Gross Margin Improvement and Expense Ratio Drag on Net Margin
发布时间:2026-05-05 来源:华泰证券
CRCC has posted 1Q26 revenue of RMB231,582mn(-9.81%YoY,-23.16%QoQ),attributable net profit(NP)of RMB4,392mn(-14.72%YoY,+23.68%QoQ),and recurring NP of RMB4,214mn(-15.31%YoY).Despite the pressure from the industry slowdown,we believe the company's pivot toward high-quality development–evidenced by asset optimization,cost discipline,and operational improvements–is gaining traction.Maintain BUY on both A-/H-shares.
Higher financial expenses lead to slight decline in net margin
For 1Q26,CRCC's overall gross margin was 7.86%(+0.35pp YoY).The overall expense ratio was 4.86%(+0.7pp YoY),with sales/administrative/R&D/financial expenses accounting for 0.46/1.79/1.02/1.59%(-0.04/-0.19/-0.13/+1.06pp YoY).Financial expenses grew by 172%YoY,mainly due to aRMB165.1bn YoY increase in interest-bearing liabilities,leading to higher interest expenses,as well as expected forex rate fluctuations affecting exchange gains and losses.Impairment expenses as apercentage of revenue increased by 0.2pp YoY to 0.37%.Overall,1Q26 attributable NP margin was 1.90%(-0.11pp YoY).
Lower collection and higher payout widen cash outflows
As of end-1Q26,CRCC's debt-to-asset ratio/interest-bearing debt ratio stood at 79.57/33.0%(+1.98/+4.60pp YoY,+0.06/+1.98pp vs early 2026).Net cash flow from operating activities in 1Q26 was-RMB62.6bn,representing an additional outflow of RMB23.6bn YoY,which we attribute mainly to seasonal reductions in receivables and increases in payables.The cash collection/payout ratio was 99.6/122.7%(-7.68/+3.59pp YoY).As of end-1Q26,notes&accounts receivable/contract assets/contract liabilities/notes&accounts payable/prepayments were RMB259.3/392.2/126.8/601.0/30.3bn,a change of RMB+15.5/+17.8/+5.8/-27.5/+6.1bn vs end-2025.
Environ services and airport power segments perform well
In 1Q26,CRCC signed new contracts worth RMB357.9bn,down 27.4%YoY.By business segment,infrastructure projects accounted for 84.7%of total,including RMB254.0/49.3bn in engineering contracting/green environmental protection orders,a change of-31.5/+0.6%YoY.Total market size of engineering tenders has been under pressure.Among the sub-sectors,only rail transit,airports,and power engineering saw YoY growth,rising 4.1%,82.4%,and 24.6%,respectively.By region,new contracts signed domestically amounted to RMB326.6bn,down 27.2%YoY,while overseas new contracts came to RMB31.3bn,a 29.1%YoY decline,mainly due to ahigh base from the previous year.
Earnings forecasts and valuation
We maintain our 2026/2027/2028 attributable NP forecast at RMB17.3/17.2/17.6bn.As CRCC has taken the initiative in strategically pivoting from scale expansion toward high-quality and robust assets,we think it may well witness financial result improvements ahead of its peers,thus laying asolid foundation to raise medium-to long-term dividends.We therefore value its A-/H-shares at 8/5x 2026E PE,above their peers'averages of 7.2/4.3x on Wind consensus,for our target price of RMB10.18/HKD7.26(previous:RMB8.89/HKD6.47,based on 7/4.5x 2026E PE vs peers'average of 6/4x).Maintain BUY on both.
Risks:Slow growth in infrastructure investment,a weaker property recovery than we expect,GPM improvement falling short of our expectations.