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[Apha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] As of the end of June, the total debt of KEPCO reached 201.4 trillion won, exceeding 200 trillion won for the first time. It is the largest number of listed companies in Korea.
The main reason for the surge in KEPCO's total debt is that soaring international energy prices are not fully reflected in electricity bills, resulting in huge operating losses of more than 47 trillion won since 2021 alone.
The problem is that KEPCO's profit structure is still unstable, even though it has raised electricity bills by nearly 40% since last year.
According to KEPCO's monthly report on the 11th, the unit price of electricity was higher than the unit price for two consecutive months in May and June, and the 'reverse margin structure' was temporarily resolved.
However, there are many evaluations in the market that KEPCO is just at the beginning of the loss section.
According to the "2023∼2027 Mid- to Long-term Financial Management Plan" report submitted by KEPCO to the National Assembly, KEPCO predicted that it will see an operating loss of 6.3 trillion won on a consolidated basis this year and make annual operating profit from next year.
However, the debt that has increased to 200 trillion won is a serious burden. Interest costs due to huge debts are typical.
Under the mid- to long-term financial management plan, KEPCO's debt is expected to reach 205.8 trillion won at the end of this year and rise to 226.3 trillion won by 2027.
Interest costs are expected to grow from 2.8185 trillion won last year to 4.4 trillion won this year, 4.7 trillion won in 2024, 4.9 trillion won in 2025, 5.1 trillion won in 2026 and 5.1 trillion won in 2027.
Interest alone will be worth KRW 24 trillion for five years from this year to 2027. You have to pay 13.1 billion won in interest every day.
AlphaBIZ 폴 리(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
