NewVanke’s 1H profit misses estimates as shareholders’ tussle distracts operations
Wang Shi, Yu Liang to skip results press conference scheduled for Monday
First-half net income rose 10.4 per cent to 5.35 billion yuan (HK$6.27 billion), or 0.48 yuan per share, Vanke said in a statement. That’s lower than the 5.65 billion yuan profit expected by analysts in a Bloomberg poll.
Revenue rose almost 49 per cent to 74.80 billion yuan, while gross margin shrank by 3.49 percentage points to 17.55 per cent compared with last year, Vanke said.
“The gross margin fell because the company’s earlier sales in Changsha, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Shenyang, Chongqing, Ningbo and Xi’an were affected by the market correction in 2014, “ Vanke said.
Vanke has been embroiled in an eight-month takeover tussle, when Baoneng Group, an obscure Chinese conglomerate, emerged from nowhere as the developer’s largest shareholder in December.
To deter Baoneng’s hostile takeover, Vanke chairman Wang Shi sought out a white knight, selling the company’s shares to Shenzhen’s subway operator to dilute the acquirer’s stake.