Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the CLP FY24 Annual Results Briefing. My name is Marissa Wong. I'm Director of Investor Relations and Sustainability, and today joining me is Chief Executive Officer of CLP Holdings and Chief Financial Officer of CLP Holdings. We launched our announcement for FY24 results we announced today. That announcement, in addition to this presentation, is now available on our website. This briefing is also being recorded, so if you want to find that on our website later on, you can. Just a few things I want to note before we begin, a reminder to refer to the slides here as I just showed you there. For today's briefing, we have TK delivering key highlights for 2024, as well as some strategic priorities and outlook to deliver for financial performance for 2024. This will be followed by a Q&A session.
With that, I will now hand over to TK to begin the briefing.
Thank you for being here today, Marissa.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We're now broadcasting from our brand new headquarters in Hung Hom today. As we begin this digital IR briefing, it is good to have you with us and also all participants for our interim results and also share with you the outcome of our strategic review. Let's begin with our results. In the first half, we delivered growth across key financial indicators from our diversified portfolio, with notable material improvements from EnergyAustralia. Our operational execution remains impeccable, as we maintained our track record of execution, which is setting us up to be well placed to manage infrastructure in the coming years. In Hong Kong, we completed major T&D infrastructure along the way to achieving our decarbonisation approach. In China, Yangjiang Nuclear achieved record generation, while in India, Jhajjar upgraded position as well as the best running thermal plants, achieving record-level efficiency.
In Australia, amidst increasing price volatility, Tallawarra B into commercial operations, eliminating current exposures to reduce our exposure to spikes in the price. Turning to our growth momentum, the new SoC cycle in Hong Kong is progressing well, with HKD 11 billion in CapEx in 2024. Outside of Hong Kong, with close to 4.5 gigawatts of non-T&D capacity in execution, we are in a solid position to secure future recurring earnings in the pipeline. A few highlights include our construction of CLP China's largest wind and solar project to date, both 300 megawatts in Shanxi and Gonghe, and the largest solar project in India to date, 300 megawatts in Rajasthan. Expanding into Australia's flexible portfolio, with the largest battery to date, with 350 megawatts for our energy storage.
The strength of our results, together with growth momentum and our innovative financial structure, has helped provide the resources necessary to increase the dividend. This reflects our policy of being reliable and consistent over the years, with steady increases when supported by earnings and revenue in the current period. Finally, I'm pleased to confirm that we have completed our strategic review. The outcomes of this review will underpin our position of delivering cleaner and more reliable energy, stable earnings, and dividend growth. I'll say more towards the end of the presentation. Now turning to the financials, a strong financial performance in 2023 highlights a strong underlying operating earnings before fair value movements and the announcement of increasing the dividend. More details next, but in summary, underlying operating earnings before fair value movements increased by 8% year-on-year to nearly HK$11 billion.
Underlying earnings were also up significantly by 76% to HKD 11.7 billion. The final dividend was maintained at HKD 1.26 per share, which together with the three dividends already paid, raised 2024 total dividends to HKD 3.15 per share and an increase of 1.6% from HKD 3.10 in the prior year, and based on our share price at the end of December, this provides a yield to investors of 4.8%. Operationally, we maintained good performance on our safety and reliability metrics. There was a slight increase in outages and wind turbines, largely attributed to more planned activities and construction activities. In our T&D operations, the system's availability window was impacted by extreme weather and power supply incidents in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, Hong Kong's network reliability is still at 99.999%, which remains acceptable for the work that is needed.
On the customer front, we saw growth in plans in Hong Kong while competitive market conditions in Australia resulted in a reduction in customer numbers. The net energy output from our generation facilities increased marginally and generation capacity improved as a result of the timing of pre-openings in Hong Kong and aspects of our 10 GW share in standalone battery storage. These actions led to a significant increase in the overall wind scale in the generation transition. I'll now hand over to Alex to take us through the financial results.
Thank you, TK. You're welcome. The results today reflect a positive signal in underlying forecasts, consolidating the growth trend across the three financial indicators. Underlying earnings for the year 2024 increased by 9% to over HK$25 billion. This reflected sustained capital expenditure margin of 10% from the latest figures. Increase in the dividend. Reported underlying operating earnings grew 8% to close to HK$11 billion. This was slightly impacted by the revaluation of deferred tax assets. Adjusting for fair value movements and one-off items, total earnings were HK$11.7 billion and improved by 76%. Capital investments of over HK$80 billion were higher than last year, which I'll cover in more detail in the CapEx presentation. As a result of this positive momentum and as mentioned by TK, we increased our dividend distribution window.
