KIB Plug Energy Reports H1 Cumulative Operating Profit of 8.4 Billion KRW 'Earnings Surprise'

KIB Plug Energy achieved surprising second-quarter results after the appointment of new management, including CEO Heo Seong-ho.

On the 11th, KIB Plug Energy announced that its cumulative sales for the first half of the year reached 65.4 billion KRW, with an operating profit of 8.4 billion KRW. These figures represent increases of 50.6% and 49.6%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. Net profit grew by 13.8% to 11.7 billion KRW, achieving a record high performance.

The growth in performance was driven by an increase in orders due to overall market improvement and a profitability-focused order policy. The high export ratio and sustained high exchange rates also contributed to the strong results. CEO Heo Seong-ho plans to continue leveraging operational leverage through aggressive order expansion. With project orders continuing positively in the second half of the year, stable profit generation is expected.

CEO Heo was appointed as the new CEO of KIB Plug Energy on the 13th of last month. The company changed its major shareholder to KIB PE (Private Equity) and renamed itself from Quro to KIB Plug Energy. Along with this, the business purpose was expanded to include 'fuel cells and renewable energy'.

Based on its core competencies in energy-related mechanical equipment technology, the company reorganized its business divisions into ▲ Energy Equipment Division ▲ Energy Production Division ▲ Energy Commercialization Division, and is currently pursuing vertical integration of the 'Green Energy Total Package' supply chain.

To this end, the company plans to enter the hydrogen and electricity markets using hydrogen fuel cells, starting from collecting waste plastics to hydrogen production. It aims to become a company with core competencies across the entire hydrogen value chain, from source technology to power generation and related facilities, as well as hydrogen commercial vehicles.

A KIB Plug Energy official stated, "Through mergers and acquisitions strategies in related industries, we expect to achieve external growth to more than approximately four times the current scale by next year," adding, "Hydrogen energy production will also positively impact the sales growth of the existing energy equipment division.".