Karachi: K-Electric (KE) held its 111th Annual General Meeting (AGM) for FY 2021. With the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the AGM was hosted virtually.
The meeting was chaired by Shan Ashary – Chairman of the KE Board, with Moonis Alvi – Chief Executive Officer, KE also in attendance, along with Aamir Ghaziani – Chief Financial Officer, Rizwan Pesnani – Chief Risk Officer & Company Secretary, Rizwan Dalia – Chief People Officer, Sadia Dada – Chief Marketing & Communication Officer, among other members of the Board and KE leadership.
Shareholders were briefed about prevalent challenges such as continuous accumulation of outstanding net receivables from government entities (PKR 57.6 billion on principal basis, as of June 30, 2021), and delays in determination of tariff variations which had a direct impact on Company’s liquidity position and resulted in high levels of borrowing for working capital requirements.
Despite the aforementioned issues, the company remained committed and during the year invested around PKR 81 billion across the power value chain. The company also continued to show strong financial performance.
K-Electric declared profit of PKR 11,998 Million in FY 2021 as compared to a loss of PKR 2,959 Million during FY 2020 resulting in earning per share (EPS) of 0.43 rupees per share in FY21 as compared to loss per share of 0.11 rupees in FY20. Increase in total assets has also been observed from 703,414 Million in FY20 to 835,677 Million in FY21.
The operational performance also remained significant as the company observed increase in units sent out by 9.6% as compared to last financial year, Furthermore, with targeted loss reduction initiatives, the company managed to reduce its T&D losses to 17.5% in FY 2021 from 19.7% in FY 2020.
Construction of the 900 MW RLNG-fired BQPS-III is being pursued on fast track basis.
Successful completion of the required rehabilitation works on 220 kV KDA-Jamshoro circuit along with the implementation of cross-trip scheme enabled KE to off-take additional power of around 450-600 MW from National Grid, which remained critical in managing the peak summer demand in 2021.
Additionally, the projects of 500 kV KKI and 220 kV Dhabeji grids have also been initiated that will allow the company to import a total of up to 2,050 MW from the National Grid, thus managing the growing power demand in KE’s service area.
KE to date has converted around 11,000 Pole Mounted Transformers (PMTs) to Aerial Bundled Cable (ABC). This process has enabled the Company to significantly reduce its T&D losses and benefit consumers through reduction in load-shed combined with community engagement and upliftment initiatives. By virtue of these initiatives, in FY 2021, 125,000 customers were converted from hook connections to metered connection as compared to 45,000 customers in FY 2020.
K-Electric also launched the first edition of the KHI Awards in FY2021, whereby the company has supported over 30 organizations across various categories which are working for the betterment of the city. The recipients included recognized names such as the Indus Hospital, Hunar Foundation, and others, with the total asset base of the winners standing at PKR 54 billion.
As part of its diversification strategy, under KE Venture Company (Pvt.) Ltd., K-Solar (Pvt.) Ltd was launched which commenced its operations in June 2021. Specialized in distributed generation business, K-Solar will provide sustainable and long-term solar solutions to residential, commercial, and industrial consumers.
Moreover, furthering its customer centricity initiatives, in addition to customer facilitation and interaction platforms, KE also launched complete services for its senior citizens and specially-abled customers via 118 call center.
Furthermore, K-Electric launched a WhatsApp Service for residential customers in Karachi and adjoining areas which can be used to lodge technical or billing complaints, obtain duplicate bills as well as income tax certificates, and download the forms for new connections along with a checklist of required documents.
The KE Management also expressed their commitment to make investments of around USD 1 Billion in the next 2 years to ensure provision of safe and reliable supply of power to the consumers.
However, for these planned investments to materialize, timely approvals from NEPRA and resolution of issues related to KE’s receivables from government entities and departments would be critical