Total dividends for financial year 2024 were HKD 3.50 per share, representing an increase of 1.6%. In summary, we achieved growth in earnings while investing in expansion and returning financial earnings. The exhibit quarter four shows EnergyAustralia has a major rise in activity, followed by dependable performance in Hong Kong, profitable growth from our primary energy region, and improvement in the other earnings and allocated assets. Reduced contributions in EnergyAustralia was mainly due to lower contributions in wind turbines. Details of the region will be covered in the following slide. In line with the detailed performance, we saw a higher contribution in the operating earnings window, with a significant uplift from EnergyAustralia and more modest uplift from Hong Kong in October 2024, except the lower contribution in Mainland China and the India region.
Together with the contributions from the region and efficiency gains from digitalization and network-based growth optimization, the reported operating earnings with portfolio value was close to HKD 11 billion. We didn't add the significant portfolio gains increase in 2024, but it was still positive, reflecting accounting gains and EnergyAustralia forward energy contracts at 100% of the project income. After one of the events, the group's total earnings increased by 76% to HKD 11.7 billion. I will focus over the bottom line and outlook for each business unit. All earnings summaries will include the impact of earnings plans to reflect the overall underlying performance for each business. First, Hong Kong. With the start of the new wind turbine cycle, our continued investment and reliable performance was furthered understandably for the month.
On an operating basis, CLP Holdings invested HKD 10.8 billion, a majority going towards transmission and distribution to support industrial sector growth. I needed that analysis to understand the change. Earnings were slightly impacted by the lower gains from the one-off and the investment in renewables in 2017 through to 2023, as well as the maintained interest rate. Lastly, the T&D sector by HKD 600 million in 2018-2020, already incorporated in the guidance. With its management and the operation of the offshore energy commitment, we now have successfully completed our major T&D sector, leaving the remainder to accelerate its transition. This is a significant step forward for our business. Local electricity demand was up 2.9%, notably, load demand in data centers and electronics increased by 86% and 55.1% this year, outpacing overall electricity demand growth.
For the business unit, the energy transition activities across all major areas such as cooling, district cooling, electricity distribution, transportation and mobility, and replacing high-carbon energy and construction styles were key investment drivers. As we continue to change the way investing is understood in the current scenario. Looking ahead, the focus will be on progressing forward to the Northern Metropolis development plan, working towards net zero, fuel-flexible and clean power, supporting industries transitioning to a lower carbon economy, and continuing to deliver reliable electricity at a reasonable price. Moving to Mainland China, overall earnings increased by 10% to HKD 1.9 billion. Main driver of core earnings was yield, namely lower market price and higher price in Mainland China, and lower generation and commodity costs which were coming into the new year. Earnings in the new growth were slightly lower, meaning more room to absorb over-supply.
was partially affected by contributions to new growth capex projects and better pricing strategies. Some favorable energy mix, a lower fuel intake, and lower energy spend contributed to maintaining earnings and turnover. In line with our Climate Vision 2050, we will proceed to early exit of our minority interest in Shandong in 2025. Turning to the growth momentum, we've now made significant progress with close to HK$200 million of renewable and battery projects in various communities across the country. Notably, a few achievements, including our largest wind, our largest solar, and our first co-located battery with the solar system. Continuing with the theme of achievement, we also signed two large-scale renewable energy offtake agreements with international and domestic customers to support wind power and BESS stability and long-term value for the portfolio. Looking ahead, nuclear performance is expected to remain dependable.
Moving forward, we expect higher market value exposure. Wind overall is expected to be stable with our disciplined capital allocation in the changing requirements. We fast-tracked to deliver renewable development and are progressing in business planning and partnerships with TK in particular. Turning to solar now, we had a record number of highlight events between the mid-2020s and 2024. Out of these 12, our average capacity is about 10 GW for solar and wind and total 20 GW. Energy-related actions and investments in the reliability of solar and wind and also plant-level excellent performance management, combining higher and more favorable merchant prices and output outcomes, contributed to strong performance in the new growth cycle. The customer segment, so higher sales and reduced customer demand, given the intense market competition, coupled with the high cost of wind power. The success rate increased over the 12-year period.
