Dewa's third-quarter net profit up 10% on rise in power demand

The utility's nine-month net income rose 21 per cent to a record $1.76 billion

Dewa's hydroelectric plant project in Hatta. Photo: Dewa

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority reported a 10 per cent jump in third-quarter net profit as the utility’s revenue rose amid increased power demand in the emirate.

Net profit attributable to the owners of the company for the three-month period to the end of September climbed to Dh3.17 billion ($864.3 million), Dewa said in a statement on Thursday to the Dubai Financial Market, where its shares are traded.

Revenue for the July-September period rose by 15 per cent to Dh8.56bn.

Net income in the first nine months of the year climbed 21 per cent annually to a record Dh6.47bn. Revenue for the period jumped 15 per cent to Dh20.63bn, driven by a consistent rise in demand for electricity in the emirate.

“Our net profit for the first nine months of 2022 is nearly at par with our full year net profit of 2021. These record results are a testament to our steadfast focus on delivering our strategic priorities of sustainable and innovative growth,” Saeed Al Tayer, managing director and chief executive of Dewa, said.

“We are well positioned to deliver the best full year financial performance in our history.”

Mr Al Tayer said the utility, which listed shares in April this year in the largest public float in the Middle East and Europe since Saudi Aramco's listing in 2019, “offers an excellent value proposition that is backed by record earnings growth, predictable cash flows and a defined dividend policy”.

Dewa, the first Dubai entity to go public among the 10 state enterprises the government plans to list on the DFM, operates as a vertically integrated multi-utility. Its businesses include electricity generation, transmission and distribution, water desalination and district cooling.

Demand for energy in Dubai, the commercial and tourism hub of the Middle East, reached 40.7 terawatt hours (TWh) in the first nine months of the year, up from 38.6 TWh in the same period of last year.

Dewa’s peak demand in the nine-month period was 9.5 gigawatts, a 3.3 per cent annual increase. Peak demand for both this year and 2021 was achieved in July, Dewa said.

By the end of the third quarter, Dewa said it served 1.14 million customers, an almost 5 per cent jump from the same time last year. The utility added 17,032 new customers in the third quarter of 2022 alone.

Dewa generated 17.3 TWh of power in the July-September period, a 4 per cent annual increase. It produced 36.7 billion imperial gallons of desalinated water, a 7 per cent year-on-year jump, as demand rose.

The utility is continuing to invest in expanding its water and power generation capacity. It plans to invest Dh40bn over the next five years and will focus on renewables, clean energy, electricity and water transmission and distribution networks to meet the emirate's growing demand.

Earlier this month, Dewa appointed a group of consultants, including Deloitte, WSP and Addleshaw Goddard, to provide consultancy services on its seawater reverse osmosis plant in Hassyan.

The project, which is scheduled to become operational in 2025 and 2026, will have a capacity of 120 million imperial gallons per day.

Earlier this week, Dewa's subsidiary Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) raised more than Dh2.6bn through its IPO, which was 47 times oversubscribed.

The district cooling provider sold 2 billion shares, equivalent to 20 per cent of its share capital, at the higher end of its offer share price of Dh1.33, giving Empower a market value of Dh13.3bn at listing.

“We have made sustained progress towards unlocking shareholder value by paying our first dividend of Dh3.1bn in October, by announcing the intention to float our 70 per cent owned subsidiary Empower and by recommending the payment of a one-time special dividend of Dh2.03bn to be paid to our shareholders in December,” Mr Al Tayer said.

“For the financial year 2022, we expect to return Dh8.23bn in dividends to our shareholders.”