The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) announced today its financial results for the second quarter and half-year 2022. The key highlights of the financial results for Q2 2022 are as follows: Operating revenues amounted to SAR19.40 billion, a 4.4% increase compared to SAR 18.58 billion during the same period last year. Gross profit rose to SAR 6.54 billion from SAR 6.45 billion in Q2 2021, representing an increase of 1.3%. Operating profit was SAR 5.89 billion compared to SAR 6.13 billion during the same period last year, representing a decline of 4.4%. Net income was SAR 5.50 billion compared to SAR 5.82 billion during the same period last year, also representing a decline of 5.5%. During H1 2022, the company achieved operating revenue of SAR 32.93 billion compared to SAR 31.93 billion during the same period last year, representing an increase of 3.1%. While gross profit amounted to SAR 9.18 billion compared to SAR 9.39 billion in H1 2021, representing a decline of 2.2%, and operating profit of SAR 8.07 billion compared to SAR 8.41 billion during the same period last year, representing a decline of 4%. Net income was SAR 7.02 billion compared to SAR 7.52 billion in H1 2021, representing a decline of 6.6%. The company's total equity at the end of H1 2022 stood at SAR 252.7 billion. The company reported that net income attributable to common shares for the first six months ended June 30, 2022 (after deducting profit attributable to the Mudaraba instrument of SAR 3.8 billion ) amounted to SAR 3.2 billion compared to SAR 3.7 billion during the same period last year. Based on this, basic and diluted earnings per share for the period ended June 30, 2022 was 0.77 SAR, compared to 0.89 SAR for the same period last year. The Saudi Electricity Company attributed the decrease in net income in Q2 and H1 2022, compared to the same period last year, primarily to higher operating and maintenance costs and higher allocation of accounts receivable affected by aging of accounts receivable. Furthermore, the company also indicated that higher operating revenues were partly offset by higher operational costs driven by the growth of demand for electricity. Commenting on the results, CEO of SEC Eng. Khaled Al-Gnoon said: "The improvement in the financial performance of the company was supported by higher operating revenues as a result of the growth of electricity consumption of commercial, industrial and government sectors, which in turn reflects the Kingdom's strong economic growth during the current year. In addition to the fast-growing subscribers' base as the company has successfully delivered electricity to more than 202,000 new customers during the first half of 2022, distributed across all residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and government sectors, bringing the total number of customers to more than 10.7 million. Engineer Al-Gnoon added: "We are making great progress investing in network modernization, digitization, and automation, in addition to keeping up with the increasing demand for electricity and the necessary network expansion. Moreover, financial, regulatory and structural reforms continue to have a positive impact on our operations and operational performance, further enabling us to contribute to the achievement of the power sector's goals in raising the quality and reliability of the electricity provided to the end consumer, while also contributing positively towards environmental sustainability in line with the Kingdom's 2030 Vision."