EnergyAustralia solar now, from less production than 2015 to more than HK$519 million operating earnings with HK$4.1 billion in CapEx. We also accelerated our energy production with more flexible capacity projects and more energy transitions. In all this, a critical feat is done in all facets of the new corporation. Bringing the capacity in-service experience for wind in the plain and added in-service for solar, we enabled the construction of wind battery projects. The quantum capacity for solar management was measured and given from the wind PPA in the program, powering the growing renewable and flexible portfolio. Looking ahead, focus remains on maintaining the performance of the new generation unit. The outlook for power prices is stable, despite higher fuel prices, demand data as well as higher generation capacity availability.
Market conditions in the customer segment is expected to remain competitive as the focus on efficiency improvements and refactoring technology is strengthening. EnergyAustralia will expand its renewable portfolio in line with its balanced investment plan for construction of long-term PPAs. Flexible capacity development will continue with regional business models and partnerships to capture the increasing value in energy transition. As a final note, we made a change to the reporting segment to move the wind and solar from customer segment to energy segment. This changed our risk of over-expansion as we underlined the customer segment results and maximized compatibility with the renewable energy sector. A detailed reconciliation of the restatement using the appendix provided in this document. Now, a final note. A final note recording another year of healthy demand.
We earning increasing with 11% to nearly 330 million, and solid cash flow from this year to the new return of capital. While renewable contribution winds are now in line with lower wind resources and more greener energy demand and significant reduction in the new growth plan, we recorded steady earnings growth in transmission and generator growth. Slightly significant is the walking wire, as we were towards the installation of more than 6.8 million wind turbines this year. Turning to the growth momentum, again for Western Solar, we recruited the command of 2 gigabytes of non-carbon project in execution, with four renewable, including the construction of the 12 of the largest solar project today, four transmission, and six nuclear projects one in 2023 and 2024. Corporate expansion into many nuclear grids within the hours of the successful exit of our biggest seller in 2023.
In India, Apraava will continue to execute its growth strategy and develop its diversified portfolio of renewables, battery storage, transmission, and solar projects. Finally, the Australia region, EnergyAustralia. The operation of our coal power station in Australia region was impacted by low supply of nuclear as well as lower coal prices. Operations were stable despite overall results in Australia, but its contribution was lowered by a setback in the two-year comp. Overall, earnings were down by gas pricing, hedging, and pumped hydro spending. Looking ahead, we'll focus on managing fuel costs and growth in volume of distribution, where we'll continue to work with regulators on opportunities in line with our strategy, which we will cover later in the presentation. Moving to the group results, we posted generation results at HK$21 billion, driven by underlying EBITDA performance, which includes the equity contribution. This was offset by.
It was still considered working capital within, which underwent terminology planning, the fuel prices paradigms, and recovery of investment marginally expected to increase. Assets sold were higher, totaling over HKD 45 billion, net of HKD 11.2 billion of business capitals, HKD 2.7 billion gross profits, mostly attributed to Mainland China renewable projects, HKD 3 billion from renewable capital disposals as well, with dividends received at HKD 75 billion. Finally, our second traditional remains strong with total earnings to credit units. There was a modest increase in wind, mainly driven by capital investment. We trained to produce wind, remained healthy with HKD 36 billion in availability. The team has been disciplined in maintaining a diversified and cost-effective growth portfolio. Successfully raised new competitive financing for over 50 different. And for local electricity business and HKD 5.2 million lower-cost project funds at SOFR term for Mainland China renewable energy projects. Early in 2025, we also successfully refinanced.
Finally, we were able to execute CapEx for long-term possibilities. I was told investment plan 2020 will be confirmed by September 9th to stakeholders in solar power and battery at 2 GW, 800 MW, and other renewable sectors. Similarly, moving forward as the platform of the three solar companies together. In the new year, all with great energy. With full cash flow and funding intake, we are positioned to invest in cleaner energy in our strategic planning while remaining committed to keeping strong ratings and returning cash to shareholders. Now, pass this over to T.K. for the group strategy plan.
That is all it is. CLP has been a leading player in its investment cycle, based on utilisation of the growth in all of Mainland China. What that means, CLP has powered a reliable and affordable energy network in operational excellence, for a cost-efficient and financially sound spend.
We have expanded into important key markets: India, Australia, and Southeast Asia, delivering 20 GW of generation capacity. Our operations span the full value chain from generation to network and services while consistently creating stronger value. Like energy itself, driving this growth, significant transformation as catalytic forces of electrification and the decarbonisation of energy growth. Our recent strategic review sharpens our plan forward, taking advantage of growth opportunities while advancing long-term resilience. We are poised to lead this transition, combining our renewable expertise, infrastructure, and drive to meet rising demand for clean, sustainable energy. This is how we secure our legacy of powering Hong Kong right now and always. When I started with CLP Holdings' regular meeting back in 1988, electric vehicles were not commercially available. Today, seven out of 10 newly registered vehicles in Hong Kong are electric. In 1988, renewable energy contributed less than 1% of the global energy.
