CKP Doubles the Profit in 2020 from Effective Management, Expecting 20% Growth in 2021

Mr. Thanawat Trivisvavet, the Managing Director of CK Power Public Company Limited (CKP), reported on the fourth quarter and the full year of 2020 results of CKP and its subsidiaries.

CKP achieved a full year net profit attributable to equity holders of the company of Baht 404.7 million, an increase of Baht 212.7 million or 110.8% from 2019, which had a recurring net profit (excluding one-time foreign exchange gain from Xayaburi Power Company Limited (XPCL)) of Baht 192 million. For the fourth quarter of 2020, the net profit was Baht 7.8 million, an increase of 112.1% compared to the same period in 2019.

 

In terms of revenue, the total revenue in 2020 was Baht 7,177.5 million, a decrease of Baht 1,662.7 million or 18.8% in comparison to 2019. The total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 was Baht 1,453.4 million, a decline of Baht 655.8 million or 31.1% from the same period in 2019.

 

The primary factors contributing to CKP’s profitability were an effective operation of the power plants and good financial management; particularly during the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) situation.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the operating expenses were Baht 1,530.6 million, declining by 11.4% and the financial cost was Baht 255.3 million, declining by 1.8% from the same period in 2019. For the full year 2020, operating expenses were Baht 6,417.5 million, declining by 8.6% while the financial cost was Baht 996.4 million, declining by 14.2%.

Furthermore, CKP recognized the Share of Profit from XPCL, which operated continuously for the entire year for the first time in 2020, while the Bangpa-in Cogeneration Power Plant operated as normal without any major maintenance outage and the Bangkhenchai Solar Power Plant (BKC) successfully replaced some of its solar panels as planned which resulted in a 25% increase in plant efficiency.

 

As for the Nam Ngum 2 Hydroelectric Power Plant (NN2), the plant’s electricity sales were 920 GWh in 2020, a decrease of 45.4% due to a lower water level at the beginning of 2020 compared with 2019 and a 6.6% lower water inflow during 2020, causing NN2 to manage its declarations cautiously to ensure that the water level at the end of 2020 would be adequate for the electricity production in the first half of 2021.

For BIC, the power plants achieved 1,538 GWh of electricity sales, which was at a similar level to 2019. This was despite BIC-1 having a temporary outage for maintenance of one of its gas turbine units. XPCL achieved electricity sales of 6,301 GWh, driven by its first full year of operation in 2020.

 

“Once again, CKP and its subsidiaries were able to deliver a profitable performance for the shareholders in 2020. This is mainly due to our effective operations and maintenance management and our continued emphasis on ensuring reliable delivery of electricity to fulfil our contractual obligations. Moreover, our strong investment portfolio of well-diversified energy sources has helped us in navigating through the COVID-19 situation successfully. In 2021, the company will continue to improve efficiency to achieve more economies of scale going forward.” said Mr. Thanawat.

 

Mr. Thanawat also revealed that in 2021, CKP has set an investment budget of approximately Baht 2,000-4,000 million to support its investment expansion in large hydroelectric power and other renewable energy projects. The funding will come from the combination of proceeds from existing debentures issued during late-2020 of approximately Baht 2,000 million and proceeds from newly issued debentures of Baht 4,000-6,000 million.

The total proceeds are expected to be sufficient to support future business expansion as well as the redemption of Baht 4,000 million existing debentures, maturing in June 2021.

CKP is expecting a 10-15% revenue growth this year, driven by revenues from NN2, which has managed to maintain a high water level at the end of last year to support this year’s production while the water flows during this year are expected to be higher than last year for both Nam Ngum 2 and Xayaburi hydroelectric power plants.

As for the performance of BIC-1 and BIC-2, both plants are expected to operate as normal and the 9 solar power plants will all be operating at their full capacity in 2021 as well.

In addition, the company plans to invest in renewable energy businesses that produce clean energy and are friendly to the environment to ensure strong and sustainable growth in the future.