On the evening of October 11, Lu'an Huaneng announced that the company decided to increase the authorized amount of bidding for coal resources, and increased its market-based bidding for coal resources in the next year to no more than 30% of the company's latest audited total assets to no more than 50% of the company's latest audited total assets.
It is understood that Lu'an Huanneng has won the coal prospecting right in the Shangma block of Xiangyuan County, Shanxi Province for 12.13 billion yuan on August 21, 2024.
Since the beginning of this year, listed companies in Shanxi such as Orchid Science and Technology and Huayang have shown a positive attitude towards the competition for coal mines, and a new round of competition for coal resources has quietly opened.
Lu'an Huanneng is a listed company under Lu'an Group, a provincial state-owned enterprise in our province, and is currently the only high-tech enterprise in the country's coal enterprises, with energy coal mining as its main business, and its main products are thermal coal, metallurgical injection coal and other coal products. And its profitability has been ranked first among coal listed companies in our province for many years.
In 2022, Lu'an Huanneng will achieve revenue of 54.3 billion yuan and net profit of more than 10 billion yuan, reaching 14.17 billion yuan.
Note: Lu'an Huanneng net profit attributable to the parent company
However, in the past two years, affected by the industry cycle, the performance of coal companies has generally declined. In order to improve performance, coal companies have shown their powers, and Lu'an Huanneng has put forward the concept of "being able to compete and take everything", which is particularly active in the competition for coal resources.
As of the first half of 2024, Lu'an Huanneng has 18 production mines, all of which are super-safe and efficient mines except for Shangzhuang Coal, with an advanced production capacity of 48.2 million tons, accounting for the industry's leading scale. Despite this, in the second half of the year, Lu'an Huanneng accelerated its pace on the road of competing for coal resources and increasing the company's coal resource reserves.
In August this year, Lu'an Huanneng won the coal prospecting right in Shangma Block in Xiangyuan County at a price of 12.126 billion yuan, which is also the second 10 billion coal mine prospecting right transaction in Shanxi Province this year. The exploration area of coal prospecting rights auctioned by Lu'an Huanneng is 72.42 square kilometers, and the coal resources are 819.575 million tons.
In September, Lu'an Huanneng once again announced that it had won the mining rights of Gucheng Coal Mine of Shanxi Lu'an Mining Group Co., Ltd. for 695 million yuan. The mine is located in the northern part of the Gucheng Coal Mine and covers an area of about 7 square kilometers.
On October 11, Lu'an Huanneng said that in order to further ensure the competitiveness of the company's market-oriented bidding for coal resources, the board of directors intends to further increase the authorized amount and term of bidding for coal resources. If calculated with its total assets of 86.762 billion yuan at the end of 2023, the upper limit of the authorized amount of Lu'an Huaneng's original plan to purchase coal resources was 26.029 billion yuan, and this time the upper limit was raised to 43.381 billion yuan, exceeding its total revenue of 43.14 billion yuan in 2023.
This series of operations can be said to be a perfect interpretation of its claim of "can fight for everything, can take everything".
In addition to Lu'an Huaneng, since the beginning of this year, there are a number of listed companies in our province to join the "buy mine" army.
Orchid Science and Technology has also made plans for the company to purchase coal resources.
On June 6, Orchid Science and Technology said that it would purchase coal resources through a market-oriented approach, and the purchase amount would not exceed 30% of the company's latest audited total assets or 50% of its net assets for 12 consecutive months. According to its 2024 semi-annual report, as of the end of the first half of 2024, Orchid Science and Technology has total assets of 31.335 billion yuan and net assets of 16.125 billion yuan, which means that it will spend more than 8 billion yuan to buy coal mines.
On the evening of October 9, Meijin Energy announced that the company intends to purchase 51% of the shares of Jinyuan Coal Mine held by Meijin Group, 49% of the shares of Zhengwang Coal Industry held by Shanxi Hongchi, and 49% of the shares of Zhengcheng Coal Industry held by Shanxi Suyang by issuing shares. The transaction will enhance Meijin Energy's high-quality coking coal reserves and strengthen Meijin Energy's position in the industry.
In addition, among the listed coal companies in Shanxi, Antai Group recently issued an announcement on the transfer of shares in coal companies. On September 26, Antai Group announced that the company intends to purchase part of the equity of Shanxi Jiexiu Xinyugou Zuozegou Coal Industry Company with no more than 500 million yuan, and the transfer ratio is expected to be 20%-45%, which will enhance the profitability of the company's coke products and improve performance after the transaction is reached.
In August, Huayang Co., Ltd. won the coal prospecting right in Yujiazhuang Block, Shouyang County, Shanxi Province for 6.88 billion yuan, and in July, Yongtai Energy acquired 51% of the shares of Tianyue Coal Industry held by Yunyi Group for no more than 350 million yuan. In addition, a number of coal companies such as Shanmei International have issued announcements to participate in coal mine auctions.
In fact, many listed coal companies and large coal companies have recently become more enthusiastic about buying mines.
In February this year, the official website of the Shaanxi Provincial Public Resources Trading Center issued nine pre-disclosure announcements on the transfer of prospecting rights for coal mine projects, with a total transfer price of 84.63 billion yuan.
On May 24, Shaanxi Energy Investment Co., Ltd. successfully bid for the mining rights of Qianyangshan Coal Mine in Huanxian County, Gansu Province for 37.35 million yuan. The mined block covers an area of 121.1518 square meters and has a coal reserve of 1.02 billion tons.
In general, for listed coal companies, in addition to purchasing coal mine prospecting rights and mining rights, they will also integrate resources through the acquisition of small coal enterprises, and coal resources are more concentrated in coal head enterprises. Large-scale coal enterprises have obvious advantages in the introduction of advanced production technology and the purchase of advanced production equipment, so far, the concentration of coal resources in large-scale coal enterprises will also play a role in promoting the industrial upgrading of the coal industry.