36 power stations were sold, and all the heavy photovoltaic assets of GCL New Energy were cleared
GCL New Energy transferred the heavy assets of the photovoltaic power station to the brother unit.
On the evening of October 12, GCL-ET (002015.SZ) announced that its holding subsidiary, Suzhou Industrial Park Xinkunneng Clean Energy Co., Ltd., intends to acquire all the shares of 36 target companies held by 13 subsidiaries of GCL New Energy (00451.HK) with self-raised cash.
After the completion of this transaction, GCL-ET will actually acquire the 583.87 MW photovoltaic power generation project of GCL New Energy.
According to Jiemian News, this means that all the heavy assets of GCL New Energy's photovoltaic power station have been cleared.
According to the announcement, the total assessed value of all the equity values of the shareholders of the 36 target companies is 1.182 billion yuan, and the equity transfer consideration determined by negotiation is 1.004 billion yuan.
Hong Kong stock GCL New Energy also announced the above content on the same day. Combined with the receivables from related parties, the net cash that GCL Hong Kong can obtain from this transaction is expected to be about 1.602 billion yuan, which is intended to be used to repay its debts including US dollar debt, and to support investments in natural gas, liquefied natural gas and operation and management services segments.
After the completion of the transaction, GCL New Energy's working capital position will be improved and its financial risks will be reduced as the profits, losses, assets and liabilities of the sold photovoltaic power plants will no longer be included in the consolidated financial statements.
GCL New Energy and GCL-ET both belong to GCL Group, and the former previously focused on the construction, operation and maintenance of photovoltaic downstream power stations.
After 2018, under the influence of factors such as the "531 New Deal", subsidy decline and arrears, GCL New Energy, which has a large number of asset-heavy photovoltaic power plants, has suffered a blow and a high debt ratio. From 2018 to 2020, GCL New Energy's debt ratios were as high as 84.14%, 81.68%, and 81.04% respectively.
Under heavy pressure, GCL New Energy seeks strategic transformation and frequently sells its power plant business to carry out asset-light transformation. In 2021, GCL New Energy's debt ratio dropped to 56.31%, and the following year to 50.85%.
According to the interim results announcement, GCL New Energy's revenue in the first half of 2023 will be 423 million yuan, with a loss of 216 million yuan, but it will be significantly narrowed by about 57.94% year-on-year. During the same period, the company's gearing ratio fell to 47.5%.
During the period, GCL New Energy completed three repurchases of existing notes totaling more than US$110 million, with the total principal amount of the remaining outstanding notes amounting to approximately US$146 million.
According to Jiemian News, after the sale of the photovoltaic power station to GCL-ET, GCL New Energy's $500 million debt will be fully repaid.
At the end of 2020, GCL New Energy proposed the "Bermuda Restructuring Plan", which aims to restructure US$500 million of 7.1% senior notes due in 2021. After 2022, GCL New Energy has repaid more than $400 million in debt in installments.
After the completion of the above disposal, GCL New Energy's asset-liability ratio is expected to decrease by approximately 16%, and its business will focus on asset-light operation and maintenance and LNG trading.
In July last year, GCL New Energy announced that it planned to invest in the Ethiopia-Djibouti natural gas project of GCL-Poly Natural Gas by holding minority shareholders' interests.
GCL-Poly has a 45-year upstream exploration and development of natural gas deposits in the Ogaden Basin of Ethiopia in Africa. The region's natural gas resources are estimated to be about 5 trillion cubic meters and crude oil to about 4 billion tons, and it is fully qualified for large-scale commercial development.
In addition, GCL New Energy will continue to provide photovoltaic power plant operation and maintenance management services. GCL Operation Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of GCL Operation Technology Co., Ltd., has the "Xinyilian" integrated energy management platform, which provides integrated energy system solutions integrating "data + management", and has entered into management service agreements with two batches of target companies.
As of June 30 this year, GCL New Energy has entered into various operation and maintenance service contracts with 134 photovoltaic power plants, with a total installed capacity of about 4,695 MW.
GCL-ET said that this is a prudent decision made by GCL-ET based on its long-term interests and future development needs, which is conducive to expanding the scale of assets and installed capacity, and enhancing the company's comprehensive strength.
At present, GCL-ET has formed two main businesses: digital energy and clean energy.
According to the semi-annual report, as of June 30 this year, GCL-ET's installed capacity of clean energy accounted for 91%, and the total installed capacity of the holding was 2,900,300 kilowatts. The company's market-oriented trading service reached 9.36 billion kWh, and the scale of electricity sales and the construction of virtual power plant platform ranked among the top in China.
Jiemian News has learned that this acquisition will help solve the competition between GCL-ET and GCL New Energy.
