CLP Holdings' profits down 3.5% US$755m

No thanks to volatile energy prices in Australia.

South China Morning Post resported that CLP Holdings, the larger of Hong Kong’s only two electricity suppliers, reported weaker than expected profit after volatile energy prices in Australia saw it book a loss on forward energy sales contracts there.

The company, 35.1 per cent-owned by its largest shareholder, the Kadoorie family, generated a net profit of HK$5.91 billion in the year’s first six months, down 3.5 per cent from HK$6.13 billion in the same period last year, it said in a filing to Hong Kong’s bourse after the morning trading session closed.

“[Our Australia profit was hit by] significant volatility in the value of energy contracts,” said Sir Michael Kadoorie, chairman of the sole electricity generator and distributor in Kowloon, the New Territories and Lantau Island.

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