① China Coal Energy, the coal leader with a total market cap of over 170 billion yuan, achieved a net profit of 9.788 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a decrease of nearly 20% compared to the same period last year; ② The company will distribute cash dividends to shareholders at a rate of 30% of the net profit attributable to the parent company, with a dividend of 0.221 yuan per share.
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According to the Financial Union Society on August 23rd, due to factors such as the year-on-year decline in coal sales prices, China Coal Energy, the coal leader with a total market cap of over 170 billion yuan, saw a nearly 20% year-on-year decline in net profit in the first half of the year, but a slight increase in net profit in the second quarter.
China Coal Energy announced tonight that in the first half of 2024, the company achieved operating income of 92.984 billion yuan, a decrease of 15% compared to the same period last year; the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company was 9.788 billion yuan, a decrease of 17.3% compared to the same period last year.
In terms of quarterly profits, the company's net profit in Q2 was 4.818 billion yuan, slightly lower than the 4.97 billion yuan in Q1, but an increase of about 3% compared to the same period last year.
The announcement shows that in the first half of the year, the company's coal business revenue was 77.767 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.8%. China Coal Energy stated that due to the year-on-year decline in coal sales prices, the coal business achieved a gross profit of 19.848 billion yuan, a decrease of 11.9% compared to the same period last year; the gross margin was 25.5%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year, mainly due to a decrease in the proportion of buyout trade coal with lower gross margin. In terms of other businesses, influenced by the year-on-year decline in urea and ammonium nitrate sales prices, the coal chemical business revenue decreased by 3.5% compared to the same period last year.
In terms of production and sales volume, China Coal Energy saw a year-on-year decline in both the production and sales volume of commodity coal and coal chemical products in the first half of the year. Among them, the production and sales volume of commodity coal were 66.5 million tons and 133.55 million tons, respectively, a decrease of 0.9% and 8.9% compared to the same period last year; the production and sales volume of coal chemical products were 2.927 million tons and 3.083 million tons, respectively, a decrease of 2.5% and 4% compared to the same period last year.
Public information shows that China Coal Energy's main business includes coal, coal chemical, coal mining equipment, and financial services, with coal and coal chemical business revenues accounting for approximately 80% and 10%, respectively.
From the perspective of the industry as a whole, the decline in coal prices has affected the performance of coal companies, which generally declined year-on-year. China Coal Energy stated that due to insufficient domestic demand, excess capacity in some industries, and weak social expectations and other macro factors, coal demand in the first half of the year decreased slightly compared with the same period last year, inventories at all levels increased, and coal prices fluctuated weakly overall.
Regarding the dividend situation that investors are concerned about, the interim profit distribution plan of China Coal Energy for 2024 shows that cash dividends of 2.936 billion yuan, equivalent to 30% of the 9.788 billion yuan net income attributable to the parent company, will be distributed to shareholders, with a dividend of 0.221 yuan per share.
Compared with other coal listed companies with a market cap of over 100 billion yuan, the dividend proportion of China Coal Energy is relatively low. For example, Yankuang Energy (600188.SH), Shaanxi Coal Industry (601225.SH), China Shenhua Energy (601088.SH), although the three companies have not yet announced the interim profit distribution plan for 2024, the announcements show that the dividend proportions for 2023 were 55.04%, 60.03%, and 75.2%, respectively, while China Coal Energy was 30% during the same period. Compared with the industry situation, according to the data cited by Minsheng Securities from the announcements of various companies, the average dividend proportion in the coal sector in 2023 was 46.57%, a year-on-year increase of 1.52%.
However, based on the profit distribution plan for the year 2023 already implemented by China Coal Energy, the company has added a special dividend of 1.5 billion yuan. According to the company's announcement, the controlling shareholder, China Zhongmei, proposed to distribute a special dividend of 1.5 billion yuan to all shareholders, with a special dividend of 0.113 yuan (including tax) per share.