Hong Kong continued to drive profits at the London and Singapore-listed car distributor and retailer Inchcape in the six months to June 30.
Its SAR operating profit rose 85.31 per cent in the half to GBP26.5 million (about HK$295.11 million), the highest profit among the company's six core market divisions and nearly half the group's total operating profit of GBP55 million.
Hong Kong turnover rose 57.17 per cent to GBP243.3 million - the third-largest behind Britain and the Greece/Belgium division.
But Hong Kong outperformed in terms of profit margin. In the half, the British unit's turnover of GBP556.3 million returned an operating profit of only GBP8.7 million. Similarly, the Greece/Belgium unit posted a profit of GBP5.7 million from GBP313.1 million in sales.
Inchcape also has divisions in Australia and New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei.
The company attributed its high Hong Hong profit growth partly to the strength of the taxi market.
'The Hong Kong taxi fleet is being changed from diesel to LPG [liquefied petroleum gas],' it said.