Two listed offshoots of China's largest transport group faced suspension from mainland stock exchanges if they posted further losses, the chairman of Sinotrans Ltd said yesterday.
Zhao Huxiang said Nanjing Tanker would be suspended from the Shanghai stock exchange this year if it reported a net loss for 2012, which would be its third consecutive negative result.
CSC Phoenix faces similar action by the Shenzhen bourse if it posts a net loss next year. The firms will be delisted if the losses continue for a fourth year.
Zhao said a profit warning had been issued for Nanjing Tanker but the firm's 2012 annual results had not been released.
He said the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Shanghai stock exchange and the Sinotrans&CSC group were all "concerned" about the situation facing Nanjing Tanker and talks were taking place regarding the situation.
"I am under a lot of pressure. There are delisting pressures and we are studying the problems internally," Zhao said, adding the group would take responsibility for the impact on small shareholders.
Turning to dry bulker operator CSC Phoenix, Zhao said "there is still some room" for operations to improve, but there were no consolidation plans.
He was commenting after Sinotrans Ltd, the Hong Kong-listed freight forwarding, ship agency, warehousing, trucking and shipping subsidiary of Sinotrans&CSC, reported a 1 per cent rise in net profit to 649.1 million yuan (HK$801.66 million) last year from 2011.
Revenue climbed 8.5 per cent 47.48 billion yuan.
Asked about the impact of the new Beijing leadership, Zhao said exports and imports grew better than expected in the first two months of this year and the economy "seems to be improving". He added: "We are seeing double-digit growth for the logistics business."
Zhao also said the company had talked to the central government about help for the shipping sector.
"We would like to see the government come up with beneficial policies," he said.
Separately, China Shipping Development saw net profit drop 93.1 per cent to 73.74 million yuan. The firm, which operates dry cargo ships and oil tankers, only remained profitable as a result of a 469.14 million yuan one-off tax gain. The firm's pre-tax loss was 331.37 million yuan, fuelled by a 220.3 million yuan loss from its tanker business, while dry bulk posted a 21.7 million yuan pre-tax profit.
Revenue dropped 9.1 per cent to 11.05 billion yuan in 2012.