Listed international sportswear company China Dongxiang (Group) weathered the slowdown in the industry caused by the global financial crisis to report a 19.5 per cent increase in sales for last year to 3.97 billion yuan (HK$4.51 billion).
Net profit for the year that ended on December 31 was up 6.7 per cent to 1.46 billion yuan, including a one-off gain of 146 million yuan from the acquisition of Japan sportswear enterprise Phenix.
Basic earnings per share were 25.76 fen and a final dividend and final special dividend of 3.91 fen and 9.04 fen respectively, per ordinary share, was paid to shareholders.
Chen Yihong, chairman of the group, says the year was one of opportunity and challenge and that in the face of a complex market environment China Dongxiang performed satisfactorily.
Gross profit and operating profit amounted to 2.40 billion yuan and 1.70 billion yuan respectively, which represented an increase of 23.4 per cent and 27.5 per cent year-on-year. The overall gross-profit margin increased by 1.9 percentage points to 60.4 per cent while the operating profit margin was 42.7 per cent.
The Kappa brand business in the mainland market, the major business of the group, accounted for 85.5 per cent of the total sales for the period. Although the mainland industry slowed down last year, the group's sales of Kappa brand products showed a healthy growth and increased by 21.1 per cent to 3.39 billion yuan.