Performance summary: The company released its 2023 annual report and 2024 quarterly report. In 2023, the company achieved revenue of 7.35 billion yuan, +56.1% year on year; net profit to mother of 850 million yuan, +31.2% year on year; deducted non-net profit of 81 million yuan, +28.5% year on year. In the first quarter of '24, the company achieved revenue of 1.13 billion yuan, -34.5% year on year; net profit to mother - 0.3 billion yuan, -108.6% year on year; deducted non-net profit of 0.3 billion yuan, or -110.5% year on year.
Sales of grid-connected inverters increased in '23, and sales of energy storage inverters declined year-on-year due to inventory in Europe. In '23, the company's PV grid-connected inverter revenue was 2.86 billion yuan, up 43.0% year on year; sales volume was 532,000 units, up 15.5% year on year. Revenue from energy storage inverters was 1.57 billion yuan, down 4.7% year on year; sales volume was 154,000 units, down 32.2% year on year, mainly due to high household storage inverter inventories in Europe, which were basically stored out of storage throughout the year. In terms of unit price, due to the increase in the average power of grid-connected and energy storage inverters, the unit price increased year on year: the average price of a single grid-connected inverter in '23 was about 5,375 yuan, up 23.8% year on year; the unit price of a single energy storage inverter was about 10,000 yuan, up 40.6% year on year.
Energy storage battery revenue and profit increased year-on-year. In '23, the company's energy storage battery revenue was 870 million yuan, up 38.7% year on year; sales volume was 341.1 MWh, up 27.7% year on year. The company's gross profit margin for energy storage batteries was 25.0% in '23, an increase of 7.2pp over the previous year. During the reporting period, the company launched Lynx Home A series lithium batteries, while iteratively upgrading the existing Lynx Home F series of high-voltage batteries. Among them, Lynx Home A series low voltage lithium batteries are suitable for household and small industrial and commercial application scenarios such as homes, computer rooms, supermarkets, etc. The new energy storage product EAC series 60 kWh outdoor integrated cabinet was launched. The company's BAC series of 100 kWh to 372 kWh outdoor integrated cabinets can be flexibly expanded according to customer needs to form energy storage systems with different capacities to meet maximum energy storage needs, and can be applied to various industrial and commercial application scenarios such as industrial parks and commercial complexes.
The inflection point for inverters to be stored in Europe is approaching, and shipments are expected to increase month-on-month starting in the second quarter. Currently, inverter inventories in Europe have decreased, and the company's on-hand orders have improved. Sales of grid-connected and energy storage inverters are expected to increase sequentially from the second quarter. At the same time, as the scale of revenue increases, period expenses will be diluted, and profitability is expected to increase.
Profit forecast: As a leader in string inverters, shipments are expected to reach an inflection point with the end of household storage inverters in Europe. We expect the company's net profit to be 70 million yuan in '24, net profit to mother of 950 million yuan in '25, and net profit of 1.26 billion yuan for '26.
Risk warning: risk of global PV installations falling short of expectations; risk of overseas inventory removal falling short of expectations; risk of raw material price fluctuations and declining company profitability; risk of exchange rate fluctuations.