Hutchison Whampoa, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's telecom-to-port conglomerate, posted on Thursday a record year-on-year increase of 632 percent in net profit in the first half of 2011, though the result was not as good as analysts had expected.
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing attends a news conference to announce his company's interim results in Hong Kong August 4, 2011. Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's flagship ports-to-telecommunications company, reported a more than sevenfold rise in first-half net profit, helped by a hefty one-off gain from the spin-off of its port assets.
HONG KONG -- Hutchison Whampoa, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's telecom-to-port conglomerate, posted on Thursday a record year-on-year increase of 632 percent in net profit in the first half of 2011, though the result was not as good as analysts had expected.
The international corporation saw a net profit of 46.30 billion HK dollars (about $5.94 billion ) in the half-year result, while the anticipation were between 49.8 billion and 54 billion HK dollars.
3 Group, the mobile phone subsidiary, recovered from poor performance in the same period last year. Its EBIT (earnings before interests, taxes) stood at 767 million HK dollars, a 177 percent turnaround from the comparable LBIT (loss before interests, taxes) in 2010.
The board of Hutchison Whampoa also declared the first increase in interim dividend in 11 years, with the payment being 0.55 HK dollars per share, up 7.8 percent.
In the filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Chairman Li said economic conditions remained volatile in the first half, but the group's five core businesses have delivered good underlying operating results during the period.
"The group's balance sheet and liquidity were significantly strengthened in the first half as a result of the Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust) IPO and strong cash inflows across the group's businesses."
He said he remained confident in the outlook and development in the second half.
Also on Thursday, Cheung Kong Holdings, the real estate company controlled by Li and the largest shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa, announced first half earning.
The developer's net profit in the first half of 2011 jumped 169 percent from a year ago to 33.26 billion HK dollars.
It was expected to be between 32 billion and 35 billion HK dollars.
Profit before share of results of the Hutchison Whampoa was 10.13billion HK dollars, a rise of 10 percent over the same period last year.
Before the result announcement, Hutchison Whampoa closed on Thursday at 90.35 HK dollars, down 0.88 percent. Cheung Kong Holdings closed down 0.08 percent at 119.6 HK dollars per share on Thursday.