Today, they supply more than a quarter of the global electricity in this region. Bloomberg predicts that this electricity must triple energy investments by 2015 to make it legible. Electrification and decarbonization are irreversible trends. In our strategic environment, these metrics. To this end, delivering on Climate Vision 2050 is our to-do list. Net zero by 2030 and net zero by 2050. That is the roadmap. Our strength is within our people, operational expertise, renewable knowledge, project pipelines, brand, and access to capital to systematically execute the growth and more sustainable elements and capture the opportunities and the overlaps. We are scaling investments in clean power generation with capacity, storage, and customer solutions in this region while advancing workforce capability and mobility.
While I'll be going through CLP's strategic priorities and financial targets, first, our home market, Hong Kong and mainland China, remain a priority. Our inter-region utility business in Hong Kong is central to our continuous investment and dependable earnings, supported by predictable returns under the Scheme of Control regulatory framework. We are committed to delivering HKD 52.5 billion five-year capital program to support government stakeholders and interests of their agenda and the organization agenda. We continue to drive the performance of the business, maximize synergies, and improve operational efficiency. To our other focus groups within China, we have a need for clean energy driving the issuing of some 300-350 megawatts of renewable capacity. This gives us good opportunities to find good projects. Our target of double our overall net performance to about 60 megawatts by the end of this decade is no risk in comparisons.
But it does reinforce our value of reporting discipline, investing only in projects that meet our return criteria over the long term. We are already seeing tangible results on multiple projects. We have netted almost two gigawatts in various stages of construction since we advanced the target. We have seen improved returns from our priority projects. Lower cost of capital and our learning from long-term PPAs adds service stability and long-term value to the portfolio. Finally, the potential for partnership models like the clean energy fund to optimize capital efficiency and advance returns. As regional cooperation remains present, our unique fleet of energy infrastructure and commercial expertise positioned us to enable energy transition in key industries like transportation. We are committed to playing an important role in achieving the new net zero economy across the value chain.
The markets that we operate in have some of the richest opportunities, with stronger fundamentals and generation of energy security and lower CapEx. We have built up decisive impact in this region, a key component of our geographical and technological diversification. This, combined with active asset management and operational excellence, underpins our confidence to invest in only expensive opportunities which are in interconnected energy generation and dependable products. In India, natural opportunities in one of the fastest growing economies, with joint venture and continued general efforts to triple this low-carbon portfolio, has now improved renewable, transmission, and smart meters on a self-support basis. The advancements achieved so far have been excellent, with the growing portfolio of wind and solar projects under construction. In other key Asia-Pacific markets, we focus on markets with stable revenue planning and where we have core competencies and compatible performances.
Looking for assets that are new types of renewables, profitable growth, accompanied by dependable earnings, and with the availability of financing in some areas. This will initially be in Taiwan and, in the long-term, Vietnam and India. We will focus where the energy transition is occurring at pace. The investment wave will be on building new plants of the decarbonization system, critical low-carbon dispatchable generation by gas, hydrogen, and renewables, and storage access with ready access to transmission infrastructure with partnership and business model upside. Security of supply and planning capacity will remain highly valuable and highly dependable in Australia to meet market needs and capture value in increasing opportunities, and we will optimize the portfolio accordingly. Great efforts will be our continuous work to uplift our tech capability. To address these three critical elements, first, investing in our future-ready workforce.
We are closing talent gaps through targeted programs that equip teams with skills to meet the Net Zero transition of scale. Second, embedding digital infrastructure. From AI-driven grid resilience to our capacity and mobility platform for Hong Kong's EV expansion, we are unlocking efficiencies, elevating customer experiences, and pioneering new revenue streams. Third, sustaining operational excellence. This is the backbone of our strategy. It ensures we continue to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable energy while enabling disciplined growth. Finally, through our financing strategy, we get capital flowing towards our IFP areas. The strong debt recovery profile allows us to continue to pay dividends while funding future growth, maintaining our investment grade credibility to advance financial flexibility to support operations and growth.
