SINOPEC Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd. Announces 2013 Annual Results

HONG KONG, March 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SINOPEC Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd. ("SINOPEC SEG", together with its subsidiaries known as the "Company") (stock code: 2386) today announces its annual results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2013 (the "Period").

Results Highlights

• The Company achieved total revenue of approximately RMB43.572 billion, up 13.1% year-on-year. Profit attributable to shareholders reached approximately RMB3.657 billion, up 10.2% from a year ago. Basic earnings per share were RMB0.93.
• The board of directors recommended paying a final dividend of RMB0.190 per share. Together with the interim dividend of RMB0.134 per share, total dividend for the Period shall be RMB0.324 per share.
• During the Period, the value of new contracts amounted to approximately RMB81.989 billion, representing a significant growth of 176.6% over the previous year. At the end of the Period, the Company's backlog reached approximately RMB103.968 billion, up 58.6% from the year end of 2012 and accounting for 2.4 times of the annual revenue for 2013.
• The Company's revenue growth was mainly driven by Engineering, Consulting and Licensing as well as EPC Contracting operations in terms of business segment. During the Period, revenue from Engineering, Consulting and Licensing segment grew 5.6% year-on-year, while that of EPC Contracting segment advanced 17.0% year-on-year.
• The Company derived its revenue mainly from New Coal Chemicals and Petrochemicals industries in terms of revenue sources by industries. During the Period, revenue from New Coal Chemicals industry surged 79.7% year-on-year, while revenue from Petrochemicals industry increased 11.1% year-on-year
• Revenue from the PRC increased 14.1% year-on-year to approximately RMB36.541 billion, accounting for 83.9% of the Company's total revenue. Meanwhile, revenue from overseas grew 7.9% year-on-year to approximately RMB7.031 billion, accounting for 16.1% of the Company's total revenue.

Business Highlights

• Successful Implementation of Major Projects:
  • The design of Sinochem Quanzhou Project is almost complete and all the major equipment and materials have been purchased.
  • More than 90% of Shijiazhuang Oil Refining and Chemical Project has been successfully completed.
  • Wuhan Ethylene Project was in full operation during the Period. Currently, it is in the performance review period, and all indicators meet the contract requirements.
  • More than half of Shandong LNG Project is complete.
  • About 90% of Kazakhstan Aromatics Project has been completed.
  • The engineering, procurement and construction of Jingbian Coal Chemical Project is complete.
  • Currently, more than 50% of Yulin Coal Chemical Project is complete.
  • Zhongtian Hechuang Coal Chemical Project was completed during the Period.

• Excellent Results in Market Development: While maintaining leading edges in traditional industries such as oil refinery and petrochemicals, the Company stepped up efforts to explore business opportunities in domestic and overseas coal chemical markets. During the Period, the Company signed a number of new major contracts with total value of new contracts amounting to RMB81.989 billion, including RMB59.294 billion of domestic contracts and RMB22.695 billion of overseas contracts. New contract amounts in conventional industries such as oil refining, petrochemical, clean energy continued to increase. At the same time, new contracts for new coal chemical projects increased significantly and reached RMB 34.828 billion during the Period.

Representative domestic projects signed during the Period included:

• Oil refining, petrochemical and clean energy contracts: the reform and gasoline separation EPC Contracting project of Dalian Western Pacific, Guangdong Dapeng LNG project, butadiene unit EPC Contracting of SECCO, phenol-acetone EPC Contracting of Sinopec Mitsui Chemicals.
• New Coal Chemical Engineering: Zhongtian Hechuang coal chemical project, FULL TECH coal chemical project, ChinaCoal Mengda coal chemical project, Shaanxi olefin separation unit EPC Contracting of Shenhua, Zhejiang Xingxing Energy coal chemical project and Pucheng coal chemical project.

Representative overseas projects signed during the Period included:

• the EPC contract for the PTA project and the PET project in Texas, U.S., with contract value of USD1.150 billion.
• the EPCC contract with KPI Company for its project in Kazakhstan, which covers the general contracting for engineering, procurement, construction, startup and performance examination with contract value of USD1.850 billion.
  
• Leading Technical Strengths: Leveraging the steady progress of its R&D in major technologies, the Company has made good progress in R&D projects in coal chemical, petrochemical, natural gas and other key fields. During the Period, 61 new technology licensing contracts were signed, amounting to a total value of RMB422 million. The Company completed 381 new patent applications and was granted 247 patents. Moreover, it won 109 awards from the provincial / ministerial-level governments for its technological progress.
• Intensified Corporate Reform: The Company has been actively pursuing corporate reform, aiming to achieve the goal of "building the world-class refinery and chemical engineering company" and creating the business mode of "centralized management, differentiated competition, standardized governance and high-end development". It continued to reorganize its businesses, pushed forward the reform for specialization and further optimized its organizational structure and functionality so as to develop the organizational structure and operating mechanism suitable for the Company's long-term development.
• Safe Production: During the Period, the Company continued to reinforce its QHSE (quality, health, safety and environment) management, ensuring work safety, green production, comprehensive improvement in product quality and environmental protection.

