Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- China Merchants Holdings (International) Co., the investor in ports moving about a third of the country’s containers, posted a 14 percent drop in first- half profit as the global recession damped trade.
Net income dropped to HK$1.73 billion ($223 million) from HK$2.02 billion a year earlier, the company said in a Hong Kong stock exchange statement today. Sales plunged 20 percent to HK$1.65 billion.
China Merchants joined Cosco Pacific Ltd. and Hutchison Port Holdings Ltd. in posting a slump in profit as U.S. and European consumers cut spending on Asian-made toys, furniture and other goods. The Hong Kong-based company said the effects of the global recession may begin to “gradually diminish.”
“Exports have seen a rebound from July, and it seems like a solid one,” said Geoffrey Cheng, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research. “In the second half, China Merchant’s profit probably won’t decline that much.”
Chinese exports rose a seasonally adjusted 5.2 percent in July from the previous month.
China Merchants’ first-half container volume dropped 19 percent to 20.3 million boxes, it said in the statement. Traffic at mainland ports it has investments in, including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tianjin, fell 19 percent to 17.6 million boxes.
The Hang Seng Index company rose 2.2 percent to HK$27.95 at 2:43 p.m. in Hong Kong. The stock has gained 86 percent this year, outpacing a 48 percent increase for the benchmark index.
The company proposed an interim dividend of 25 Hong Kong cents, compared with 28 cents a year earlier. It may make a full-year profit of HK$3 billion, according to the median of nine analyst estimates complied by Bloomberg, compared with HK$3.7 billion last year.
Hutchison Port, the world’s largest container-terminal operator, posted its biggest profit decline in at least eight years in the first half. The Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. unit said global trade will “recover slowly” from the recession.