We also run our businesses with objectives of financial independence with similar low CapEx profiles and disciplined funding sources, sustained and committed asset growth in Hong Kong under these stable and predictable Scheme of Control to continue our track record of delivering value to shareholders. We applied disciplined and selective investment criteria based on differentiated risk-adjusted returns, which we explained today. Our investment wave continued prioritizing high-return opportunities, focusing capital for the most strategically aligned and financially compelling projects. There will be options around partnerships, capital recycling, and business model optimization like deeply invested in Mainland China for the disciplined capital. At the core of our strategy lies disciplined capital allocation and resilient, diversified portfolio designed to drive consistent revenue growth. As we close, three pillars of our success: clean energy, electrification and decarbonisation, attractive growth markets, and regionally relevant and proven expertise.
Together, we will continue to deliver on this strategy and continue to generate sustained value for shareholders. We are excited about this new phase, and we are committed to execution with discipline and focus to continue our legacy in the energy sector to make a difference. With that, I'll hand over to Marissa for Q&A.
Thank you, T.K. Thank you, Alex. We will now open the line for the Q&A session. For those analysts joining us by Zoom, please use the right-sided icon to ask a question. And for those joining us on the webcast, please submit your questions in the Q&A box on the bottom right-hand side of your screen. So, on to our questions. We have one from Pierre Lau, Citi. Pierre Lau, Citi, go ahead and you can ask the question.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for the time that you asked the questions. And congratulations to your strong set of results in 2024. I'm Tikki, and I have three questions on your plan. The first one is that on your Australian business performance and second one for this year, do you need to execute this initial expectations? Also, what was the key reason for the outperformance in second half of last year? And do you expect your Australian business to improve further in the year leading 2025? Second question is, I recall your previous plan is to scale down your Australian business, but it seems that not to happen this year. Is this really your goal? And is there any strategic change you want to see done? And the third question is from China.
Your presentation materials show you that you aim to double your renewable capacity in China from right now three gigawatts to six gigawatts by 2025, by spending up to RMB 4.5 billion per annum. How will you assess your investment reasonable return for your China renewable project, given that new renewable project or this greenhouse grid project will complete from 1st of June 2025? We will no longer be protected by any FiT volume and pricing. So, how do you continue to do this despite? Also, we see that some provinces of China continue to have some electricity sales prices and one thing that will also how do you continue your investment on this despite? Thank you.
Good question.
Thank you. Yeah. Now, for Australia, so actually starting with the point of view that the bad performance in 2022 was basically the best decision to make at least one of the major outages in network transition during that quite a major period, one-time transfer, and then secondly, the closure project to make it. So over the past two years, actually, we have had the big disciplined measures to update the technical team and also contain costs in general. And at the same time, we also secure the multi-year coal supply cycle and the coal supply cycle. So in terms of the reliable operation of the power stations, there is much in the planning and decision level. So in 2024, in the course of the reliable performance, our generation business basically will have a very good potential result.
Now, going forward, our expected full potential sales would very much depend on the wholesale price level, and in 2024, we do see a slight rise in wholesale price, but going forward, we believe that the wholesale price will remain stable despite making the slight ceiling price to be slightly higher because of the FiT. Now, there are also some other factors that we have had our operational challenges, actually in the second half of last year. As compared with the first half, we do see more intense competition in the retention, so in the second half, actually, the retail business performed worse than in the first half, and we see this more intense competition continue at least in 2025.
And at the same time, there are also some write-off kind of benefits in the EnergyAustralia business, for example, with coal conversion payments which already ended in June last year. So there are different factors factoring in the energy business in Australia. Now, regarding your second question about what I would call the potential partnership in Australia, I think just to give a bit of background, the reason why we look for partnership is mainly because of the fact that as a whole, as a CLP Group, in fact, we have the CapEx that we want to achieve in the next period of five years. So the capital requirement for the climate transition and to reach net zero is very significant.
We want to basically put the capital more in our core markets than for EnergyAustralia as well as particularly in the other partnerships here. We were taught that kind of by CLP company accounts. So for EnergyAustralia, we hope that we can, in order to also fulfill the CapEx in high-price, we may need to find partners. And the form of local partnership varies when we are in the market of different options. It could be a direct project level. For example, if we have a project via investment group, and particularly, for example, the flexible business in Australia, we may look for partners. Or it could be a private partnership. So we are open to a bit of all.
If there are things that we do not see as a good outcome, we try to address them so that we will look for opportunities and requirements.
Typically, what are the reasoning behind why you think that it's going to be a good idea?
To which point, going back to the really good technical analysis, I think the findings from the team lead to impacting the new core planning points going back to the EU. And this gives them potential to finish short-term and really impacting the future in order to really meet the technical demands that we need to meet in the next period of time.