Financial Data and Indicators Prepared in Accordance with IFRS

Business Review

Mr. Cai Xiyou, Chairman of SINOPEC SEG, commented, "2013 is not only the first listing year of SINOPEC SEG, but also an important year for the Company's reform and development. The Board actively responded to domestic and overseas market changes and development requirements. It set the clear goal of 'building a world-class refinery chemical engineering company' and developed five strategies: integration strategy, internationalization strategy, differentiation strategy, persistent innovation strategy and green low carbon strategy. Moreover, the Company furthered corporate reform by optimizing resources allocation, enhancing internal control, exerting greater synergies, actively responding to the market changes, carrying out lean management and thus achieved satisfactory results."

Business Performance by Segment

The Company's revenue increased 13.1% year-on-year to RMB43.572 billion in 2013. The increase was mainly due to a number of large EPC Contracting projects, such as Jingbian Coal Chemical Project, Yulin Coal Chemical Project, Wuhan Ethylene Project, Sinochem Quanzhou Project, Shijiazhuang Oil Refining and Chemical Project, Shandong LNG Project, Hainan Paraxylene Project and Kazakhstan Aromatics Project, were implemented as scheduled or settled during the Period.

The Company's businesses mainly comprise four segments: (1) Engineering, Consulting and Technology Licensing; (2) EPC Contracting; (3) Construction and (4) Equipment Manufacturing.

Revenue from the Engineering, Consulting and Licensing segment amounted to approximately RMB4.354 billion, up 5.6% year-on-year, thanks to increased engineering workload completion and improved engineering efficiency due to the implementation of the "engineering standardization" during the Period.

Revenue from the EPC Contracting segment for the Period totaled approximately RMB23.506 billion, up 17.0% year-on-year due to the progress in the PRC and overseas EPC Contracting projects, and the corresponding growth in business volume.

Revenue from the Construction segment for the Period grew 10.6% year-on-year to approximately RMB18.024 billion because the Company increased resource integration and coordination of efforts to develop the market, leading to the increase in construction workload.

Revenue from Equipment Manufacturing segment for the Period advanced 9.5% year-on-year to approximately RMB684 million mainly due to enhanced efforts in the integration and coordination of internal resources, and an increase in the business volume of Equipment Manufacturing segment.

Operating results by segment:

Revenue by Industries

The Company derives its revenue mainly from oil refining, petrochemical and new coal chemical industries. During the Period, revenue from oil refining industry and petrochemical industry accounted for 28.2% and 38.3% of the Company's total revenue, respectively. Meanwhile, revenue from new coal chemical industry grew rapidly, with its contribution to total revenue increasing from 12.8% in 2012 to 20.3% in 2013. Compared to 2012, revenue from the petrochemical and new coal chemical industries witnessed a sharp increase and rose by 11.1% and 79.7%, respectively, over the previous year. This was mainly due to the Company's major projects in these industries having entered their peak stage of construction. On the other hand, revenue from oil refining industry remained relatively stable.

Revenue breakdown by industries:

Revenue in the PRC and overseas

The Company's revenue generated from the PRC and overseas increased steadily. Revenue from the PRC grew 14.1% year-on-year to RMB36.541 billion, while revenue from overseas increased 7.9% year-on-year to RMB7.031 billion. The contribution of revenues from the PRC and overseas as a percentage of the Company's total revenue remained stable when compared to 2012.

Revenue breakdown by geographical locations:

Total Value of Backlog

As at 31 December 2013, the value of the Company's backlog totaled RMB103.968 billion, up 58.6% from a year ago and representing 2.4 times of the annual revenue of RMB43.572 billion in 2013.

Total values of backlog for each business segment:

Total values of backlog categorized by industries:

Total Value of New Contracts

During the Reporting Period, the value of the Company's new contracts was RMB81.989 billion, representing a substantial increase of 176.6% year-on-year.

Total values of new contracts for each business segment:

Total values of new contracts categorized by industries:

Capital Expenditures

During the Reporting Period, the Company's capital expenditure was RMB763 million, which was mainly used to improve production and labor conditions, update construction equipment, acquire IT system, procure scientific research equipment and prevent potential safety hazards.

Industry and Business Outlook

In 2013, the world economic situation was complex. Although the global economy showed signs of recovery, the basis for recovery was still fragile, and there was a lack of significant industrial technological innovations to drive the overall situation. The recovery momentum remained relatively weak in developed countries. The economic growth momentum in emerging market countries was generally weak, and the economic growth was significantly lower than expected. These features were more prominent in the domestic economic transformation period in 2013. As the Chinese government sought to improve stability, advance reform and opening-up, they initiated the macro-control method, and the domestic economy showed signs of improvement with better momentum and stability. The GDP growth rate reached 7.7% in 2013, which was still well above the world average level.

