Yongmao Q2 profit down 16.3% to 12.4m yuan

CHINA crane-maker Yongmao Holdings reported a net profit of 12.4 million yuan (S$2.6 million) for its second quarter ended Sept 30, 2014. This was down 16.3 per cent from 14.9 million yuan a year ago.

Revenue slid 5.4 per cent to 219.5 million yuan, from 232.1 million yuan a year ago.

Growth in sales to places such as Nigeria, Finland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and the Middle East were dragged down by the company's main China market, where sales fell 32 per cent due to the ongoing property slowdown in many Chinese cities.

Said group general manager Sun Tian: "In our objective to capture a higher market share overseas, we shall actively promote the Yongmao brand of towercranes in tradeshows in China and other Asian emerging economies such as Vietnam and Myanmar where urbanisation is increasing at a rapid clip and the infrastructure development is still underdeveloped."

The group's consolidated net profit rose 12.8 per cent to 16.5 million yuan, from 14.6 million yuan a year ago. This was due to a higher gross profit margin causing gross profit to go up 4.4 per cent to 63 million yuan.

But four million yuan was due to minority interests, resulting in the lower net profit attributable to shareholders.

Yongmao shares, which are quite illiquid, last traded at 15.5 Singapore cents.