RIYADH, 7 March 2006 — The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) netted profits of SR1,483 million in the year 2005. It also announced that it was distributing SR547 million in profits to shareholders (SR 3.5 per share) according to recommendations by SEC’s board.
The president of SEC, Mahmoud Taiba, said the company continued to offer new services to subscribers, particularly in the customer service section.
The services include as enabling the subscriber to inquire about the average consumption of electricity, ways of paying bills, in addition to SMS text messages that can be sent to the subscriber specifying the bill, the due date for payment, and other information. This new service is part of the collaboration between the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and SEC.
According to Abdul Aziz Al-Sugair, CEO of the company, the year 2005 was a substantial year for the company’s performance. “The number of subscribers had increased to 4,727,371 by the end of last year. The company has attracted 242,295 new subscribers, indicating a growth of 5 percent,” he said.
He also said that SEC succeeded in delivering electricity to 225 villages in 2005, taking the total number of villages provided with power in the Kingdom to 10,385. In order to maintain the increased demand, the company has re-endorsed its cable network by adding new cable lines to sustain 33 kilo volts.
As for last year’s financial performance, Al-Sugair said that operation returns for 2005 was 18.7 billion compared to 17.5 billion last year, an increase of SR 1.85 billion. “The average cost for the usage of kilowatt per hour was 11.42 halalas in 2005, down by 0.05 percent compared to 2004,” he clarified.
Commenting on the distribution of profits to shareholders, the CEO said the return per share was SR1,78 with the share currently at SR50 in the stock market. That figure rose by 14 percent from the return profits per share in 2004 which were SR1,56. He said the distribution of profits per share was calculated on the basis of the number of shares the company owns in its capital, including those belonging to the government and Saudi Aramco.
Speaking on new and future SEC projects, Al-Sugair said that 23 new transmutation stations had been built with a capacity of 5,708 MFI. He said that SEC was continuing to implement its quality and development programs.
“Last year we were able to achieve an 82.3 percentage rate of the number of Saudis working in the company,” he added. SEC received the “Prince Naif Saudization Award” for two years in a row for ranking No. 1 in implementing the highest Saudization rate for the year 2004 and 2005.