The global oil refining and chemical industry maintained growth momentum. The opportunities for long-term growth are embedded in cyclical fluctuations. Large oil companies in China tended to be cautious in capital expenditures, and the growth of traditional oil refining and petrochemical project engineering market were slow. However, underpinned by the growth of new coal chemical industry and urbanization, demand for oil refining and chemical products in China will continue to grow. Due to the requirements for upgrading gasoline and diesel products and differentiation of chemical products, the scale of China's oil refining and chemical engineering sector will continue to expand. Meanwhile, technologies for raw materials diversification, such as the utilization of new coal chemicals and light hydrocarbon, have gradually developed and matured in recent years. The related industries have experienced phenomenal growth and will have great potential for further development, thereby offering the Company drivers and opportunities for future growth.

Going forward, the Company will implement the following measures to enhance its market leadership:

1. Actively explore the market: The Company will strengthen internal management, promote resources optimization and make every effort to implement existing projects to ensure the undertaking of key projects. In 2014, the target domestic new contract amount of the Company is RMB45 billion, and the target overseas new contract amount is USD3 billion.

2. Deepen reform and realize the synergies of reorganization: The Company will actively promote its engineering company and construction enterprise to conduct joint general contracting. As to market development, it will further strengthen coordination of market development in China and give full play to the advantages of each subsidiary. In overseas markets, the Company will continue to optimize and deploy overseas market deployment and resources. Moreover, it is building a professional engineering technology research and development entity in Luoyang. Through reform and adjustment, the operation mechanism will be improved and the competitiveness and development potential of the Company's main businesses will thus be improved. For manufacturing business, the Company will undertake reform to optimize the manufacturing sector, optimize resources allocation to boost its profitability.

3. Create an integrated new coal chemical industrial chain, market the one-stop engineering service: The new coal chemical business is one of the highlights of the Company in its future development. Currently, the Company boasts technical equipment and engineering achievements in the areas such as coal gasification, syngas to natural gas, syngas to methanol, syngas to glycol, methanol to olefin, polyolefin, indirect/direct coal liquefaction. Through coordination and optimization these factors contribute to the formation of a technical industrial chain with complete upstream and downstream support. Combined with its advantages in the conventional engineering service segment, the Company can provide a complete industrial service chain including the licensing of process technology, engineering, procurement, construction and startup services, becoming extremely competitive in the new coal chemical market and providing owners with a set of complete EPC.

4. Continue to increase investment in R&D: In order to achieve the development objective of "consolidating the traditional technical advantages in oil refining and chemical engineering, advancing the technology of alternative petroleum resources", the R&D investment will focus on the following aspects: (1) reinforce the Company's competitive edges in core businesses such as oil refining and chemical operations; (2) comprehensively improve its science and technology support capability for petrochemical business; (3) focus on optimizing resources, operational procedures, saving energy and reducing emission, eliminating bottlenecks, and improving efficiency, as well as step up efforts to promote the development of new technologies: (4) increase input and participation in the research and development of large new coal chemical, natural gas chemical technologies; (5) actively track basic research on leading-edge technologies and application closely relating to the petrochemical industry.

~ The End ~

This press release is issued by PRChina Limited on behalf of SINOPEC Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd.

About SINOPEC Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd.

SINOPEC Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd. ("SINOPEC SEG" or "the Company") is the leading oil refining, petrochemical and new coal chemical engineering company in the PRC. The Company's main business consists of engineering, consulting and licensing, EPC Contracting, construction and equipment manufacturing. According to ICIS Consulting, the Company ranked first both in 2010 and 2011 among all PRC Exploration and Design Enterprises providing services to oil refining and chemical industries based on total revenue, and ranked among the top 10 global contractors in 2011 based on revenue generated from services provided to oil refining and chemical industries. Leveraging 60 years of industry experience and continual innovation in specialized technologies, the Company has developed the strongest execution capabilities in the PRC with respect to engineering and constructing large-scale oil refining, petrochemical and new coal chemical complexes and is highly competitive in the international engineering market.

Disclaimer

This press release includes "forward-looking statements". All statements, other than statements of historical facts that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including but not limited to projections, targets, other estimates and business plans) are forward-looking statements. The Company's actual results or developments may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to the price fluctuation, possible changes in actual demand, foreign exchange rate, market shares, competition, environmental risks, possible changes to laws, finance and regulations, conditions of the global economy and financial markets, political risks, possible delay of projects, government approval of projects, cost estimates and other factors beyond the Company's control. In addition, the Company makes the forward-looking statements referred to herein as of today and undertakes no obligation to update these statements.

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