation and exploit the smart energy management service through the high-tech measures of big data analysis and artificial intelligence to continuously increase the operation and management efficiency of power plants; other than the Group will continue to pursue the principle of the lowest Levelized Cost of Electricity (“LCOE”), increase its development efforts in grid parity and photovoltaic projects, reduce the reliance on renewable energy subsidies, improve cash flow and control the Group's gearing ratio; the Group will promote its overall competitiveness from multiple aspects to meet the challenges in the era of grid parity and achieve yet another level of remarkable results.