ACWA POWER profits jump 103% by the end of 2022, to SAR 1.5 billion

The net profit after zakat and tax of ACWA Power jumped to SAR 1.5 billion during the year 2022, compared to SAR 759 million in the year 2021 AD, at a rate of 103%. This came after today’s announcement of the annual financial results ending on 12-31-2022.

The operating profit amounted to SAR 2.6 billion during the year ending in 2022, compared to SAR 2.3 billion in the previous year, an increase of 14%.

As for the total profit, it amounted to SAR 2.86 billion in the current year, compared to SAR 2.85 billion in the previous year, with a growth of 0.5%.

Earnings per share in the current year amounted to SAR 2.11, compared to SAR 1.04 in the previous year.

The increase in net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent for the year 2022 compared to year 2021 is mainly due to:

• higher operating income before impairment and other expenses mainly due to (i) new contribution or full year impact, together with the corresponding O&M income, from projects that achieved their ICOD/PCODs during or after 2021 (ii) higher contribution from development and construction management services for the projects which achieved financial close during the year (iii) lower project development cost, provision and write offs, as compared to provisions/write offs in 2021 (iv) recognition of liquidated damages and insurance recovery pertaining to incidents in 2022 and earlier; and (v) higher employee long-term incentive plan (LTIP) expense in 2021 that was recognized for both full year 2020 and 2021. These were partially offset by: (i) reversal of an impairment loss in an equity accounted investee in 2021; (ii) lower contribution from projects on account of a) extended outages in certain power generation plants, mainly one plant in Morocco and one plant in Saudi Arabia, all of which are back in normal operation; b) episodic operation of Barka power plant in Oman due to expiry of the offtake contract; c) higher maintenance costs in some plants due to unplanned and/or extended outages; and (iii) higher corporate expenses;

• lower impairment loss and other expenses during the year mainly due to recognition of a one-time share-based expense in 2021, partially offset by the recognition of certain claims and supplier settlements and higher impairment charges;

• higher other income, mainly driven by: i) higher income earned on deposits in addition to gain on change in fair value of derivatives; ii) income in relation to early settlement of long-term financing and funding facilities and termination of hedging positions;

• higher profit from discontinued operations, mainly on account of a gain recognised on sale of 49% stake in a plant in Uzbekistan;

• These increases in net profit were partially offset by higher finance charges and higher zakat and tax charge.

The Company said that the reclassification of Comparison Items Certain prior year figures have been re-classified to conform with the presentation in the current year.

A comprehensive Investor Report comprising the Company’s annual consolidated financial statements and the independent auditor’s review report for the three and twelve months periods ended 31 December 2022, along with the CEO’s letter to shareholders and a management discussion and analysis of the financial results, is available on ACWA’s Power’s Investor Relations website at https://acwapower.com/en/investor-relations/overview/ .

The company will hold an investor conference call on March 2, 2023 at 16:00 KSA time, (13:00 GMT) following the close of trading on Tadawul.