Okay. What is the impact of the new strategy and its goal in the next generation of energy transition? What are the next steps to be able to achieve that?
Yeah. Okay. Now, coming to the third question, about China, so again, you're right. There was a new policy that was introduced in the week before, and now, for the new renewable energy investments, the message could be, for instance, that this year will be subject to this new policy, so that means all the transmission will be under the coal market sales by this year. Now, but at the same time, there is also a similar contract with this company in 2020. We have on top of that 100% of the sales. Now, of course, we only have high level information about the state, but our understanding is that under this 2020, there will be a monetary mechanism which is determined by the auction process.
But that mechanism actually gives the capability to our new developers over several years in order to kind of protect the tariff period. At the same time, the mechanism is more that it will also be determined by our new consultation target with the regional provinces. So more details that I have yet to give you because I would do this measure selectively with green and resiliency and different risk protection to compensate our new developers. And also, at the same time, it requires renewable projects. And our existing projects basically will not be affected. And again, we will look at our existing renewable projects for those subsidized projects. Basically, we can achieve the return that we're targeting for despite some non-receivability of the subsidies. Still ongoing, but overall, still getting the return. We do want to target our investment case.
For the green energy projects that we have invested, actually performance is better than our investment case. We are still confident in the investment in renewable energy as well as the storage projects in China.
Thanks. Okay. We have a question from Stephen Choi, Jason Morgan. Stephen, please unmute yourself and welcome.
Hi, good afternoon, Stephen. Thank you very much. Can you hear me?
Yes, very well.
Thank you. And thank you very much for your documentation. I'm quite impressed with the good results. I just have three questions. The first is about the capacity plan. So the real capacity addition is seen that we target to increase energy and renewable capacity by around 3 gigawatts from 24 to 29, and we plan to expand that for a year. And at the same time, in Australia, we also increase the energy storage and renewable capacity by about a similar amount, with a target of 0.5 GW per year. And what do you mean by sales performance? And how do you think that it depends? That's the first question. The second question is about the dividend policy. And I think the increase in the tariffs by around 5-6% this year is still improving.
At the same time, I see that net benefit also of the volume. So how do we kind of estimate this growth in the next three years? Now, we are already in that period. It seems high, and we see that the metric declines in the next quarter of this year. And the last question is, would you please break down the CapEx by key markets? For example, Hong Kong, the mainland, Australia, and also India and Vietnam. Thank you very much.
Yeah. Thank you, Alex. Maybe I will ask Alex to help answer each of the first questions that the questioner asked, and the last. So maybe we can give an overview of our capital plan. Now, regarding the second question on the capital planning.
So our capital planning basically is to maintain a consistent and growing capital planning as long as it's supported by the underlying business growth. So this year, because of this new economic results, and before until the end, I have no longer planned the business to expand it to increase the capital planning. Now, going forward, actually, when Alex talk about the capital planning, Alex will also talk about the funding strategy. So after all, of course, the funding capacity will be determined by the forecast at the end of this year. But if the underlying business growth is sustainable, we will target to increase the scale by, for instance, the performance metrics and to sustain our target. So maybe I will go to Alex to talk about the capital planning and the company's management.
So the reason for the allocation of the capital planning is to ensure that the capital planning is sufficiently growing with a solid understanding of the grid, and we will be looking to see if we can find a project to increase the growth of the company, then we will be looking to decide that we are focusing only on the capital to improve the growth. We will need to really level up existing capacity to increase the growth of the company over the next 10 years, so the capital that mainly ties with the growth momentum is to increase the growth of the partnership to really understand what is actually the position. In India, we have a significant and advanced company. We want to keep on leveraging our capacity to increase the growth of the company and to give them the capacity to understand what is happening.
This is a given and we will continue to do so. For now, we should also state the difference between the understanding of the Australian generation assets to the Australian government. Actually, today, I will explain, given what the new generation capacity that we want to develop is to keep us in the same position. Now, actually, we're following different strategies. On our side, when we are transmission, generation, renewables, and retail, we will be very competitive in the market here. The capital planning will be ramping up in the projects quite successfully and we could see a growing momentum because we can meet the rising demand. Another occasion where we don't consider the competitiveness momentum is we have to keep on track and maintain the excellent capacity that we have invested. So we explain our capital allocation.
