New power plants and lower funding cost boost BGRIM’s profit
B.Grimm Power Plc (BGRIM) posted a healthy normalized net profit of 3.0 billion baht for 2018 with the normalized net profit to owner increasing by 6.7% to 1.8 billion baht, buoyed by newpower house start-ups and reduced funding costs.
The SET-listed private power producer’s earnings in the year to December were largely in line with projections as incremental revenues brought by a 26% growth in total installed capacity successfully came on line within schedules.
Lower financial costs resulting from the issuances of 6.7 billion baht project-based bond in May, the 9.7 billion baht corporate debentures in October and BGRIM’s maiden green debentures, worth 5 billion baht, in December 2018 which is Thailand’s first green bond certified by Climate Bonds Initiative and received the Most Innovative Bond Deal award from the Thai Bond Market Association last week.
BGRIM’s revenues for 2018 grew by 16.2% from the previous year to 36.6 billion baht.
BGRIM CEO President Preeyanart Soontornwata said the 2018 performance reflects the Company’s determination to execute business plans as planned.
The year 2018 saw three co-generation projects namely ABPR3, ABPR4 and ABPR5, and seven ground-mounted solar power facilities for government agencies and cooperatives were successfully brought on stream, all in all offering a combined installed capacity of 430 MW.
Mrs Preeyanart is bullish about BGRIM’s 2019 financial performance upon an expected 34% surge in its installed capacity is sychronised and ensuring hefty revenue growth for the year.
Four generation projects are due to complete this year with a combined capacity of 697 MW.Two of them are the 420-MW DTE 1&2 and the 257-MW Phu Yen TTP, both are solar power plants in Vietnam scheduled for commercial start-up in June this year. One of these is the largest solar farm project which is currently under development in ASEAN.
The other two, the 15-MW Nam Che hydropower power and the 5-MW industrial waste-to-energy facility are slated to commence commercial operation in the first half of 2019 and the year-end, respectively.
BGRIM’s most recent completed deal to acquire the Glow SPP1 co-generation asset in the Map Ta Phut area, with the expected approval from the regulator by the first quarter of 2019, would create the company’s competitive advantage in this high demand area. If this is included, BGRIM’s portfolio would have total installed capacity of 3,250 MW in 2022.
BGRIM is aggressively exploring new business opportunity particularly in Asian region in consistence with the company’s goal to raise its capacity portfolio to 5,000 MW by 2022.
On its radar screen are renewable energy ventures in South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and hydropower scheme in Laos.
BGRIM declared a dividend of 17 satang per share for the second-half 2018 operation, payable to shareholders appeared in the registration as of Mar 14, 2019 on May 10 this year.
