Losses a roadblock to SCIC divestment plans at Quang Ninh Thermal Power

Decreasing profit and mounting expenses will likely put a check on SCIC's divestment from Quang Ninh Thermal Power

Quang Ninh Thermal Power JSC has published its financial statement in the first quarter of this year. Accordingly, its net revenue increased by 4 per cent to VND2.63 trillion ($114.35 million). However, the company suffered a loss of VND6 billion ($260,870) in the first three months of this year, while it reported a profit of VND149 billion ($6.48 million) a year ago.

According to the company, the decrease in gross profit and mounting financial expenses were the reason behind its loss of VND6 billion ($260,870).

The company generated 1.967 million kWh of electricity in the first quarter of this year, up 30 per cent compared to the target and 12 per cent compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The company reported assets at VND10.67 trillion ($463.9 million) as of March 31, VND600 billion ($26.1 milliion) of which is cash. The total financial loans are at VND5.09 trillion ($221.3 million).

Previously, in November, SCIC announced intentions to offload its entire stake of 11.42 per cent, or 51 million shares, in Quang Ninh Thermal Power JSC. It expected to collect VND1.22 trillion ($53 million) from the purchase but it failed to find an investor.

This year, SCIC will once again organise bids or auction to divest from Quang Ninh Thermal Power JSC.

The Quang Ninh Thermal Power Plant No.1 project started in 2006 with the total investment capital of nearly $600 million, including two units with the capacity of 600MW each. After four years of construction, in January 2010, Unit 1's construction was completed and began test operations.

On June 2010, the second unit of Quang Ninh Thermal Power Plant were completed and put into test operations. The two units of the thermal power plant in Quang Ninh supplied nearly 1.4 billion kWh of electricity to the national grid during the test period.

One year after Quang Ninh Thermal Power Plant No.1 broke ground, in May 2007, the company officially started the construction of the second thermal power plant, with Shanghai Electrification Corporation (SEC) as the general contractor.

In December 2012, the third unit with the capacity of 300MW belonging to Quang Ninh Thermal Power Plant No.2began supplying electricity to the national grid.