When it comes to funding, our strategy is quite clear. First, we will rely on the strength of the cash generation in order to be able to fund the projects in the future in the next 20 years. Second, it's absolutely crucial to keep all the strategic investment going in order to be able to draw on funding that can create flexibility for future growth. Third, we run our dependable dividends in all four divisions and all four over time. Fourth, we have a very strict capital allocation between our different regions, operations, and commitments to different projects and making sure that we have a balanced return for each project that we invest in and expand it with the underlying capital. This enables us to continue our growth and in order to focus on the capital investment planning.
Regarding the exact question on the dividend policy, I will be able to answer the dividend policy to keep a consistent and reasonable dividends over time, growing the dividend in line with earnings growth as long as we can increase the growth we see the board is likely to increase the dividends by 1.6 times in 2024, so it's the same, and the board will take a decision in due time and in the coming 2025 years.
Thank you, Alex. Of course, then sometimes it can be a long time to have a growth in the next 20% or the next 200%, and hopefully, the people then will make their point on China and Australia. Stephen, anything you can think of?
Yes, I do. Hopefully, AI will be controlled with the risk of data entry into the data center or AI. Now, for data center, it's defined in the protocol. There's no fault. We invested in the data center in 2022. We have about four data centers in the data center by the time of the COVID crisis. But just in last year, we already commissioned three data centers in Hong Kong. So you can see data center growth and data center demand. If you look at the statistic online, overall speaking, in Hong Kong, last year it's 2.1%. But if you just look at data center, capacity increase is 8.6%. And data center now, I manage to account 5% of the total demand in Hong Kong here. So you can see that's still in Hong Kong. So you can see the potential differences between the two.
Now, secondly, our Hong Kong business has already carried out capacity planning in order to increase the return on the risk management and efficiency and to quickly move to that topic, so it's difficult to move forward from government approvals to development to move to that topic, and we will make this required investment in the data center in that region in order to support the capacity development, so that is what we need to focus on. Now, regarding the data center development and maintenance business in Australia, I think AI will become more and more important as we can see activity increasingly more. Now, historically, maybe AI is a game-changing business, so our objective is to help capitalize the gaming sector and go into the gaming sector, but I think one point I want to highlight is that for data center, I support this.
For energy. AI in the operations, they are all looking for gas side. We see this in Hong Kong and mainland China, and also in other parts of the world. I expect with the balance with the growing demand in the US, there will be more and more demand in mainland China. That basically is the grid management strategy. Secondly, in Hong Kong and mainland China, grid management will continue to be very present in the grid in order to work in the grid management within the Hong Kong and mainland China region.
Thank you for that. Question is, how do you plan the investing and running the risk management planning with the data center projects here in Hong Kong? Because question is, how do you think the state of China sees their business in 2024?
No. We're not giving any guidance on the gas management. We're very much confident in that set of facts. I think in terms of the gas management sector in China, it's also pretty keen to see how in different contexts. And we will continue to grow. And now, in particular, I think our vision in the future is to take this forward. We see a reduction in the gains. That may be because the majority of the gas management in Australia are in Tallawarra and in the United States because of the reduction in the margin that is in Tallawarra. So it's very positive. So now, going forward, the proportion of our gas management for the underlying market share will increase. And we do see similar kind of retail growth in 2024. So that's the outlook for the local business and the growth of the gas management.
We see the society obviously increasing at the end of the year. This is the growth that we can see in the U.S. states.
Thank you. Stephen, I'm Jason with the Hankel Gifts Management. I'm not personally Stephen's family.
Thank you very much for this subject to the performance of countries such as the U.S., but we also need to conduct the topic and development plans, and this was done by the Secretary of the U.S. Government of the United States, who is here tonight to gather the capital management. In this manufacturing gifts or our projects one, and the second question is about the gifts specifically we will be making in the gifts management. That will be the optimized value in Australia in order to establish a clean energy spending in Mainland China, and if it's the right value for our country, this is what we do.
Okay. Thank you. Now, maybe I will ask Alex to talk about the clean energy planning for China. Now, for the development. Northern Metropolis, actually in the territorial development plan, there are already projects under proposal in 2022 by the central government to support the Northern Metropolis development. Regarding the specific GW now, two things. The energy of Australia has been decreasing. The first or the kind of important driver of that is the GW with the CSG is the hydro. So we have already completed the refurbished plant. For the board, we have secured the water management to support the hydro for the whole of my pipeline. So the total portfolio in mainland Australia now, I think I would say in a good state and in a strongly upward.
