Thank you for the 2022 annual results announcement, ENN Energy Holdings Limited. Welcome. First of all, I would like to introduce to you the company's management on the stage. Mr. Zheng Hongtao, Executive Director and Executive Chairman. Ms. Wu Xiaojing, Executive Director and CEO. Mr. Liu Jianfeng Andrew, Executive Director and President. Chief Financial Controller, Ms. Mu Nini . It's been a very complex year and I am the convener for today's meeting. It's been a very complex year. The company, despite severity and uncertainty and complexity in the environment, our company has withstood the severe challenges and demonstrated resilience and flexibility, achieving double-digit growth in core profit. Continue to transform and upgrade our operations to further strengthen our foundation for long-term growth. Mr. Liu will go through the performance of the company for you.
Welcome shareholders and friends. Welcome to the 2022 annual results announcements of ENN Energy Holdings. Every year at our presentation, I say I would want to see you next time in Hong Kong face-to-face. It has come to pass today, and in the past three years we have been online. As we go offline now, face-to-face now, it was yesterday, the PPT that we have uploaded onto the website. What we will do now is to go through very quickly the presentation materials. In the past three years, we have been working very closely together as a team, but we have not been able to meet you face-to-face, and we're very happy about this very good opportunity.
In the past year, we have continued to grow in a number of areas, and I would like to share with you some figures here. We have been growing rapidly. For revenue of IE business, it had increased 40.3% to RMB 10.95 billion. Retail gas sales volume increased 2.7% to 25 billion cubic meters. Installed daily capacity for CI customers expanded scale of gas volume. We acquired 62 new projects with 2 million new residential customers. Gross profit of value-added business increased 20%, core profit increased 11.3%, and free cash flow reached RMB 2.37 billion. Total dividends amounted to HKD 2.91 per share. Payout ratio was increased to 37%.
Now, I've always said that safety management and operation is the foundation of our business. In this regard, we have continued to replace our old pipelines. In this regard, in ENN 2020, we have already, ahead of government requirements, already met the government's requirements in enhancing our safety and also replacing our old pipeline networks with renovation and garnering widespread recognition for our safety inspections, including in Shijiazhuang, Qingdao, and a number of areas. Our 58 member companies in these regions and more received government recognitions. At the same time, for our intelligent safety management system, with the safety awareness and capabilities and adaptation of digital intelligence technologies, we upgraded our digital intelligent safety management level for solid safety operations with five major business scenarios, 108 sub-scenarios, 86 intelligent technologies, 182 established standards.
Over the years, we have continued to build our intelligent operations center, which had also raised our safety as well. We have a video here. You can go on our website and open it and look at the overview. In particular, you're able to see our safety measures and our scaffold measures and also personal protective equipment, et cetera. For our ESG advancement for sustainable development, we continue to be steadfast in this area. We have also received an ESG upgrading from MSCI to double A. For ESG, it is already a strategic planning part of our company, and it is a basic consideration of ours. In the past years, we have continued to step up with our ESG measures, and in the future, this will further help our sustainable development and our transformation.
I will look at our results. In particular, I'll be looking at the IE business, natural gas, and also smart homes. For IE business performance. We provide customers with low carbon, zero carbon energy solutions that are driven by needs and also for local conditions, prioritizing the use of renewables. For our revenue, it has risen 40.3% to RMB 10,951 million. Gross profit increased 14%. Gross profit margin had a slight drop of 3.3%. Development of the IE business, with dual carbon policy as transition corporate demand from high to low and eventually zero carbon. As the economy evolves, the demand also covers production safety and intelligent manufacturing. This continues.
In 2020, according to gas estimates from all areas, it will be peaking at about 600 billion cubic meters, and by 2030, it will reach 20%, and it will be 80% by 2060. That is for renewables. It's the proportion expected to continue to increase. For ESG and low carbon conservations, for each of our enterprises, it has become the main targets for our operation. We're spearheading socioeconomic trends for green and clean energy. Overall speaking, for our customer scale, we have been growing as well. We continue to have over 220,000 CI gas customers, as well as 1 million non-gas CI customers within our concession areas, and we can continue to grow our IE business in this area, so as to have a.
