NH Investment & Securities analyzed on the 16th that SK Gas's operating profit is expected to increase this year, thanks to favorable introduction prices and high efficiency. They raised the target price from 220,000 won to 250,000 won. The investment opinion remains "buy." The closing price on the previous trading day was 209,500 won.
NH Investment & Securities assessed that SK Gas's operating profit would increase this year with the operation of the Ulsan GPS, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) combined cycle power plant that SK Gas is promoting as a new business. Research Institute Lee Min-jae noted, "The Ulsan GPS of SK Gas is advantageous in determining the system marginal price (SMP) compared to other combined cycle plants because it is a new type of combined cycle power plant." SMP is the price at which power companies sell the electricity they generated to Korea Electric Power Corporation.
Additionally, this Research Institute explained that SK Gas will sequentially operate energy storage systems (ESS) in Texas, in collaboration with its renewable energy affiliate, SK EterNix, starting at the end of the year. Currently, the storage capacity of ESS is 200 megawatt-hours (MWh), but it is expected to increase to 1 gigawatt-hour (GWh) in the medium to long term. This Research Institute forecasted that if the current time-of-use price differences remain, the revenue of ESS would be sufficient.
This Research Institute also predicted that the effects of SK Gas's shareholder return policy would become evident. He stated, "We plan to distribute more than 25% of consolidated net profit attributable to controlling shareholders in dividends, and if the long-term goal of return on equity (ROE) exceeds 12%, we will also proceed with additional returns through cash dividends or share buybacks." He added, "Next year's dividends per share (DPS) based on net profit attributable to controlling shareholders is expected to be 11,000 won, and the ROE is projected to meet the criteria for additional returns at 14.7%.