In recent years, due to the rising cycle of coal prices and the changes in the prosperity of the superimposed real estate industry, heating enterprises in the north are facing greater operating pressure. Taking Huitian Thermal Power (SZ000692, share price of 3.38 yuan, market value of 1.801 billion yuan) as an example, the company’s net profit has suffered large losses continuously since 2019.
It is undoubtedly worse to heat at a loss but not receive money. According to the disclosure of Huitian Thermal Power Co., Ltd. on February 14th, its wholly-owned subsidiary Shenyang No.2 Thermal Heating Company (hereinafter referred to as Erre Heating) initiated a lawsuit for the plaintiff, demanding the related enterprises to return the heating fee and interest totaling 48,677,500 yuan.
According to the announcement of Huitian Thermal Power, Erre Heating filed a lawsuit with the People’s Court of Dadong District, Shenyang (hereinafter referred to as Dadong District Court) on February 10, and submitted a complaint and other relevant litigation documents. At present, the Dadong District Court has accepted the case, but it has not yet opened a court session.
The case started because on October 29, 2021, Erre Heating signed the Framework Agreement on Heating Load Transfer with Shenyang Shengtian Heating Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shengtian Heating) and the outsider Shenyang Dadong District Heating Management Office. According to the agreement, Shengtian Heating agreed to transfer the heating operation load located at No.11 Jixiang 1st Road, Dadong District to Erre Heating, which will be responsible for the central heating in this area after the transfer, and Shengtian Heating will be responsible for collecting the heating fee (in the heating season of 2021-2022), which will be transferred to Erre Heating in time after the accounts are sorted out.
In the view of the second heating, it has fulfilled its heating obligation according to the agreement, that is, it has heated the above-mentioned related areas; Up to now, it is the second heating season, but Shengtian Heating still hasn’t handed over the heat users and heating fees collected in this area to the company, and the heating fees in this area have been collected by Shengtian Heating so far.
"According to calculation, Shengtian Heating should return the company’s heating cost and interest totaling 48.6775 million yuan (interest is temporarily calculated until January 31, 2023)." Two-heat heating means. Second, Heating requested Dadong District Court to order Shengtian Heating to return the above money, freeze the bank deposits of Shengtian Heating with the same amount or seal up other property with the same value.
Enterprise investigation information shows that Shengtian Heating was established in September 2009 with a registered capital of 8 million yuan. Zhang Hongyi and Wang Hongwei hold 70% and 30% shares respectively. Shengtian Heating is involved in many lawsuits, mainly involving disputes over heating contracts, sales contracts and property damages.
What do you think of Shengtian heating for the statement of two-heat heating? In this regard, "national business daily" reporter called the landline number in Shengtian heating industry and commerce information on the afternoon of February 14th, but the broadcast showed that the phone was out of service.
It’s really bad that the second heating provided heating but didn’t get the heating fee, especially because the company is currently operating the heating business at a loss.
According to the semi-annual report of Huitian Thermal Power in 2022, the operating income of Erre Heating in the first half of last year was 516 million yuan and the net profit was-251 million yuan; By June 30, 2022, the total assets of the second heating system were 1.838 billion yuan, and the net assets were-98.6685 million yuan.
The reason why the second heating is insolvent is that the company has been losing money for many years. From 2019 to 2021, the net profit of secondary heating was-87,847,500 yuan,-117 million yuan and-96,963,400 yuan respectively.
The operating performance of Erre Heating is also the epitome of Huitian Thermal Power. From 2019 to 2021, the net profit of Huitian Thermal Power was-116 million yuan,-972 million yuan and-221 million yuan respectively.
In the performance forecast for 2022, Huitian Thermal Power Co., Ltd. estimated that the operating income last year was 1.9 billion to 2.1 billion yuan, and the estimated net profit was-1.8 billion to-2.2 billion yuan. At the same time, the company expects the owner’s equity attributable to the parent company to be negative at the end of the period, which is about 1.74 billion yuan to 2.14 billion yuan. From 2016 to 2021, the net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses has been negative for six consecutive years, and now the high probability will be negative for seven consecutive years.
For the reason of the huge loss in 2022, Huitian Thermal Power said that its heating cost increased compared with the same period of last year; The heating price of the company is set by the local government, and has not changed since the 2 yuan per square meter was lowered in 2015; During the reporting period, the employee resettlement expenses increased by 480 million yuan to 500 million yuan, and so on.
In response to the letter of concern of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Huitian Thermal Power said that the coal price basically remained at the second highest point in 2022, and the current root cause of the company’s losses was mainly the rising factor of coal prices. The company believes that the heating business is closely related to the people’s livelihood in the northern region and indispensable. The company is the largest state-owned specialized heating company in Shenyang. Based on the rigid demand, exclusiveness, continuity and stability of the heating industry, the company still has the ability to continue to operate.
Cover Image Source: Every reporter Zhang Yunshe (data map)