In that sense, we have a very good customer base to develop our IE and other businesses. For IE business, we have multiple products for speedy business development, and we have a number of areas from energy to carbon and safety. We are, in terms of advantages, we are modular, detachable, composable, and extensible. At the same time, for expected revenue generated by electricity business in 2023 will be over RMB 2.2 billion, which is five times growth from the revenue generated by electricity business in 2022, which was RMB 419 million. That's five times growth. For IE business, because we have a number of products, and therefore we have four major areas in low carbon industrial parks or carbon factories, buildings and transportations.
We have vast business opportunities with annual energy consumption of contracted customers exceeding 18 billion kWh in 2022. It is based on our four scenarios, developing nine city-level projects, and also our IE opportunities with contracted volume of 18 billion kWh. We've shortened our project conversion cycle from 12 months to six months, and business opportunity conversion rate exceeds 50%. Now, for typical IE project, page 11, this is our Beijing Daxing International Airport Economic Zone and our Jiangsu Zhonghui Food Industrial Park. For the former, we have comprehensive energy saved of 30% and percentage of clean energy used 100%, transportation excluded. For the latter project, Jiangsu, the comprehensive energy saved is 35%. Comprehensive energy and energy efficiency, 90% clean energy used is 97%.
Next, natural gas business. Because of economic downturn, residential gas volume grew rather steadily, while C&I gas volume slowed down due to the pandemic. Basically, because of cost increasing and the pass-through slowing in certain areas, therefore, there had been a gross profit margin decrease due to these reasons. It was at negative 1.8% for gross profit margin. In 2023, we believe our financial performance, operating performance will pick up. For residential connections, it slowed down due to the weak real estate market and pandemic situation. Revenue dropped 26.4%, gross profit 33.9% drop, and gross profit margin dropped by 5.6% because of staff cost and material cost increase.
For 2023, because of recovery of the economy and also with lifting of travel bans, this will certainly pick up. For our increasing customers, in customer scale, it had grown 10.9% accumulated number of CI customers to 224,462, and residential households grew by 8.1%. Natural gas business. Stable residential gas supply. We continue to increase our customer understanding and response measures, thereby providing customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction had been rising without subsidies as well. We continue to increase the residential gas supply business. Next, for innovative service to meet CI users' demands. The dollar margin had increased, and we continue to create value by discovering new demands.
For natural gas business, because of the scarce and overall supply situation, we continue to leverage on our three oils relationship and also unconventional and other gas sources. We have been able to achieve, from unconventional sources, 3 million cubic meters of resource per day. At the same time, we were able to have a stable and also secure supply for natural gas. We are always looking for new opportunities in expanding our operating regions. So in IE and also in city gas areas, we look for synergy. We have 62 new projects at the end of the 2022 year. We have 210 IE projects and 254 city gas projects.
We will continue to pay attention to IE project development, city gas project M&A, and facility layout in 2023 to further develop our foundation for stronger future growth. For value-added business, we continue to promote our targeted quality to increase value creation per household and penetration rate. Also we provide value creation per household. We continue to increase our penetration. Our new customers with rising penetration is 27.2%. Existing customers is 10.1%. Our rapid growth of gross profit driven by enhanced profitability is 20.6% growth. ARPU was 99, increased to RMB 118 this year.
For our value-added business satisfying quality livelihood side, we continue to understand and address our full cycle needs of the customers, we have multi-scenario, full cycle, wide contact, and in-depth one-stop service to raise the interactions and also service frequency of our customers and to increase their satisfaction levels. For value-added business safety-related service opportunities, we provide safe kitchen, smart home, and other solutions to improve penetration rate and create service opportunities of existing customers. From safe kitchen to smart home, further to smart community, we continue to excavate our customer base. Next, I will be looking at the financial overview and in particular CapEx and also liquidity. For our growth, amidst the adversity, our revenue has been an increase of 18.19%. Gross profit was 12.09% growth. Core profit, 11.3% growth.
