(Yicai Global) March 31 -- Shanghai Electric Group plunged into the red last year due to a large amount of uncollected bills owed to two subsidiaries, an unprofitable foreign project and rising commodity costs, the Chinese power generation equipment maker said.

Shanghai Electric logged losses of CNY9.99 billion (USD1.5 billion) in 2021, a far cry from its profit of CNY3.76 billion (USD592.6 million) in 2020, according to the company’s latest annual report released yesterday. Revenue was down 4.3 percent to CNY131.4 billion (USD20.7 billion).

Shanghai Electric Communication Technology, in which the group holds a 40 percent stake, has failed to claim CNY4.1 billion (USD648 million) of accounts receivable, the parent firm said in May last year. Shanghai Electric stands to lose around CNY8.3 billion, equivalent to two years of net profit, should the bills go unpaid and the subsidiary goes bankrupt, it added.

An unsuccessful photovoltaic and solar thermal project in Dubai lost the company as much as CNY3.4 billion (USD536 million). And an elevator and power transmission-making subsidiary, which is believed to be owed money by debt-laden real estate developer China Evergrande Group, accrued losses of between CNY600 million (USD94.6 million) and CNY900 million.

New orders for the company’s thermal and nuclear power generating units, wind power generation devices as well as power transmission and other equipment were also down, plunging 22.3 percent last year from the year before to CNY144.2 billion (USD22.7 billion).

Shanghai Electric’s share price [SHA:601727] dipped 0.49 percent to close at CNY4.04 (USD0.64) today.

Editor: Kim Taylor