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Climate change: Hong Kong’s CLP to continue investing in Australia for secure, clean power despite profit drop sparked by global energy crisis

  • Impact of global energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will linger for longer despite having moderated, Hong Kong power utility firm says
  • CLP’s operating profit amounted to HK$4.62 billion (US$588.8 million) last year, down from HK$8.49 billion in 2021

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CLP’s Castle Peak Power Station in Tuen Mun. The first four units of the plant are expected to be closed this year. Photo: Martin Chan
CLP Holdings will continue to invest in Australia to improve the reliability of its coal power plants there while installing low-carbon alternatives to achieve long-term decarbonisation, after posting a big loss Down Under that contributed to a worse-than-expected 51 per cent profit drop.
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The impact of the global energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will linger despite having moderated, according to the larger of Hong Kong’s two power utilities, which also has operations in mainland China, Australia and India.

“We saw in Australia a sudden and unprecedented increase in wholesale electricity prices in around the second quarter of last year, which has been sustained through to 2023,” CEO Richard Lancaster said on Monday. “We will still see quite a challenging environment in the first half of 2023.”

CLP’s operating profit amounted to HK$4.62 billion (US$588.8 million) last year, down from HK$8.49 billion in 2021. It was 17.6 per cent below the HK$5.61 billion average estimate of four analysts polled by Bloomberg. Revenue grew 20 per cent to HK$100.66 billion.

Including a HK$3.54 billion accounting loss from the sale of a 10 per cent stake in its India business to a Canadian investor, total earnings fell 89 per cent to HK$924 million.

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