For financial management, even though for the past year it had been a very difficult year financially, we have been prudent in our financial management. AR and turnover day had lowered and our net gearing and net debt had lowered as well. At the same time, we have issued a $550 million 5-year green senior notes to replace our short-term loans and continue to optimize our debt structure. We have stable increase in EBITDA, demonstrated the company's profitability and a rising core profit over past years with a rising DPS. For CapEx and cash flow, for our core business, development and growth, coupled with prudent financial management, we continue to generate positive free cash flow.
It was CapEx of RMB 7,521 million and free cash flow RMB 2,365 million, and operating cash flow for 2022 was RMB 10,102. For 2023, CapEx might increase if we have business opportunities, and we'll continue to scout for them. We have ample financial resources and liquidity, and we have a very rich and diverse financial sources with ensured continuous business expansion capability with low financing costs. The average financing cost was 3.72% with a very good, healthy credit rating situation. RMB on hand is RMB 23.156 billion, being cash on hand and unutilized credit facilities. For our development strategy, consume, opportunities and challenges coexist.
Among customers' resources and policies uncertainties, we are well positioned to capitalize on opportunities by maintaining clear development focuses. In IE business, we continue to increase our green and low carbon demands for SME customers. For natural gas business, we deepen our city gas reform and bring coordinated resources with dual carbon policy, providing urbanization boost, city gas growth. From these sources, we continue to through our facilities, in improvement, we continue to use connectivity and also IT to maximize our customer value, and we tailor the best solutions based on individual building unit conditions, industrial park location, and wider city context for them. We have with our growing customer demand, we drive diverse product development, leading to emergence of more value creation scenarios. We will have more green, low carbon, energy plans for our customers.
For our natural gas business, we continue to develop and by understanding, addressing collective customer demands. We will continue to leverage on our three oils, and at the same time, look for new sources of gas. Let me further adjust our customer distribution and consider M&A where appropriate and acquire quality resources for long-term growth, and establish pipeline connections between regions and corporations to maintain and manage peak and value demands. For development plan for our value-added business, we continue to develop our smart home strategic vision. We continue to give a full range of innovative services in green, safe, intelligent, and warm, high-quality family provision, to provide all-round family provision for our value-added business. Lastly, in 2023, this is our guidance. For our new business, we are developing rapidly.
Overall, with the economy recovering and our further development as a corporation, we step up with our overall targets. For IE business revenue, it would be over 40% growth. For retail gas sales volume, over 10%. Dollar margin will be going back to RMB 0.5 per cubic meter. For new CI development, it will be over 20 million cubic meters per day. New residential development would be 1.8 million-2 million. New projects, including city gas and IE projects, there'll be 50+ projects. VAS gross profit, it will be over approximately 30%. Our core profit guidance is to achieve over 10% growth.
With challenges and opportunities abounding and reviewing the past three years, our core profits being over 10%, we believe that we are fully confident to be able to reach our targets and guidance levels. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the presentation. Our Q&A. First of all, those who are on-site. Then we will be answering questions online. The first question, please, we will go one by one.
Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. Daiwa, Dennis Ip . Three questions for you. First question concerning the dividend growth. It was only 7.8 in Hong Kong dollar terms, but at the same time was 11.3% in our profit growth. How do we see our dividend ratio going forward? Next question concerning our JCE and also joint ventures.
Their results are not ideal in the second half of the year. They are all decreasing year-over-year. How do we see 2023, please? The third question concerning our LNG business, the LNG trading business. In 2022, there was a RMB 2 billion profit from this. How do we see 2023 profitability, please?
Thank you, Dennis. Mr. Feng will answer the first two questions and Mr. Cheung will answer the last question.
7.8% DPS growth, it is because of currency reason. It is RMB base, and dividend is in Hong Kong dollars because dividend is paid in Hong Kong dollars. The fluctuation in currency exchange have been great in the last year and, therefore, the difference.