So we started with a good financial performance in terms of the first half and so on. But going forward, we do see, I would say, increasing volatility in the energy market because of the increasing proportion of renewables. Actually, if you look at the pool price in Australia, volatility increased quite a bit over the past years. So our strategy in Australia is to have more power capacity and storage. So we will continue to invest in flexible capacity in which we can then take advantage of the volatility in the market. And for example, we can charge up our batteries in low price period or even negative price period and then discharge in the high price period.
That not only will vary for our investments, but eventually most of the country will also have a modified state of investment management which will also help our existing service assets. So that will basically help us de-risk our traditional investment in the energy sector. At the same time, we'll also our overall performance plan will try to optimize the cost of our cost of service by optimizing so as to improve our retail business particularly. And since our tariffs will also introduce more arbitrage service and more power consumption. So basically, the two parts of the plan: reducing our energy assets using more flexible capacity in the more modified environment, and then optimizing our asset management for the requirements. This is the core topic of asset management strategy.
Regarding our development planning, the main points to mention. The first one is to do with the risk management planning and to continue to use the hydro risks management to ensure the risk management is quite strong and effective. Similar to those two is that the project risks in China have a good quality and the price is in the mid to high range. I think we will be very much inspired by what we see in the regulatory plan for 2022 and the 2023 plan so we are planning in China to stay within the rate profitability to invest in the risk management and potentially continuing the risk management.
So maybe it's a good plan for us to make a decision to make a project with some customer engagement and some of the top prospects or potentially doing clean energy planning and taking advantage of the fact that we see a few of the projects. One of the key components with some of the utility partners, particularly in Australia, on the strategic planning gifts, the project gifts providing those key innovative development, really seeing the ongoing and evolving and improving the gifts management. So we are trying to reach out with the financial instruments in order to provide such a clean and valuable for the project.
That's all I have. One last question from everyone waiting on the line is to see if there's anything else to add to this.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Okay. Thank you.
We have a few extra words that I need to close the conversation with. Thank you for your questions. I have one last question that I was thinking about for our investment in mainland China. For the new builds, how does that happen? And then what is the kind of financial or financing that will be needed from CapEx and also to make the gigs management. And then my second question would be is there any kind of updates about that development? What are the possibilities to make more gigs management over the long term? I mean, what are the expectations? What are the priorities in Hong Kong that we want to get next year? And if we can get next year, then maybe we will be able to move forward from one gig, first gig, next gig, and then the next gig. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
So maybe I'll take the second question and then I'll ask Alex to take the first one for the 2024 investment in China. Now, for power imports from mainland to Hong Kong, given that the climate action plan 2015, I think by the 2020 measures, by 2025, there would be 60%-70% of our generation mix in clean energy. So if you look at that, given that from Hong Kong we don't have any or much renewable low-carbon energy resources. So we expect we have to import low-carbon energy from mainland China in order to fulfill this generation mix planning target. And by low-carbon energy, it's nuclear, renewable energy. Now, we are in discussion with the relevant parties, including Hong Kong government, and also the mainland government in order to move forward about this initiative.
But these kind of cross-border kind of intersection and also the commercial arrangement might take some lengths and might be a bit too fast. But we do not expect because we have not carried out any detailed discussion yet. So we do not have any numbers in terms of the outgoing investment projects. And we do expect in the coming years we will carry out this more detailed design. And we do not expect some of the next actions to be in this plan. In fact, once the design is finalized, I expect the majority to happen in the next year in fact.
AI and energy strategy for the development of various strategies to keep the project in line with its project risks management. We will be expecting a strategy risks management project planning to include the cost of risks management and the risks management strategy.
Next year, we will be expecting it to be completed approximately by 2024. Regarding the strategic risk management planning, the main strategic planning and the one for the first Hong Kong, the strategy is about the management and the goals of the Mainland for China. We will be able to address the specific risk management planning and the future planning and the execution of the strategic risk planning that we have planned which will be an overall plan and a dual plan. I think we can do more than that. I will finish my questions before we proceed to the next one and I think we will be able to obtain the risk management planning by next year.
Thank you. Alex, thank you for the questions. I think we've had a timely and comprehensive briefing. Before I close the briefing, I wanted to announce the winners of our closest estimate competition. The winner of the operating earnings goes to Qingtang from Barclays. Who just started with a coverage of us, they're within 0.1% of the dividend and operating earnings, which is where we are. And then on dividends, congratulations to Stephen Choi. He's won the estimate on the money at HKD 3.15, reflecting all the good questions that we've asked today. So congratulations to both of you and we'll reach out with your prizes soon. So with that, thank you everybody for joining us. If there are any further questions, my team and I will be available after this call.
Other than that, thank you and good luck.