On March 19th, Zhejiang Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo (00576) held a performance meeting in Hong Kong. At the meeting, Luo Jianhu, the company's general manager, told APP of Zhitong Finance that the company's overall performance rose steadily on the 20th anniversary of its listing and reached an all-time high in 2017.
According to Zhitong Financial APP, in 2017, the company's earnings fell 1.1 per cent year-on-year to 9.626 billion yuan (the same unit below); profits attributable to company owners rose 5.4 per cent year-on-year to 3.202 billion yuan; basic earnings per share were 73.73 cents and recommended a final dividend of 30.0 cents per share.
Of this total, 5.986 billion yuan came from the five major highways operated by the group, an increase of 13.4 percent over the same period in 2016, accounting for 62.2 percent of the total income. The income brought by the securities business to the group was 3.491 billion yuan, down 16.4 percent from the same period in 2016, accounting for 36.3 percent of the total income.
During the period, the average daily traffic flow of the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway was 57275, an increase of 13.2% over the same period last year. Among them, the average daily traffic flow of the Shanghai-Hangzhou section of the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway was 59814, an increase of 22.1% over the same period last year, while that of the Hangzhou-Ningbo section was 55461, an increase of 10.1% over the same period last year. The average daily traffic flow of the Shangsan Expressway was 30223 vehicles, an increase of 11.6 percent over the same period last year. The average daily traffic flow of the Jinhua section of the Yong-Jin Expressway was 19708 vehicles, an increase of 9.9 percent over the same period last year. The average daily traffic flow of Hangzhou-Huizhou Expressway was 17500 vehicles, an increase of 8.2% over the same period last year. The average daily traffic flow of the Huizhou-Hangzhou Expressway was 7240 vehicles, down 2.3% from the same period last year.
The following is the Q & A record of the performance organized by Zhitong Financial APP.
Q: in fiscal year 2017, the company's road revenue increased significantly compared with the same period last year. What kind of development does the company expect to achieve in the road business in 2018?
A:In the 248km Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway, 142km Shangshan Expressway, 70km Yong-Jin Expressway Jinghua Section, 122km Aviation Emblem Expressway, 82km Huizhou-Hangzhou Expressway, etc. bring traffic growth, as well as PPP projects, preferential policies, including over-line vehicles, the traffic volume growth of highway business in 2018 will be about 7 points; passage fees will increase by about 6 points.
Q: other expenditures have increased significantly during the period. Can you elaborate on the changes that will occur in 2018?
A:First of all, the expected changes in 2018, in fact, capital expenditure, other expenditure as a whole is relatively clear, because we will increase the intensity of investment in mergers and acquisitions. In 2017, other expenditure was more than 100 million, an increase of 60% over the same period last year. There should be no big change behind the data subjects. The increase is mainly from the impairment provision, including the business of Zheshang Securities (financing, stock hypothecation). It increased by more than 50 million during the period, which eventually pushed up other expenses in 2017.
Q: what is the latest situation that has been discussed before that the government has some subsidies for free high-speed holidays?
A:At present, there is no news of "suspension or cancellation" of the holiday policy, but with regard to compensation, in the previous draft regulations on kilometer tolls, policy compensation has been proposed, and it may also be the adjustment of the number of years and standards of charges, but it ultimately depends on the introduction of the regulations. At present, it is indeed difficult to judge.
Q: Zheshang Securities is a very successful investment. In view of this successful investment, what areas will the company's next investment focus on?
A:At present, we still give priority to the investment in expressways, which is also our main business for 20 years, and the parent company has also acquired some highways outside the province out of related considerations. while there are also relevant public standards in the province are also actively looking for, tracking, overseas, including Europe and the United States and other developed countries, we are also considering some high-quality toll road projects, in order to seek new breakthroughs in the highway plate.
Of course, with the diversification of the group's business, our financial business is also following, such as technology insurance, which opened in early 2018. As for some other new businesses, we are also looking at, such as big health areas, functional transportation and so on.