Our DPS increase stems from our core profits, one, that has been growing over 10%. Secondly, our dividend ratio will continue to increase. It was 35% last year. Every year we have 1%-2% growth in terms of dividend ratio. Overall, DPS should be rising. In our PPT, there is a page concerning this. From 2018, our DPS growth had been over above our core profit growth. This is exactly what I'm talking about. For our joint venture business and for our investors, you're very concerned about their performance. For the different companies, it is a situation where their performance is not ideal.
It is true for JCE and our joint venture business, for our efficiency in certain companies, it is lagging behind our overall operations, and this is because of our execution power and therefore just strike down our profits. Our main two JVs this year, the pass-through had been increased, and we believe that this year there will be improvements for their performance in the year 2023.
Thank you, Dennis, for your LNG trading question. For international LNG this year, able to see it is different from last year significantly because the growth for price, there had been major decrease. It is a plus in a certain way because it increases our import LNG opportunity.
The company had always prioritized satisfaction of onshore LNG demand, and then from our optimization of our market inside and outside of the domestic market to create value. This is domestic as well as external. It is RMB 1.5 billion. That's our target.
Would you please introduce yourself before you ask your question?
First of all, IE business. I'd like to know for city gas and IE business, what is the overlap for IE business? What are some of the challenges, and what is the profitability and future growth for IE business, please? Second question concerning CapEx. I would like to know for 2023 CapEx, what are the major areas of allocation in the next two to three years? How do you see CapEx? Will it come down or will it grow? Third question about Alibaba, and 803 direct gas sales.
What are some of the overlaps and what are some of the differences?
Thank you, Mr. Huang, for the questions. Yes. Mr. Liu will answer the first two questions.
First of all, the IE business customers overlap with city gas. It is about 60%-70%, especially for corporation. That's the first question. Secondly, challenges. There are two areas of challenges. First of all, I've always been saying IE business had been growing rapidly. Our teams and our project managers, the training is lagging, so they cannot completely satisfy and therefore it is a bottleneck. We have to step that up. Because we have in city gas, we have already 20 years of business, we have modularity. For IE business, because it is a different business, the project managers need to have very high standards.
This is a bottleneck and we will continue to increase our training and also for IE business training and stepping up our staff capability, we will be increasing that. As mentioned, for growth margin, it is 20%. In the past, it had been at 18% or 15%, in the future it will be around 15%. This is, I think, healthy because IE business is a foundational business, profitability will have to be related to the sustainability of the customers. As for our CapEx, the size and our structure will not change. It had been 80%-90% RMB, 50% had been in pipeline and also in city gas and also in investment in IE as well, M&A projects.
In the future few years, basically the structure will be the same. As mentioned just now, for this year, because of the recovery of the economy, there are investment opportunities, so in new projects and new energy there may be some major investments. Overall, the structure and our financing costs completely can sustain this kind of CapEx for us.
Thank you for the question. Concerning wholesale and direct sales of gas, before I answer this question, I will first of all want to clarify the two companies, 600803 and 2688, the difference between them. For 2688, we have 30 million customers, household customers. Mr. Jiang had already mentioned in our parks where they are not connected, there are still a lot of customers which are not connected.
For C&I, we have 1 million customers, C&I customers, which are not connected yet. At the same time, we have very long pipelines. These are infrastructure. They are over 100,000 km long. These are the households, C&I, and also pipeline. These are the three major areas in the future. 2688 will base on these to provide connectivity and also products. The industrial companies, C&I, and also households, we have different products and this is a major prong of development. This is our major development area. For 803, it is different. It is natural gas and smart operation. It includes the complete stream: up, mid, and lower stream. In terms of industrial positioning, these two are different.
