Analysis of the Asset Structure of Hungarian District Heat Suppliers, with Special Regard to the Fixed Assets, Based on the Companies’ 2009-2017 Accounts

Abstract

Nowadays in Hungary, district heating has 677,000 fee payers in 93 settlements, for the provision of which 89 companies are responsible. There are, however, differences in the ownership background, in the technical structure, in the activities carried out by the district heat producers and in the number of the consumers supplied. This paper examines the asset structure of the Hungarian district heat suppliers, with special regard to their fixed asset ratio. The research aims to explore whether the companies’ activities have an effect on their asset structure on the one hand and whether there are any significant differences between some special characteristics (pipeline length, number of fee payers) of the district heat suppliers and the tangible asset ratio. Using the data derived from the accounts of the Hungarian district heat suppliers and from technical and economic data, information from nine years (2009-2017) were analyzed.

Challenges of the sustainability of Hungarian district heat suppliers : Specificities of the replacement of assets in the district heat sector

“…It is worth noting that when the reports separated from accounting point of view are examined, which more accurately describe the asset structure required for district heating, the values are a few percentage points lower in the examined years. However, this does not affect the finding that the most valuable part of the companies' assets is infrastructure necessary to provide the service [15]. Accordingly, their replacement and preventing any disruption of operations require important resources and responsible management [16].…”