On April 29, Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) (stock abbreviation: Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) , stock code: Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) ) released the financial report for the first quarter of 2022. The report shows that in the first quarter of 2022, Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) achieved an operating revenue of 343 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.09%; The net cash flow from operating activities was 175 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 372.23%; The profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was about 235 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 36.09%.
It is worth noting that in the first quarter of 2022, another interesting indicator of Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) company, the net profit attributable to the parent company, decreased by 65.83% year-on-year. Does this sharp decline in net profit mean that the Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) performance of IDC leader is thunderous? Some insiders said that this was not the case.
In order to more accurately reflect the real operation growth of high growth IDC companies, overseas IDC leading enterprises such as eqix (market value: US $67.3 billion, about 440.9 billion yuan) and digital realtytrust (DLR, market value: US $42.6 billion, about 279.2 billion yuan) and IDC enterprises listed in China stock in the United States are usually widely used in capital intensive industries and heavy asset industries, Net profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), excluding the impact of depreciation and other factors on the enterprise’s short-term financial report profit, is valued, that is, the profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. This is considered by the international capital market as the core index that can more truly reflect the real profitability of enterprises.
The report shows that Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) ebitda profit has maintained rapid growth for seven consecutive quarters. In the first quarter of 2022, Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) ebitda profit was about 235 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.09%. It can be predicted that with the continuous power on of the projects that have been put into operation, Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) future performance will be further released. Therefore, professional institutions in the capital market generally comment on and expect the release of Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) ‘s future performance as “quiet flowers”.
According to the analysis report on operators of China’s third-party data center (2022) jointly released by the news and publicity Center of the Ministry of industry and information technology and China Academy of information and communication, the overall scale of Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) has jumped to the second in the industry, and the trend of counter cyclical high-speed growth is prominent.
According to the introduction of Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) company, with the large-scale delivery of data center in recent two years, the operation scale of Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) has increased rapidly. Up to now, Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) has built and operated 34 data centers, with a total it load of about 366.82 megawatts (MW), which has established its leading position in the IDC industry. On the one hand, the increase of scale has brought about the increase of income. On the other hand, due to the continuous increase of fixed assets, the depreciation of the company’s fixed assets has increased significantly in stages, and Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) operating costs have increased significantly by 62.35% in short-term stages compared with the same period last year, resulting in the sharp decline of the above net profit attributable to the parent company in short-term stages.
It is understood that due to long-term focus on wholesale data center business, Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) data center projects are mostly super large data centers among wholesale data centers. Compared with the general retail data center’s “build first, order later” model, the super large data center has obtained the long-term service contract for large customers (usually 10 years) at the beginning of the project investment and construction. In addition, according to the contract, after a certain period of power climbing (generally 1-2 years), the project will make a stable contribution to the income according to the full yield rigid billing. Compared with retail data centers dominated by small and medium-sized customers, large enterprise customers in wholesale data centers have stronger risk resistance and payment ability, and the long-term service of wholesale business means stronger customer stickiness. Therefore, it is more guaranteed in the certainty of future revenue and the stability of cash flow. Therefore, the increasing scale of Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) operation means that the future revenue and profit space will be further opened.
Shanghai Athub Co.Ltd(603881) company said that due to the heavy asset attribute of the data center, the acceptance of the new data center project enters the initial stage of operation, and the overall operating costs such as depreciation of fixed assets will increase significantly at one time, which will periodically drag down the apparent net profit of the enterprise in the period of rapid scale expansion. However, with the gradual operation of the delivered projects (it usually takes 1-2 years to climb the shelf), the profit will gradually rise and the real profit will be gradually released.