Coming back to your question, Mr. Huang, for 2688, for our wholesale gas business, for our city gas and the surrounding city gas business and also LNG trading, these are our major areas of development and business. It is a utility company. It is a city utility and gas company. That's our positioning. The risk is controllable. That is our preference, controllable risk. As for 803, it is more positioned on the Zhoushan LNG station and linking up the overseas market, domestic market. Apart from satisfying 2688 customers' demands, but also outside of the operation areas of 2688, we want to satisfy those customers as well. We import the gas and go to the station and then transport to the major clients. They are different in terms of positioning.
803 is really development of the market with the resources that we're able to obtain.
Thank you, Mr. Cheung. We have sufficient time. We will have Evan Li next.
HSBC, Evan Li. Two questions. Can you share with us last year, 2022, for LNG imports, long-term contract costs compared to domestic pipeline gas from the east. The cost of gas from the east, for instance, what is the comparison between the two? For LNG import cost, what is the exact number for that, please? Secondly, second question, concerning IE business for last year because of fluctuation in the tariff for the, w as there any change to the contracts? For the IRR of projects, are there any changes, please?
These are finance questions. Ms. Mu.
Thank you for the questions. The domestic price for natural gas, it is very complicated. There are the three barrels, the three oils, first of all. There are different prices among them. They are changing all the time. Also incremental LNG and also non-conventional sources. It's very complex, therefore. As a concept, I can tell you last year, for the different costs, our long-term tariff, and no, this is not the LNG comparison, but the incremental part, it was 4 million- 8 million per cubic meters lowering. Second question you asked concerning IE business and our market. Last year, for tariff fluctuation, it was an opportunity for us in two regards. First of all, for service of electricity, we have been based on photovoltaic and new energy, mostly, as you know.
That had been the support and where the electricity had been stringent, the price had been higher. The tariff fluctuation for new energy electricity supply, it is actually a support. Secondly, as mentioned, we have our photovoltaic and also our storage of energy and also new energy. We continue to build on that. We are not going to use a grid tariff, rather as our indication, but rather our sustainable price areas. The terminal tariffs will be more imbalanced in the future. I think that for our user side, for our user side, there will be more room for our tariffs growth.
Morning, Stanley, Simon. First of all, IE business. Just now, Mr. Liu had mentioned the gross profit is 14%. IE is a heavy asset business, what is our net margin, please?
Secondly, over the weekend, SunEdison had a price increase of 15% announcement. Price increase is higher than expected. The Reform Commission had been approached concerning pass-through policies. My thinking is the pass-through policy seems like very urgent now. That's my reading. First of all, for pass-through, what is the timing for the introduction of that? Secondly, why are we confident that the pass-through measure will be coming to fruition, please? Also, Mr. Cheung mentioned LNG is $1.5 billion in terms of gross profit. I would like to know for the incremental gas, what is the contribution of that?
Last year for LNG, as well as you know, was not normal because the destination cost was abandoned by the seller. I do not know. Or supplier. I do not know whether the supplier will have this agreement this year.
I'll answer the IE question and Mr. Wu will answer the second question and Mr. Cheung. IE, in our gross profit, we have already minus the amortization and so for IE business, it is not asset-heavy. In the past two years, you see it is only RMB 1 billion-plus, but on the IE in terms of investment. IE revenue growth has grown by 40%, so it's not asset-heavy. On the other hand, we have been investing in new energy, such as PVs, and in the future, we want there to be a balance. As we invest, at the same time, in the electricity supply where there is no users' revenue, where there are no customers, where there are no demand, we will not be investing.
We cannot basically just invest and then provide the electricity and not be able to get the demand and the returns.
Second question, just now it's been mentioned that the Reform Commission and the relevant parties are discussing with the three oils, three big oils and the government and also with city gas to look for solutions. For the different local Reform Commissions, their opinions are clear. Because of epidemic situation and last year's situation, in 2022, it was a surprising year. Gradually, we are coming to a normalcy in the market, including for the three oils. The pass-through is progressing well. Hunan, Zhejiang are already moving. In Hunan, by the end of this month, it will start. For all our cities, there will be a better example set for pass-through.
