The Zhitong Finance App learned that UBS released a research report stating that it reaffirmed CLP Holdings (00002)'s “buy” rating and raised the 2024-2026 earnings forecast by 6% each, mainly due to the good prospects for the Australian business. The target price was raised from HK$70 to HK$74, which meant that the dividend rate reached 4.3%.

According to the report, the company's operating profit last year was 10.1 billion yuan, up 33% year on year, excluding one-off projects (mainly Australian customer business goodwill impairment of 5.9 billion yuan), which is basically in line with the company's earlier profit warning forecast of 10.9 billion yuan, exceeding the bank's annual forecast of 9.1 billion yuan. It was mainly due to the better recovery of Australian business than expected, and the loss narrowed to 182 million yuan, compared to the bank's expected loss of 1.1 billion yuan. The energy business in Hong Kong, China remained stable, and profit increased 1% year over year to $8.536 billion. The company's annual dividend was flat at 3.1 yuan per share, which meant a dividend ratio of about 5%.