Hutchison Whampoa's first-half earnings beat analyst forecasts
Conglomerate's retail business delivers strong earnings and cash flow in first half of 2014
Recurring earnings before property revaluation and exceptional items for the first half at Hutchison Whampoa grew 13 per cent year on year to HK$13.5 billion, beating analysts' expectations.
Net profit at the retail-to-telecommunications conglomerate grew 1.3 times over the period last year to HK$28.4 billion on the back of gains from the spin-off of Power Assets' Hong Kong electricity business.
Profits on disposal of investments increased four times over the same period last year to HK$14.9 million at the Li Ka-shing-owned company.
"Generally improving trends first noted in the second half of 2013 continued into 2014, leading to a constructive outlook for the group's businesses overall for the second half of 2014," said chairman Li, whose empire spans commercial properties in mainland China to telecommunications in Europe and energy in Canada.
Hutchison declared an interim dividend of 66 HK cents per share, an increase of 10 per cent from the previous year.
The property and hotels arms posted disappointing results, while other divisions performed more in line with consensus.