Thank you for the question. Just now, I would want to supplement on Mr. Wu's question. For reforms of natural gas in China, it follows the solution of a certain problem. A lot of reforms, why they were introduced was because of an accumulation of a number of solutions that was targeting a certain problem. That's the first thing. Secondly, for the last year, LNG market internationally had been unprecedented in the past 30, 50 years. It had grown so significantly, LNG price. It's not happened ever before. For now, the LNG price compared to oil price is still 18%, and this is still not normal. It will come back to normal. That's a historical principle. It will come back to normalcy. We are already seeing that prices are coming down to $12.5-$13 per unit.
That's already falling significantly. I think it is still coming back to normalcy for LNG price. That's the background for you. Secondly, you probably will be able to understand for international LNG price, if it continues to lower, and it will, long-term contract for 2688 and spot price will continue to optimize. This is related to the gross margin for 2688. As LNG international price lowers, the three oils and also ourselves will be able to optimize our price. For the users, because our sale price is already raised to a certain level, as our cost lowers, our gross margin will increase. It is a seesaw relationship. Just now, you mentioned that for international LNG trading profits, it is actually dynamic.
I have to say it is at $15, or so, $1.5 billion or so, because sometimes we will optimize our domestic and international resources, sometimes we'll increase our ex imports, so it is dynamic. If it's at $10 or $9, we will be importing hugely from outside, of course, and otherwise we will have some optimization in our resources. As for LNG long contracts and the terms of that, you know that for 2688, it is China as the arrival spot. In the past two years, we think that we already have certain resources optimization conditions. I can only say that. As we can, we will optimize, but as we optimize, it is to satisfy our domestic demand, LNG demands.
There is, of course, some costs related to it, but it is a domestic and international market and resources balancing situation. That's all I can say at this point.
JPMorgan, Stephen. First question concerning the source of gas. Can you talk about that? Give us a target, because we see that there is a growth. What is the situation? Second, concerning connection target. It is 1.8 million-2 million if we look at last year. For new connection, it was 1.6 million. Reaching this new target, is there a split, old households and new residential buildings, et cetera? In the second half of the year, we see that our gross margin had decreased. Why is that? What about our this year's gross margin, especially for our ENN value-added business?
Thank you for your questions. First of all, for our structure, for the three oils, it was 80% and from 5% LNG and 15 from others. Because the three oils, it's just been announced. Coming to the different provinces, it has not been clear yet. For final pack, the policies for the different provinces, CNOOC has not made it clear as well. We continue to increase our three major oils part. LNG is 5% now and 15% for unconventional other gas sources. On the other hand, the three major oils had not been cleared yet on their policies. For international LNG, if there are advantages, we will be increasing our international LNG imports. At present, sorry, I'm not able to give you a very clear outline.
Overall speaking, there are few confident sources. One, over the past many years, ENN had always demonstrated that in the industry we have been good, exemplary in resources optimization. Secondly, we are confident on the basis of the three major oils because we have long-term, very excellent comprehensive relationship in IE, et cetera, and of course in natural gas as well. Also in stations, we have comprehensive cooperative relations, so we have a relatively optimal structure for our resource. For 1.8 million-2 million connections in our new residential buildings, in the next year it is 1.5 million-1.75 million. It depends on the property market in the next year to fulfill our expectations. For old customers, connectivity last year, because of the epidemic, it was low.
Old, it was customers connectivity, it was lower. In this year we will have new room for connectivity development. We think that 1.8 million- 2 million is reachable. Third question concerning value-added business, gross margin, 73%-66%, there was a drop of last year. It is because in the previous there were some accounting differences because of certain sales of ours before. Last year there were transport problems because of the epidemic. For some of the brand names, sales, they had been affected, and it was 5%-15% in contribution. Our own self-owned brands, it was 35% or so. On the because of accounting reasons, it seems that the gross margin had fallen for value-added business.
