SF chair apologizes over 900m yuan loss

Mainland-listed SF Holdings' chairman Wang Wei apologized last Friday to investors over a 900 million yuan (HK$1.069 billion) net loss in the first quarter.

The logistics giant's share price dived for two consecutive trading days after first quarter results were announced last Thursday.

Wang admitted in a phone meeting with investors that the loss was due to negligence in management, lower-than-expected growth in some of its businesses, higher transportation costs and unexpected additional overtime for staff who worked during the Lunar New Year.

He promised that the company will make a profit in the second quarter, but admitted that annual profit may not return to levels seen in 2020 this year.

The company, as known as SF Express, will continue spending money on developing new businesses, said Wang, who added that he is willing to lower profit margin forecasts for the next year or two in exchange for long-term competitiveness.

SF Holdings aims to develop into an independent third-party industry solution data technology service company, said Wang, adding that some major e-commerce platforms disbanded their logistics units and turned to SF last year, leading to a rise in stock prices and an improvement in profitability.