Huaneng Power posts 96pc plummet in half-time profit
Net profit came in at US$34.89 million, down from US$918 m in the same period last year, far worse than analysts has expected
Huaneng Power International has seen a 96 per cent plunge in interim net profit, on the back of sharply higher coal costs and a lack of power price increases to offset them.
The listed flagship of the nation’s largest power generator China Huaneng Group reported a net profit of 234.9 million yuan (US$34.89 million) for the year’s first six months, down from 6.18 billion yuan (US$918 million) in the same period last year, far worse than analysts has expected.
It was certainly steeper than the 78 per cent decline estimated by Citi’s head of Asia-Pacific utilities research Pierre Lau, and amounted to just 5.7 per cent of the full-year 4.3 billion yuan average profit estimate of 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
“The profit decline was mainly attributed to surging fuel prices,” the Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed firm said in a filing to Shanghai’s stock exchange late on Tuesday.
Revenue grew 35 per cent to 71.4 billion yuan, helped by a 28 per cent rise in domestic power output from plants in which it has controlling stakes.