I don't want to give you a guidance, because if you look at for value-added business, it is very complex in terms of its makeup. For 2023, if we increase our 2C business, our gross margin will increase significantly. If it is wholesale, then our gross margin will be lower. There is a overall gross margin in terms of volume increase. That is important. It's, the rates will fluctuate. First of all, on LNG, RMB 150 million. If you look at LNG trading or wholesale, you will not have a valuation. On the other hand, if you look upon it as retail gas, then it becomes part of your cost. Last year it was all put into retail gas.
For this year, in this 150 million, how do you think that will grow for this year? Secondly, for contracted gas, especially for our contract with the three oils, perhaps it is in July of this year that there will be a contract signed. What do you think about the timing of the contract? Will there be a certain % fluctuations from that? Thirdly, Hunan situation, we understand that. It is special in the sense that the tariffs increase, it is up or down, the fluctuation, up is capped, but the tariff down is not floored, is not limited. How do you see this impacting our gross margin rate in the future? First of all, it is true that the business of our company and the capital markets analysis of our business, it is relevant.
In our last year's performance, it is our gas business, and it follows the gas logic of business. It is true that in past two to three years, for our 803 or 2688, there have been some changes. Five years ago, for example, there had not been other gas companies. The few companies that are in existence, that they are building new facilities. I think that our analysts in the capital markets have not been able to fully appreciate. I think in the future, your analysis angle will be changing and adjusting. Extending from that, for the dollar margin, wholesale and domestic LNG, it is related.
On the other hand, it will not significantly fluctuate, but it will definitely affect our domestic supply, and the tariff may increase. In the future, ENN and our major peers, the profitability would definitely include dollar margin consideration. Also because of our integration of gas sources, there will be fluctuations for that. I think ENN can realize an over-market expectation or value. Contracted volume for gas, actually, that question had been answered. We are waiting for our upstream contracts to be signed. We're chasing, but I don't think it will be last year's situation when the signing was in July. It was because of last year's problems. As early as February or March, the government had already participated in the adjustment of tariff structure in, for gas. That had been the situation.
It is in keeping with the long-term development of the industry. Better to earlier to sign the contracts, earlier to determine the terms of the contract, the contracts will be bigger. For the mechanism, the connected mechanism, the Hunan situation is imbalanced. If you look at the adjustment of tariff mechanisms, they are not balanced, because up there is a ceiling, but down there is no exact floor. This is true for all industries which protect the consumer. It is true for aviation, it's true for water as well. It's not peculiar to our industry.
Greetings to you. Greetings, Citi, Lau. The core margin growth indication is 10%, but LNG profits will drop to 15% from 20%. Retail gas sales will be 10% as well.
For the other, it would be for retail gas, it is about 10%, and connectivity has not increased. IE business is growing significantly, but that's just a small proportion. I do not know how you're able to grow 10% for core profits. Second question. Last year, fourth quarter, retail sales for gas is lower than your year-over-year. Your retail sales for gas have been higher than the peers. What happened last year, may I ask? Third question. Sinopec had already announced the, this year's, sale plans. For this area, for some of the residential and non-residential growth, what do you think about our cost for gas going forward?
The five mile dollar margin, is it in keeping with the five mile dollar margin that you had given out as projection? For our core profit guidance, for our LNG-related wholesale profit, if it decreases, there will be a gap. Well, for our dollar margin from RMB 0.02, it is already a 10% growth. For connection, there is another gap. At the same time, our value-added business and IE business are over 30% and 40% growth respectively. That would definitely be able to sustain our 10% core core margin growth. For our IE business and natural gas business, we continue to raise these. We have M&A projects as well and new projects, and these will all support our core margin.
Second question, for the fourth quarter gas volume, it was a decrease, it's true. We don't want to talk about why. There was a lot of uncertainties. A lot of cities were not normal in their operation, the industrial parks have actually closed operation. After March of last year, with the measures, there had been overall difficulty in operation last year. It was an abnormal gas situation. This year, compared to last year, the situation had already disappeared. The economy will be recovering. On the other hand, for industry, regions, and the pace of recovery will be unbalanced. Overall, 10% growth, we are confident. In the future, some of the targets, et cetera, we will be following them closely and monitoring them closely.
