A Little too Late for BANPU to Rely on New Businesses?

As people begin to pay more attention to the earth and environment, a business like coal mining starts to die out slowly. It is a must for Banpu Public Company Limited (BANPU) to find a new business to invest before its core business sees the last light.

 

Recently, BANPU announced a strategy called “Greener & Smarter,” focusing in energy generation business to generate more electricity such as renewable power plant, solar farm, and energy technology while planning to be the leader of energy technology in Asia in seven years.

As for its core business, BANPU decided to put more effort into coal trading instead of mining to increase the sustainability of coal mines.

The energy generation business is operated by BANPU’s subsidiary, Banpu Infinergy Company Limited, which plans to increase its solar rooftop capacity from 100 MW to 300 MW by 2020, aiming to give a better solution for customers to be able to produce electricity by themselves.

 

A major change like this is to erase an image of the “old” BANPU that people used to think BANPU means coal mine, and when thinking of coal mining, think of BANPU.

Furthermore, it is very interesting to see how BANPU, as a newcomer in power plant business, can compete in this high-competitive business and will it be enough to compensate the revenue from lower operating in coal mining? Is it too slow for BANPU to start a new business?

 

Whether it is a yes or no, the share price of BANPU does not seem to correspond any positive news from BANPU at all. The shares just keep walking….down the road.