HK private sector contracts
Hong Kong's private sector contracted in February for the first time in five months, with the S&P Global purchasing manager's index falling to 49 from 51 in January due to weakened domestic and external demand and lower business sentiment.
Tesla dangles subsidies
US automaker Tesla will offer an 8,000-yuan (HK$8,557.85) insurance subsidy for purchases of Model 3 cars in China until March 17.
Geely wins EUR2.4b loan
Zhejiang Geely Group has won a syndicated EUR2.4 billion (HK$19.8 billion) loan to refinance borrowings related to its 2018 acquisition of a stake in Volvo.
ByteDance in buyback
ByteDance plans to buy back employee stock at a valuation of about US$312 billion (HK$2.43 trillion), a significant markup from previous levels that reflects a brightening outlook for Chinese tech shares.
Seven & i eyes sale
Seven & i is likely to sell most of its non-core business holding company shares to Bain Capital for more than 700 billion yen (HK$36.41 billion).
Staff reporter
Chinese instant noodle and beverage maker Uni-President China's (0220) net profit rose nearly 11 percent to 1.85 billion yuan (HK$1.98 billion) in 2024 from a year ago, driven by government measures to spur domestic demand and consumption.
The company proposed a final dividend of 42.81 yuan cents per share.
Revenue rose 6.1 percent year-on-year to 30.33 billion yuan and has grown at a compound annual rate of 7.4 percent since 2020, with the beverage segment reaching 11.3 percent.
Revenue from the beverages business surged 8.2 percent from a year earlier to 19.24 billion. Among them, tea drinks contributed 44.57 percent, milk tea accounted for 33.28 percent, and juice made up 18.73 percent.
The tea drinks business contributed 8.57 billion yuan in revenue, up 13.1 percent year-on-year, while the milk tea segment generated 6.4 billion yuan, a 1.6 percent increase from the previous year.
The food business generated nearly 10 billion yuan in revenue in 2024, up 1.5 percent from the previous year. Of this, its instant noodle segment recorded 9.85 billion yuan in revenue, a 2.6 percent increase year-on-year.
The company expects the government to roll out more supportive policies to stimulate consumption recovery in 2025, it said in a filing with the stock exchange.
Gross margin rose to 32.5 percent, up 2 percentage points from the previous year, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization increased 5.7 percent year-on-year to 3.62 billion yuan.
Uni-President China's shares closed 1.41 percent higher at HK$8.64 yesterday.
