China Overseas shares slip as interim net profit falls 17pc to 8.6b yuan

Shares of China Overseas Land & Investment (0688) fell by nearly 3 percent on Wednesday afternoon after posting a 17 percent drop in first half net profit to 8.6 billion yuan (HK$9.35 billion).

The developer also slashed its interim dividend by 17 percent to 25 HK cents.

Core profit, which excludes such effects as after-tax revaluation gains from investment properties and net foreign exchange gains and losses, was 8.78 billion yuan.

Revenue for the first six months slid 4 percent to 83.2 billion yuan, of which sales from property development declined by 5 percent to 78 billion yuan while those from commercial properties remained flat at 3.54 billion yuan.

Contracted property sales decreased 19 percent to 120.2 billion yuan and the corresponding sales area fell 6 percent to 5.12 million square meters.

As of the end of June, the group’s liability-to-asset ratio was 53.7 percent and net gearing was 28.4 percent.

STAFF REPORTER