Performance Highlights

1Q24 Review: Robust Revenue Growth leads to 35.6% Net Profit Increase

Household clients continued to drive water demand growth

• As of the end of 1Q24, total water subscription reached 485,755 connections, an increase of 5.8% YoY. Household clients made up 79.8% of water subscribers, with 387,600 connections. Additionally, this segment continues to achieve a solid growth of 5.6% YoY, experiencing several quarters of consecutive growth since the pre-covid era. Commercial & industrial clients account for 91,482 connections or 18.8% of total connections, while the remaining 6,673 connections are from members of the government, autonomous state authorities, private water distributors, and other organizations. The number of commercial and industrial clients continued to experience strong growth, increasing by 6,302 connections or 7.4% compared to the end of 1Q23.


• The overall water demand has continued its upward trend, increasing 28% YoY to 69.2 million cubic meters in 1Q24. The increase can be attributed to the robust demand of at least 25% YoY across all customer segments, with household clients seeing the highest growth (+29.8% YoY).

Top line posted strongest YoY growth since 3Q21

• Total revenue saw robust growth of 27.4% YoY, reaching KHR105.8bn. With the double-digit YoY growth in demand from all types of customers, core water sales surged 24.8% YoY to KHR94.7bn, equivalent to 89.5% of total revenue. Water sales to household clients grew robustly at 32.7% YoY to reach KHR35.2bn. Meanwhile, water sales to commercial clients rose 27.3% YoY from KHR35.6bn to KHR45.4bn. Finally, water sales to public institutions, autonomous state bodies, wholesalers, and rental rooms saw the largest growth of 65.7% YoY, reaching KHR 3.0bn.


• Construction services, which represents 2.1% of total revenue, sharply declined 67.8% YoY from KHR6.8bn to KHR2.2bn. On the other hand, other incomes, which include service fees from water meter replacement, sales spare parts, and penalty fees, rose 4x from KHR 2.4bn in 1Q23 to KHR 8.9bn in 1Q24.

EBITDA margin improved by 6.1%pt YoY in 1Q24

• Operating expenses (including depreciation & amortization) increased moderately by 7.8% YoY from KHR 56.1bn to KHR 60.5bn. The increase in total operating expenses can be attributed mainly to higher costs in electricity (+38.6 YoY), raw materials for water treatment (+25.6% YoY) and water connections (+20.1% YoY), repair and materials (+66.6% YoY), and other operating expenses (+32.3% YoY). Despite the increase in total operating expenses, EBITDA surged 42.9% YoY to KHR 60.0bn with EBITDA margin improving 6.1%pt YoY to 56.7%. As depreciation and amortization expenses decreased 2.3% YoY, EBIT jumped 68.3% YoY to KHR 45.2bn. Therefore, EBIT margin expanded 10.4%pt YoY to 42.8% in 1Q24.

Net profit surged by 35.6% YoY in 1Q24

• Net finance income increased from KHR 14.9bn to KHR 17.6bn in 1Q24. As a result, net income increased from KHR 38.4bn to KHR 52.1bn, a significant 35.6% increase YoY, leading to a better net income margin of 49.3% (+3.0%pt YoY). This improvement was driven by strong revenue growth and an enhanced EBIT margin.


• EPS increased from KHR 1,337 in 1Q23 to KHR 1,613 in 1Q24, with PPWSA’s stock trading at a P/E ratio of 4.50x as of end of 1Q24.

Water subscription

Revenue breakdown

Operating expense breakdown

Financial Ratios