Investment Summary

-Coal-power keep weakening earning power. However, the valuation is attractive.

-Bottomed power consumption in China, and coal-fired power capacity cut could be beneficial to the group's long-term earning power.

-China coal price correction possibly continue, beneficial to the group's cost controlling.

Company Overview

China Resources Power Holdings Company Limited mainly engaged in in the development, construction and operation of power plants, including large-scale efficient coal-fired generation units and various clean and renewable energy projects as well as development, construction and operation of coal mines. Acorrding to the 1H2016 interim result, CR Power has 38 coal-fired power plants, 2 hydro-electric plants, 1 gasfired plant, 67 wind farms and 5 photovoltaic power plants in commercial operation. The total attributable operational generation capacity of the Company is 34,636MW, coal-fired power plants accounted for 85.9% or 29,746MW, while those of wind power, hydropower, photovoltaic power and gas-fired power together accounted for 14.1%, representing an increase of 0.8 percentage point over 13.3% as at the end of 2015. With 5.9% of our capacity located in Eastern China, 27.3% located in Central China, 19.3% located in Southern China, 10.7% located in Northern China, 5.0% located in Northeastern China, 1.1% located in Southwestern China and 0.7% located in Northwestern China.

Below is a diagram to show the distribution of power plants of the company:

Acorrding to the 1H2016 interim result,, revenue of the group amounted to approximately HKD30,971 million, representing a decrease of approximately 16.2% YoY. The net profit of the company amounted to approximately HKD 5,336 million, representing a decrease of approximately 21.7% YoY. The net asset value per share amounted to approximately HKD14.73, which indicated that the stock currently trades at around its book value.

Not only the 2016 first half result was unfavorable, we are also not optimistic about the 2016 full year result. Along with overall unfavorable business environment of the power generation industry, the firm experienced tough times in last year. The most obvious problem is that, the price surge of the thermal coal resulted a significant impact on the cost of coal-power generation. Moreover, the Excess Capacity of the power generation industry is another crucial problem. China's industrial power use growth has slowed in resulting the decrease in the power industry's earnings. The group also announced that total net generation of subsidiary power plants for 2016 increased by 6.1% to 151,589,740MWh compared to 142,906,824MWh for 2015. On a same plant basis, total net generation of subsidiary coal-fired power plants in 2016 increased by 0.3% compared to 2015. The stock is trading at approximate 7.89x FY2016Est PE and 0.94x FY2016Est Price to Book Ratio, we believe most unfavorable information possibly priced in on the stock price. In last year, the stock had underperformed by around 18.86% compared with the Hang Seng Index, which the valuation might be appealing.

As the firm is one of the largest power generators in China, hard to ignore that the group is a monopoly firm, and also since the national standards for energy saving environmental protection is pushed higher and the environmental protection restrictions for energy development is much more tightened, the barriers to entry has become higher and higher for new entrants. Moreover, according to the annual meeting of parliament, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said it would shut or stop construction of coal-fired power plants with capacity of more than 50 million kilowatts. It will further consolidate the monopoly power of the group. Thereby, the group still has favorable long-term prospects.

Peer Comparison

The table in above shows the peer comparison of the group.

In term of PE and PB, the group is less expensive than its international peers such as Power Asset Holdings (6 HK) and CLP Holdings (2HK).

However, the valuation is slightly more expensive than its Chinese peers such as Huaneng Power (902 HK), China Power (2380 HK),and Huadian Power (1071 HK).

In term of PE, the group is slightly more expensive than Huaneng Power, and China Power. On the other hand, in term of PB, the group is more expensive than its Chinese peers.

The Valuation is attractive

The chart below shows 10 years of PB ratio of the stock, the statistic started on 5/1/2007, with 2 standard deviations.

From the chart above, we can see that the PB valuation is significantly lower than the 10 years average. The average 10 years PB ratio is approximately 1.99x, one standard deviation below is 0.93x, and the stock trades significantly below the 10 years average but slightly above 1 standard deviation. From the 10 years PB chart, we can see that the valuation of the stock is extremely fluctuate, but since it is trading at significant below the 10 years average, the downside risk possibly limited. At least, in term of the PB ratio, the valuation is attractive.

From the chart above, we can see that the PE valuation is significantly lower than the 10 years average. The average 10 years PE ratio is approximately 15.89x, one standard deviation below is 7.18x, and the stock trades significantly below the 10 years average but slightly above 1 standard deviation. From the 10 years PE chart, we can see that the PE valuation of the stock is also extremely fluctuate, but since it is trading at significant below the 10 years average, in the PE point of view, the downside risk possibly limited.

