Saudi Electricity Company’s (SEC) net profit jumped by more than 200 percent in the third quarter of 2021, partly supported by the recent regulatory and financial reforms in the Kingdom’s electricity sector.
For the three months ending September 30, 2021, net profit stood at 7.38 billion riyals ($1.96 billion), up by 235 percent from the 2.2 billion riyals recorded in the same period last year, the company told the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) on Sunday.
“The increase in net profit … is mainly attributable to implementing the regulatory and financial reforms approved for the electricity sector in November 2020,” the company said.
SEC also reported higher electricity sales, as well as electricity connection and transmission system revenues.
The Kingdom rolled out several reforms last year, as part of a strategy to restructure the sector, as well as boost the efficiency in energy transmission and distribution.
In line with the strategy, SEC signed an agreement with the government last year to convert the utility firm’s government liabilities into an equity-like financial instrument.
Third quarter’s total sales/revenue increased year on year by 7.4 percent to 22 billion riyals, while operational profit jumped by 137 percent to 7.9 billion riyals.
For the first nine months of the year, sales/revenue reached 54 billion riyals, up by 11.8 percent from a year earlier. Operational profit soared 582 percent to more than 16 billion riyals.
