China Everbright in 'rapid phase' as investment soars
Company also says there are no checks on books and operations by mainland anti-graft agency
China Everbright International, the waste-to-electricity and waste water treatment company, is in a "rapid development phase" and has not been notified by Beijing of any investigation of its books and operations, according to its chief executive.
The firm had signed agreements on nine projects involving 3.4 billion yuan (HK$4,.2 billion) of investment so far this year, compared with 12 projects with investment of 2.48 billion yuan last year, Chen Xiaoping said.
"We have 37 projects under construction involving 12.7 billion yuan of investment, which has exceeded the more than 10 billion yuan spent on 50 projects that we have commissioned so far," Chen said. "We have entered a rapid development phase."
The company plans to commission eight projects this year, of which five are waste-to-power ventures. Last year, four projects came on stream and net profit grew 18 per cent to HK$1.32 billion.
Everbright began to switch its business focus in 2003 from road and bridge infrastructure to waste-to-energy, clean energy generation and waste and sewage treatment.
The Hong Kong-registered state-backed red-chip firm with almost all of its projects on the mainland is part of the finance-to-hotel conglomerate China Everbright Group.