The Return on Equity ratio is also crucial, which can provide more information regarding the profitability of the group. The chart in below shows the 10 years ROEs of the firm.

According to the bar chart in above, the ROE for 2016 expected to be 12.19%, which is still lower than the 10 years average ROE of 13.45%, indicating that the profitability is still acceptable for the period. Moreover, the stock trades at only around 1x PB ratio currently, which is also lower than the PB in the 2008, but the ROE is significantly better than it was in the 2008 financial crisis period. This could indicated the stock has possibly become undervalued.

Moreover, to find out whether China Resources Power is undervalued, we used a simple Discounted Dividend Model for evaluating the intrinsic value. The annual market return of HSI that we use for the calculation is 7.16%, datas collected from 31th Dec 1995 to 31th DEC 2016. We used the 10 years China government bond yield of 3.38% as the risk free rate, and the historical Beta of the stock is 0.796. From that, we calculated that the required return of the stock is 6.39%. Our prudently forecasted dividend per share for next year is 0.78 HKD per share. Basic on the 10 years average ROE figure, and the dividend payout ratio will stays the same as 40.5%, we prudently estimated that the dividend growth rate is 2.72%, which is significantly lower than the country's historical GDP growth rate. As a result, we calculated the intrinsic value of HKD 21.28 per share. For the worst situation, we increase the required return of the stock by 1%, the calculated intrinsic value is still HKD 16.72 per share. Therefore, we believe that the stock is undervalued, and the downside risk of the stock is possibly limited.

Bottomed power consumption, coal-fired power capacity cut

According to the China electricity council, the national total electricity consumption 5.92 trillion KWH, represents an increase of 5.0% YoY. The Power consumption rose 11 percent in the service sector and 10 percent among urban households. Meanwhile, the manufacturing and general business sector posted a 2.9 percent increase to 4.2 trillion kilowatt-hours, making it by far China's largest power consumer. Although China's economy growth slowed, and China possibly switch to less energy-intensive industries in order to be more resource-efficient, but the growth rate of the national total electricity consumption is still 5%, perhaps if the electricity consumption continue to grow steadily, the firm's long-term earning power is still favorable. In February 2017, China's overall social power consumption reached 448.8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), a jump of 17.2% from the same month last year. From January to February 2017, China's accumulative social power consumption reached 935.6 billion kWh, an increase of 6.3% from the same period last year, which was 4.3 percentage points higher than the previous year, according to China's National Energy Administration (NEA). This could indicated that the power consumption possibly bottomed.

Moreover, according to the annual meeting of parliament, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said it would shut or stop construction of coal-fired power plants with capacity of more than 50 million kilowatts. China moves to a greener growth model and toward use of more renewable energy resources to generate electricity, the burden for capacity cuts in coal-fired power plants will lessen. The capacity cut policy could resulted many smaller power generators become obsoleted and further consolidate the monopoly power of the group. After the capacity cut, the on-grid coal power tariffs is expected to be increase, and the coal power average utilization hours of generating units is expected to rise as well. Overall, we believe that the coal-fired power capacity cut will beneficial to the firm's future earning power.

Current China Coal Price is possibly not sustainable

Since the China government has been implemented a successful coal supply-side structural reform, including the strictly production limitation and reduction policy in major coal producing areas, as well as intensified the inspection on illegal coal mines and closure and suspension of mines. The China Nationwide Thermal Coal Price Index, the coal price continue to drop to 522.49 per tonne in Feb 2017. In 2016, the coal price increased roughly more than 60%, according to the data from Bloomberg. The surged coal price had a significant impact on the power of earning of the coal-fired power generation companies, no exception for China Resources Power.

However, the significant price increases disrupted the coal industry's capacity reduction and hurt the business of downstream industries, could cause the serious excess capacity problem reappeared in the coal industry. On the demand side, the end of the winter heating season will also reduce the demand for Coal. As a result, the coal price correction would possibly continue in recent time, it is beneficial to the firm's fuel cost reduction. As a result, along with the correction of the coal price, we believe the group's earning power will improve in the future.

Valuation

Taking all the points mentioned above into consideration, China Resources Power's target price is therefore $16.72, with Accumulate rating assigned, represents 1.05x FY16 P/B and 1.03x FY17 P/B. (Closing price as at 21 MAR 2017)

Risks

-Risks relating to the power demand in China, the overall power demand could keep declining if the economic growth slows down.

-Risks relating to coal market, the fluctuation on the coal price will bring certain degree of risks to the fuel cost control.

-Risks relating to electricity tariff, it could cause uncertainty on the firm's revenue.

-Risks relating to environmental protection policies, the national standards for energy saving environmental protection could pushed higher and the environmental protection restrictions for energy development is possibly more tightened.

Financials

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