Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Electricity Company on Wednesday reported a net profit of SAR 10.3 billion ($2.74 billion) in 2023, down from SAR 15.1 billion in 2022.
In a Tadawul disclosure, the decrease in net profit was attributed to the higher operating and maintenance costs due to growing business and operating assets, increasing maintenance programs and higher loads.
This is in addition to new costs from development projects to construct substations and transmission lines for SEC’s customers, the company said.
The decrease also came from increasing financing costs mainly due to the high-interest rates environment prevailing globally, in addition to the increase in financing costs attributable to additional funding obtained during the current year to finance the company’s capital projects. Also, booking of non-recuring expense item which reflected in lower net other income/ expenses, led to the decrease.
But these were partially offset by higher operating revenues and lower net provisions for receivables attributable to improvement in collections.
The net profit was SAR 2.6 billion after deducting the Mudaraba coupon.
The company’s Tadawul disclosure said that its Q4 2023 loss widened to SAR 2 billion from SAR 190.6 million a year earlier.
Sales/revenue rose moderately by 4.51 percent in 2023 to SAR 75.33 billion from SAR 72.07 billion in 2022.
Total shareholders’ equity, before Mudaraba instrument distributions, reached SAR 88.4 billion as of Dec. 31, 2023, compared to SAR 89.1 billion a year before.
The company’s board has announced a dividend of SAR 2.91 billion ($775 million) of 7 percent.