Towngas first-half profit grows 23 percent, sees stable full-year gas sales

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company (0003) reported a 23 percent rise in first-half net profit to HK$3.64 billion and kept the interim dividend unchanged at 12 HK cents.

The company, also known as Towngas, also recorded a 7 percent growth in revenue to HK$29.5 billion.

In the six months through June, Hong Kong gas sales dropped by 3.5 percent to 14.4 billion million joules, or 410 million cubic meters of natural gas, weighed by high temperatures and a surge in outbound tourism among local residents.

Despite the drop in the first half and the increase in tariff effective from August, the utility firm expects full-year gas sales volume to remain broadly stable.

The US-Iran conflict has laid bare the fragility of the global fossil energy supply chain, while underscoring the strategic importance of the group’s commitment to green and smart energy, it said, adding that it will continue to leverage its strong and stable utility businesses to incubate and advance new growth engines.

Sustainable fuel maker EcoCeres, which it incubated, sold around 320,000 tonnes of green fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel, in the six months, approximately doubled year-on-year.

EcoCeres is working with the Dongguan municipal government to establish the Greater Bay Area’s first complete SAF value chain that could produce approximately 450,000 tonnes of SAF and hydrotreated vegetable oil annually, and when completed, will bring EcoCeres’ total annual capacity to 1.22 million tonnes.

In green methanol, Towngas’ joint venture Venex is ramping up capacity to 300,000 tonnes in Inner Mongolia and will commence construction of the Foshan plant with planned capacity of
200,000 tonnes.

In the renewable energy business, new grid-connected distributed photovoltaic capacity reached 0.2 gigawatt during the period, bringing cumulative installed capacity to 3 gigawatts.

Photovoltaic electricity sales increased by 12 percent year-on-year to 1.32 billion kilowatt-hours; and electricity trading sales volume doubled to 7.23 billion kWh.

Towngas said it will continue to advance pipeline network construction and provide gas equipment at several key projects in the Northern Metropolis, which it expects will provide sustained momentum for future gas demand and sales volume growth.
 

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