BGRIM Bucks the Trend with 62.5% Surge in Q2 Profit, Offering a Dividend of ฿0.15/Share!
BGRIM has bucked the trend of economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic with a robust 62.5% rise in the second-quarter net profit.
BGRIM posted 1,017 million baht in the net profit for April-June 2020, fuelled by the continuous expansion of its production capacity and an increase in industrial customers, said Preeyanart Soontornwata, Chief Executive Officer of BGRIM.
The net profit attributable to the parent company is 1,017 million baht increase 62.5% from the same period last year, while the normalized net profit amounted to 1,102 million baht with 674 million baht being attributable to the parent firm, a 17.2% growth from the same period last year.
BGRIM’s Board of Directors has therefore approved an interim dividend payment of 0.15 baht per share for the first half of the year.
Mrs. Preeyanart said BGRIM’s financial position has remained strong as the company has since last year commenced four new power plants and two SPP co-generation acquired through acquisitions to its total installed generation portfolio which grew to 3,019 MW in the mid-2020. The two co-generation projects acquired are the B.Grimm Power (AIE-MTP), formerly known as SPP 1, and Ang Thong Power Project.
BGRIM has also seen an increase in power purchase from its new industrial clients, who committed to 25 MW supplies last year and another 15 MW in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, the continued improvement of power plant efficiency has contributed to BGRIM’s bottom line.
The second half of 2020 will see new industrial customers gradually connecting their systems with BGRIM’s grids. The power purchase from existing industrial clients is expected to ramp up in the period as reflected by the 17% rise in their electricity consumption in July this year as compared to the monthly average level recorded in the second quarter of this year.
The trend towards the declining price of natural gas will benefit BGRIM’s SPP projects, starting with an 8% gas-price reduction in July from the average price in the second quarter while PTT projected that SPP gas price per unit would continually decline in the rest of the year.
At the same time, construction of BGRIM power projects has forged ahead with the 39-MW Ray Power solar project in Cambodia and the Bo Thong Wind Farm 1 & 2 with an installed capacity of 16 MW, are due for commercial operation between the fourth quarter of this year and first quarter of 2021.
These and a number of projects under due diligence and study processes will ensure stable and sustainable growth to fulfill BGRIM’s target to raise its total installed capacity from both operating and committed projects to 5,000 MW by 2022.
BGRIM has been able to reinforce its success with numerous awards. In June this year, the company was selected as a member of the ‘FTSE4Good Indexes Series‘ by the FTSE Russell, the UK-based global index, data and analytics provider, to reflect BGRIM’s outstanding performance on the environment, social and governance (ESG) in the global scale. In July 2020, the company received three awards from the ‘Institutional Investor Corporate Awards 2020‘ organized by the Alpha Southeast Asia.
These awards include the ‘Strongest Adherence to Corporate Governance,’ ‘Most Organised Investor Relations’ and ‘Most Consistent Dividend Policy.’
BGRIM’s Board of Directors has approved an interim dividend payment of 0.15 baht per share. The list of shareholders eligible for receiving the interim dividend (Record Date) is scheduled on August 31, 2020 and payment is made on September 11, 2020.