Results achieved steady growth, and profit margins declined slightly
CIMC Enric announced its 2023 results, achieving full year operating income of RMB 23.63 billion, an increase of 20.5% year on year; net profit to mother of RMB 1.11 billion, up 5.6% year on year; and earnings per share of RMB 0.55. The company's gross margin fell 1.7 percentage points year on year to 15.7% in '23. Among them, the gross margin of the energy/chemical/liquid food division changed +0.3/-1.8/-3.3 percentage points year on year, respectively, mainly due to the decline in capacity utilization due to falling global tank demand and the delayed impact of investment due to the adoption of interest rate hikes in various countries; net interest rate fell 0.6 percentage points year on year to 4.9% year on year. The company's net operating cash inflow in '23 was 1.78 billion yuan.
The company plans to pay dividends of HK$0.3 per share, with a dividend rate of approximately 49%.
New orders and in-hand orders reached a record high. Full orders drove subsequent growth. In 2023, the company's clean energy sector achieved revenue of 14.91 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 40.8% year on year, mainly due to continuous growth in demand for LNG and industrial gases driven by relevant domestic favorable policies; the chemical environment sector achieved revenue of 4.41 billion yuan, down 15.8% year on year, mainly due to the balance between global tank supply and demand, and demand for new containers gradually declined; the liquid food sector achieved revenue of 4.29 billion yuan, an increase of 18.6% year on year, mainly due to new There has been an increase in signed orders.
According to the announcement, the company's new orders in 2023 increased by 31.5% year-on-year to RMB 26.64 billion, a record high; among them, new orders for clean energy, chemical environment and liquid food reached RMB 185.7/33.0/4.76 billion yuan respectively. By the end of 2023, the company's on-hand orders increased 29.8% year-on-year to RMB 22.80 billion, a record high; of these, orders for clean energy, chemical environment and liquid food reached RMB 166.4/11.4/5.08 billion respectively.
The hydrogen energy business grew steadily and achieved breakthrough results in various fields
In '23, the company's hydrogen energy business revenue increased sharply by 59.0% year on year to 70 million yuan; orders in the hydrogen energy business increased 18.7% year over year to 335 million yuan. In 23, in the context of introducing hydrogen energy-related incentive policies in many parts of the country, the company continued to increase its layout and expansion in the hydrogen energy industry in the upper, middle and downstream fields, and continuously strengthened its integrated solution capabilities. In terms of upstream hydrogen production, the company participated in the coke oven gas hydrogen co-production LNG project; in midstream storage and transportation, the country's first 40-cubic meter commercial liquid hydrogen tanker and 40-foot liquid hydrogen tank were successfully launched, which became a milestone in the Ministry of Science and Technology's key research and development plan; in terms of downstream terminal applications, it completed the construction of a vehicle bottle and hydrogen supply system production base, and successfully delivered Hong Kong's first skid-mounted hydrogen refueling station project, hydrogen tube carrier, and type IV vehicle bottle hydrogen supply system.
Maintain a “buy” rating
The company's profit margin declined slightly. As a result, we slightly lowered the 24-25 net profit forecast of 6.2%/0.7% to RMB 14.2/1.74 billion, and introduced the 26-year net profit forecast of RMB 1.97 billion, corresponding to the 24-26 EPS of 0.70/0.86/0.97 yuan. The company's LNG and hydrogen energy businesses are in line with the direction of clean energy development, benefit from policy support, and maintain a “buy” rating.
Risk warning: risk of hydrogen energy policy change, risk of oil and gas price fluctuation, risk of poor development of new business and overseas business