news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Yangtze Business Daily News● Yangtze Business Daily reporter Xu Yang

FoRen Energy (002911.SZ) delivered its best interim report.

On the evening of July 15, FoRan Energy announced that from January to June 2024, the company's total operating revenue was 14.124 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.43%; net profit was 289 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.44%. Both revenue and net profit hit a record high for the same period.

A reporter from the Yangtze Business Daily noticed that in recent years, FoRen Energy has continued to promote the transformation of its energy structure. While deepening its main business of urban gas, it has continuously expanded its business segments, built a diversified business structure, and achieved steady growth in performance.

At the same time, since its listing in 2017, FoRen Energy has insisted on paying dividends every year, with the cumulative cash dividends reaching 2.465 billion yuan, which is 3.16 times the financing amount of 781 million yuan.

Net profit doubled in the second quarter

FoRan Energy achieved double growth in revenue and profit in the first half of the year.

On the evening of July 15, FoRan Energy released its 2024 semi-annual performance report. During the reporting period, the company's total operating income was 14.124 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.43%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company (referred to as "net profit") was 289 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.44%; the net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses (referred to as "net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses") was 280 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.73%. This performance will set a new record for the company in the same period over the years.

In the first quarter of this year, FoRen Energy achieved operating income, net profit and non-net profit of 6.159 billion yuan, 80.29 million yuan and 73.35 million yuan, respectively, up 37.47%, 3.09% and 0.01% year-on-year.

A comparison shows that in the second quarter, FoRen Energy achieved operating income of 7.965 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.62%; net profit was 208 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.38%; and non-net profit was 206 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.56%.

On a month-on-month basis, FoRen Energy's operating income in the second quarter increased by approximately 29%, net profit increased by approximately 159%, and non-net profit increased by approximately 181%.

Regarding the operating performance in the first half of this year, FoRan Energy stated that due to the decline in purchasing prices in the first half of the year, the company's urban gas business revenue was 7.007 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11.39%; the company vigorously expanded related businesses, and the supply chain and other business revenue increased significantly by 124.09% year-on-year to 7.117 billion yuan. The business scale has been further expanded, and the business model has been continuously optimized, driving profit growth.

A reporter from the Yangtze Business Daily noticed that while FoRen Energy was carrying out refined operations around its gas supply business, it continued to promote the development of its supply chain business, extended business, and new energy business. The company's performance maintained steady growth, with operating income increasing from 4.292 billion yuan in 2017 to 25.538 billion yuan in 2023, a compound annual growth rate of 34.61%, and net profit increasing from 347 million yuan in 2017 to 844 million yuan in 2023, a compound annual growth rate of 15.97%.

However, due to the different gross profit margin levels in different industries, the supply chain industry has a lower gross profit margin, which leads to fluctuations in FoRan Energy's overall gross profit margin. Data shows that since 2016, the company's gross profit margin has continued to decline, and the gross profit margin in the first quarter of 2024 was 6.12%, a decrease of 1.56 percentage points from the same period last year.

Looking ahead, FoRen Energy expects its operating income to increase by 10%-30% year-on-year in 2024; in 2023, it will recognize the Nansha warehousing performance compensation, resulting in non-recurring gains and losses of 120 million yuan, and its net profit is expected to increase by -10%-20% year-on-year in 2024.

R&D personnel and expenses increase year by year

Public information shows that FoRan Energy was founded in 1993 and is a powerful integrated energy service company in China. The company has 13 regional pipeline gas business franchises in Guangdong, Hebei, Hunan and other places.

In recent years, FoRan Energy has continued to deepen its existing market and expand new regional markets in a timely manner to increase the scale of natural gas supply. At the same time, the company has also increased its investment in hydrogen energy, thermal energy, photovoltaics, energy storage and other fields and scientific and technological research and development, and coordinated and integrated existing resources to expand supply chain business, further enhancing and consolidating the company's industry position and overall competitive advantage.

Data shows that from 2020 to 2023, FoRan Energy's R&D expenses were 148 million yuan, 301 million yuan, 286 million yuan, and 337 million yuan, respectively, showing an overall upward trend. In the first quarter of 2024, the company's R&D expenses increased by 19.15% year-on-year to 75.06 million yuan.

In terms of R&D personnel, from 2020 to 2023, the number of R&D personnel of FoRen Energy has steadily increased to 406, 507, 578 and 642 respectively, an increase of 236 people in three years, and the corresponding proportions of the total number of employees were 20.00%, 23.06%, 24.04% and 25.38% respectively, and the proportion has been increasing.

It is reported that FoRan Energy is conducting research and development and planning in SOFC solid oxide fuel cells, hydrogen energy equipment manufacturing and development, pipeline inspection, kiln thermal equipment manufacturing and energy conservation and emission reduction. By the end of 2023, the company has 480 valid intellectual property rights, including 48 invention patents, 335 utility model patents, 4 design patents and 93 software copyrights.

The reporter of Yangtze Business Daily noticed that FoRan Energy has a financial advantage. Since its listing in 2017, the company has only raised 781 million yuan in IPO and has not conducted equity financing since then. By the end of the first quarter of this year, the company's asset-liability ratio was 53.05%, a decrease of 4.8 percentage points from the end of last year and 6.68 percentage points from the same period last year. At the end of the period, the company had 2.761 billion yuan in cash and 1.815 billion yuan in short-term debt.

In 2023, the net cash flow from FoRan Energy's operating activities reached 1.606 billion yuan, setting a new record. In the first quarter of 2024, the company's net cash flow from operating activities was -524 million yuan. The company explained that this was due to the further expansion of business scale, the increase in prepaid accounts and inventory balances, and the increase in cash expenditures for purchasing goods and receiving services.

Since its listing, FoRan Energy has insisted on high dividends. Data shows that the company has paid dividends for seven consecutive years, with a cumulative cash dividend of 2.465 billion yuan, of which the dividend ratio has remained above 65% since 2018. The company's dividend financing ratio is about 316%.

Visual China Image