Hutchison Whampoa, the investment flagship of billionaire Li Ka-Shing, posted a 78 per cent year-on-year drop in net profit to HK$10.2 billion in the six months ended June - but its core earnings were better than expected.
The core earnings of the port-to-telecoms conglomerate rose 13 per cent year-on-year to HK$9.8 billion in the period, outperforming the 5 per cent growth forecast by analysts.
The like-to-like comparison was made by stripping off the HK$37.2 billion in disposal gains, mainly due to the spinning off of its mainland ports in the same period last year.
Li, the chairman of Hutchison, said the company's four core businesses could weather the uncertainty in the global economy, even though one third of its core earnings were generated from Europe in the first half.
'Even the retail business could be alright [while] the infrastructure business will grow in the next five years,' Li said. But he added that the financial problems stemming from the crisis in the euro zone would take some time to solve.
Sales at the company rose 6 per cent to HK$ 195.0 billion.