GCL New Energy (00451) released 2024 results announcement: steady chassis, light asset transformation, remarkable results, intelligent operation and maintenance, steady growth with natural gas two-wheel drive

The Zhitong Finance App learned that in 2024, against the backdrop of global energy restructuring and cyclical shocks in the photovoltaic industry, GCL New Energy (00451) handed over an annual questionnaire with both resilience and growth. On the evening of March 26, the company announced its 2024 annual results announcement. By optimizing the business structure, deepening digital intelligent operation and maintenance, and exploring new growth points for natural gas, the company successfully reduced its debt ratio to a record low, and relied on breakthroughs in the natural gas business and post-operation and maintenance market to build a steady financial base and sustainable growth momentum during the industry adjustment period.

The asset-light transformation achieved remarkable results, and the balance ratio fell to 20.8%

Zhu Gongshan, chairman of the board of directors of GCL New Energy, said that in the face of cyclical fluctuations in the industry, GCL New Energy successfully achieved a leapfrog transition from asset-light transformation to high-quality growth with strategic strength and operational resilience, and completed a deep transformation from “surviving” to “running.” Based on the new stage of development, the company will establish a “natural gas supply guarantee+new energy integrated service” two-wheel drive model to create a strategic closed-loop system covering clean energy production, storage, transportation and application through vertical integration and digital empowerment of the industrial chain.

Since starting the strategic transformation in 2018, GCL New Energy has continued to implement an asset-light operation strategy and gradually built a “smart operation+new energy scenario” high value-added service system through the systematic divestment of asset-heavy photovoltaic power plants. The latest financial report shows that during the reporting period, GCL New Energy's total revenue was 1,108 billion yuan, up 33% from 832 million yuan in 2023; the company's balance ratio has been reduced to an industry low of 20.8%, down more than 63.3 percentage points from the beginning of the transformation, and achieved a qualitative leap in liquidity indicators and solvency. According to the asset disposal process, the company's shareholders' meeting passed the last 584 MW PV power plant transaction in the country on December 1, 2023, and once again cleared the 83 MW PV asset portfolio in North Carolina in the US in December 2024. At this point, the company has basically completed the strategic withdrawal of global power plant ownership and fully switched to an asset-light service platform model.

Reshaping the business structure of natural gas to become a new engine of growth

In 2024, GCL New Energy's business structure changed significantly, forming a two-pillar model of “LNG trade+post-operation and maintenance service”.

2025 marks the fifth anniversary of China's “double carbon” target. The Central Economic Work Conference made “collaborating to reduce carbon and pollution, expand green growth, and step up the overall green transformation of economic and social development” as one of the key tasks to be carried out this year. Natural gas plays a critical role in the country's energy security strategy and further accelerating the energy transition. It can not only gradually replace highly polluting traditional fossil energy, but also provide strong support for the expansion of renewable energy in the power industry.

GCL New Energy adheres to its strategic positioning. By laying out LNG import, storage, transportation and distribution networks, it seizes the demand window for natural gas as a transition energy in the global energy transition, quickly opens up the market, and uses various trade methods to expand its market share. According to the announcement, as of December 31, 2024, the company's LNG trading business had sales of about 445,000 tons, with sales revenue exceeding 730 million yuan. Related revenue accounted for 65.9% of total revenue, making it one of the core revenue sources.

GCL New Energy positions natural gas as the “second growth pole” and has carried out an in-depth layout in this field. GCL Natural Gas (Singapore) Co., Ltd. settled in Singapore in early October 2024. On the morning of October 31 of the same year, the first ship of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported from its own operation successfully arrived at the Beijing Gas Tianjin Nangang LNG terminal. Meanwhile, the company recently announced the formal acquisition of GCL Huidong's Jiangsu Rudong LNG Terminal Project (hereinafter referred to as GCL Rudong LNG Terminal Project), making every effort to build a “station trade integration” strategy to lay the foundation for diversification and sustainable development of the business.

Under the guidance of the national energy security strategy, GCL Rudong LNG Terminal Project is positioned as a comprehensive energy hub integrating functions such as LNG handling and storage, gas-liquid transportation, shipping and transfer, and has also become an important support point for GCL New Energy's internationalization strategy. Currently, around the commissioning and operation of GCL's Rudong LNG terminal project, GCL New Energy is deploying ahead of schedule, actively attracting strategic partners from third parties, promoting several long-term and medium term natural gas purchases, building an international resource pool, and introducing additional resources for “station trade” activities. On the other hand, the company is actively developing domestic downstream customers, including urban gas, traders, industrial point supply, integrated transportation and trade enterprises, and gas stations, and building a closer natural gas supply chain system to ensure the stable operation of receiving stations.

AI agents enable the construction of a new paradigm of intelligent operation and maintenance of new energy

The photovoltaic industry “has seen a high increase in installed capacity and an explosion in demand for operation and maintenance”, promoting the upgrading of management to informatization, digitalization, and specialization. Developing new types of productivity and empowering AI agents is not only a core path for sustainable enterprise development, but also a key measure to respond to the global energy revolution.

GCL New Energy uses digital intelligence as its core competitiveness. In 2024, the company launched the “Xinyilian” integrated energy management platform 3.0, which integrates AI diagnosis, drone inspection and big data predictive maintenance technology to create an integrated, new paradigm, and smart+ management ecosystem of “wind, light, storage and charging”, which can improve power plant efficiency by 3%-5%. At the same time, the company is actively expanding electricity trading services and cultivating new profit growth points.

Relying on this platform, GCL New Energy accelerates exploration of wind power, independent energy storage and distributed household markets, deepens cooperation with state-owned enterprises, local energy groups and overseas partners, and promotes the collaborative development of the “smart post-operation+engineering EPC” business. In 2024, the company will serve a total installed capacity of 12.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic power plants, and the service premium capacity continues to increase.

2025 is the 35th anniversary of the end of the “14th Five-Year Plan” and GCL Corporation. The company will adhere to green development, deepen the strategy of globalization, stimulate innovation vitality through management changes, move forward steadily in the wave of industrial transformation, and continue to create value for shareholders and stakeholders.