GCL-Poly Energy's H1 loss expands to USD 118m

Aug 29, 2013 - Hong Kong-based GCL-Poly Energy Holdings (HKG:3800) today posted a net loss of HKD 917.3 million (USD 118m/EUR 89m) for the first half of 2013, widening from HKD 330.2 million a year ago.

The result was affected by lower selling prices for the company's solar products and impairment charges.

The company’s solar material division, which is focused on the production of polysilicon and solar wafers, reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of HKD 1.07 billion. For the solar power plants segment in the US and Puerto Rico the result was negative at HKD 34 million. GCL-Poly’s power business, which includes renewable and conventional power plants in China, posted EBITDA of HKD 739 million.

Gross profit margin for the January-June period fell to 6.6% from 14.3%. in the first half of 2012. The solar materials segment saw its gross margin tumble to 2.3% from 15.3% as the average selling prices of polysilicon and wafers dropped. As a result, GCL-Poly’s revenue also declined by 4.1% to HKD 11.30 billion.

Per segment, revenue from solar materials sales went down to HKD 7.65 billion from HKD 8.95 billion a year before. The power generation division saw revenues increase to HKD 3.22 billion from HKD 2.79 billion. Solar power plants abroad fetched HKD 432.5 million in revenue, up from HKD 37.4 million in the same period of 2012.

At the end of June, GCP-Poly had polysilicon production capacity of 65,000 tonnes and annual wafer production capacity of 8,000 MW. Its operating solar parks in the US have a combined capacity of 18 MW plus more than 1,000 MW of US and Puerto Rican projects in the pipeline. The Chinese power generation segment operates 1,530.5 MW of capacity.

(HKD 10 = USD 1.289/EUR 0.972)

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