On March 18, 2024, the company announced its 2023 annual results announcement. It achieved annual revenue of HK$8.666 billion, +13.0% year over year; realized net profit of HK$580 million, +37.6% year over year; dividend of 8.7 HK cents per share, with a dividend ratio of 33.8% and a dividend ratio of about 3.5%.
The revenue and profit of the main curtain wall business increased, and the performance slightly exceeded expectations: the company's 2023 curtain wall business revenue was HK$6.665 billion, and operating profit of HK$814 million, +38.2% year over year; of these, the Hong Kong and Macau curtain wall business revenue was HK$4.582 billion, +27.4% year over year, driving the company's overall gross margin to increase from 10.8% in 2022 to 11.2% in 2023. Dependence on non-core businesses gradually declined. The total engineering contracting business generated revenue of HK$1,054 million in 2023, and operating profit of HK$1.22 million, or -29.9%; the operation and management business was affected by revenue from electric heating plants and increased coal costs, with revenue of HK$947 million, -4.3% year over year, and operating profit of HK$32 million, or -50% year over year.
Continued focus on the main business, anchoring “expanding Hong Kong and Macao, expanding the mainland, and optimizing overseas”: the total number of new contracts signed by the company in 2023 was HK$11.01 billion, +13.6% year on year; of which the curtain wall project was HK$8.487 billion, -1.2% year over year; total project contract was HK$2,053 million, +292% year over year; operation management was HK$961 million, -4.8% year over year. Hong Kong and Macau are the company's traditional key regions. They have obtained large-scale projects such as Prince of Wales Hospital and the 391 residence at Taikoo Chai Wan Road; the mainland curtain wall market has broad space, adheres to differentiated competitive strategies, and obtained high-end projects such as Shenzhen OPPO International Headquarters and Shenzhen Futian International Sports and Cultural Exchange Center; overseas curtain wall optimization areas, withdrew from the North American market, and explored the feasibility of curtain wall business layout in Singapore, the Middle East and other regions.
Promote BIPV applications and create new growth points for the company's technology: In 2023, the company developed new photovoltaic curtain wall products Light A and Mega Light-A, completed the construction of the first photovoltaic curtain wall production line, won the bid for the Shenzhen Metrology Institute project, deeply applied BIPV, and built the “Shenzhen Zero-Energy Building Pilot Project”. The company's “15th Five-Year Plan” (2026-2030) clearly aims to use technology to lead differentiated competition, enhance the contribution of emerging businesses such as BIPV, and make it a new growth point for performance.
The company's core business maintained a high growth rate, and the results of the “14th Five-Year Plan” were steadily implemented. The “15th Five-Year Plan” proposed growth points for emerging businesses and expanded the blue ocean market. We slightly increased the company's net profit due to mother in 2024/2025 to HK$798/1,042 million (previously HK$788/HK$1,036 million), and added a net profit forecast of HK$1,315 billion for 2026, with year-on-year growth rates of 37.3%, 30.8% and 26.2%, respectively. The current price of the company's stock is 7.0/5.3/4.2 times the PE valuation, maintaining a “buy” rating.
Projects in Hong Kong and Macau are expanding slowly; new businesses are not developing smoothly; green construction policies have changed.