Income at China State Construction up 34pc
Hong Kong-listed builder China State Construction International Holdings posted a 34 per cent rise in first-half profit on the back of more contracts in Macau and Dubai.
Net profit for the six months to June increased to HK$115.67 million from HK$86.61 million in the same period last year. Sales grew 6.88 per cent to HK$5.2 billion.
The firm declared a dividend of nine Hong Kong cents per share.
Sales in Macau rose 66 per cent to HK$1.35 billion while sales in Dubai jumped 334 per cent to HK$907 million. Those markets more than offset the 28 per cent decline in Hong Kong sales to HK$2.62 billion.
Increased sales in Macau and Dubai also lifted the company's gross profit margin by 1.2 percentage points to 4.7 per cent in the first half, financial controller Thomas Zhou Hancheng said.
The gross profit margin for contracts in Macau was 6.7 per cent while that in Dubai was 5.3 per cent, compared with 3.8 per cent in Hong Kong, Mr Zhou said.
Vice-chairman and chief executive Sammy Zhou Yong said the company expected at least HK$20 billion worth of new contracts each year in the next five years in Macau, while contracts in Dubai over the next five years were projected to total HK$700 billion.
Mr Zhou said the company would also tap the mainland market with the aim of generating 20 per cent of its revenue there by 2010.
Last month, China State Construction revealed plans to acquire assets from its parent company, including a construction firm in Shenzhen and construction insurance services operations for HK$520 million.
As at the end of June, the company had 74 projects on hand with an attributable value of HK$35.3 billion. These included HK$9.18 billion worth of new contracts it secured in the first half.