For the three oils, the policy and the adjustment of the peaks and also the overall gas signing will not be lower than last year. Macro overall speaking, I think it is good for our pricing for households. Also for non-residential, it is also good for us. For the three oils and the one that has come up already, that is an indication. As the other two come up with their policies as well for this year, I think it will be overall a positive. Online, Haitong and Dingfeng, their questions have already been answered. CapEx and also financing. How about financing? 2023 financing questions. Any further green bond issuance, please? In the past few years, we have been stable in our financing.
In 2023, on the basis of 2020 through the U.S. dollar, $550 million green bond floated. This year will have domestic floatings. This is a matter of balance. Domestic rates is much lower than international interest rates. Connection. Can you talk more deeply about connection? Are we too conservative for 1.8 million or 2 million new households? Well, actually, this is our indication. Every year, about 2 million connections. Of course, if we can, we will be putting more efforts and increasing that. Also, for new residentials, we have put in more room for new customers or new households connection. The revenue and profit will be received faster for that source.
We will be putting in more teams to target the old households, the original households, in as a next phase. Overall, it will not be lower than 1.8 million, and 2 million is our target. That is the connection. Also, the economy will be picking up as well. Where there is a possibility, we will even exceed 2 million as a target. The government is also stepping up with the reform of old communities and old residential areas. This is also a positive for us. A question on ESG, if I may answer that question. Linda Assets is asking if the company can talk about lowering of emissions arrangements and the dual carbon goals of the country. Well, actually, we are already assessing the.
There is an 8% increase of carbon lowering for the company. In response to the coal dual targets, we already have announced a green target. This year, we will have our green household, green gas, greenhouse gas lowering target, and we will be disclosing ESG standards as well. In this sense, we are following closely the government's dual carbon targets and the green policy.
Stephen, I have a couple of questions. First of all, it is 10% increase for gas this year. That is conservative because last year's phase was low. Do you have a split onto residential and C&I? This year, it is coming back to normalcy. Why is it so conservative? Secondly, for our value-added business, for sales, it is RMB 200 million for sales on our integrated. Because electricity ASP, it should be higher. How would this impact our or increase our gross profit margin, please?
For the first question, for the guidance of 10%. First of all, we are usually conservative. We've always been relatively prudent in the guidance that we give. As a company, we are so. We are very proactive in terms of making our profits, on the other hand, in coming up with projections, this is prudent. As natural gas comes back after the economy comes to normalcy, we expect that, but there are uncertainties in the industries and also the corporations, their operation. We see that there may be a lot of data coming out from the local governments, et cetera. The macro data is that the GDP is about 5% for the country.
If natural gas is 10%, it will be double that of GDP, and that is already a very good growth rate already. That's for macro. For our electricity, sales of electricity, it is a main area in our electricity strategy, but that's only one part. From our customer demands, our service to them, and also providing integrated solution to them, that is what we are focused on. Just selling electricity will not be able to make it alone. Supplementing former answer, this year, please pay attention, our value-added business is now changed to another name, and it is in Chinese, Zhìjiā. This is about our reform, and it is value-adding business. Whether it is our traditional business, natural gas, et cetera, we are all enhancing these businesses, all the businesses that we have.
I think this is a new iteration of our business across the board. You're still looking into our operating results, et cetera. We thank you for that. On the other hand, there is already a change to our logic of operation. 10 years ago, when we talk about IE for ENN, people were not familiar with this, but now everybody is familiar with it. A few years ago, when we started with long-term contract LNG, people did not understand it or did not focus on it. That was a difficult period in 2020. At the time, our dollar margin was higher. What we have been doing has been elevating ourselves. I really would want to urge you to understand us, to see how we have been coming up with new iterations.
Compared to the peers, the reason why we are better is because we have always been in the forefront of the industry and the market. Now, because of time, we will end our meeting here. Thank you everybody for your being here and also thank you for your long-term trust and support for the company. If you have further questions, please approach the IR team of the company. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for coming.