PCL delves into solar energy generation
Dual-listed Malawi conglomerate Press Corporation Limited (PCL) has unveiled plans that will see the group seriously delving into solar energy generation being piloted at one of its subsidiaries, Carlsberg Malawi Limited.
PCL board chairperson Clement Chilingulo told Business News on the sidelines of the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) and London Stock Exchange (LSE)—listed group’s 29th annual general meeting (AGM) in Blantyre on Wednesday that the solar energy generation project will be replicated in all the company’s 12 subsidiaries.
“We want to go into energy generation and, initially, we are looking at the solar energy. There is a pilot project we are going to go into and that will be at Carlsberg Malawi, with a company from outside. We are going into that immediately. The idea is for the company to go into the energy sector seriously.”
“They have almost started [and] it is a pilot project. If it succeeds and, I am confident that it will succeed, we will replicate it and make it a bigger project,” said Chilingulo, who chaired his first AGM since assuming the role of chairperson at PCL.
Already, the company is into energy sector through its three subsidiaries, Puma Energy (Malawi) Limited, Ethanol Company Limited (Ethco) in Nkhotakota and Presscane Limited in Chikhwawa.
In the year ended December 2012, PCL’s profit-after-tax jumped by 55 percent to K9.5 billion (about $23.7m) from K6.1 billion (about $15.2m) the year before, largely propelled by “exceptional results” in financial services, agro-industrial and energy whose earnings more than doubled.
The financial services sector anchored by National Bank of Malawi (NBM) registered 113 percent growth in earnings as a result of improved operating efficiencies and growth in international trade and treasury.
Also, earnings from tobacco processing business at Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company of Malawi were 180 percent up on last year largely due to increased volume of tobacco processed buoyed by high carry over stock from the year before.
The energy segment also achieved good results pushed by increased earnings from Presscane Limited and Ethco.
However, the telecommunications segment anchored by Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) and MSE—listed TNM plc was affected by the devaluation of the kwacha in May 2012; hence, incurring K5.7 billion (about $14.2m) in exchange losses in foreign currency denominated loans related to capacity expansion project.
