CPMC profit up 30.7% to CNY136mn

Two-piece beverage can business achieved a sales volume of approximately 740 million cans.

CPMC Holdings Limited (“CPMC”) is pleased to announce on Wednesday its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2011.

During the review period, the Company recorded a revenue of RMB2,114 million, representing an increase of 23.9% over the six months ended 30 June 2010. Profit attributable to equity holders of the Company surged by 30.7% to RMB136 million. Net profit margin and gross margin were approximately 6.5% and 16.1% respectively. Basic earnings per share were RMB0.16. The Board recommended the payment of an interim dividend of RMB0.033 (equivalent to HK4 cents) per ordinary share to the equity holders of the Company.

The growth in financial results was primarily due to three reasons. Firstly, the two-piece aluminum beverage can production line in the Hangzhou plant commenced mass production in the second half of last year after successfully obtaining certification from major customers such as JDB, Tsingtao Beer, China Resources Breweries and Coca Cola. Meanwhile, the two-piece aluminum beverage can production line in the Wuhan plant has gradually started production after the completion of certification from several major customers in the first quarter of 2011.

Secondly, in the first half of 2011, measures such as centralization of raw materials purchase, improvement of production techniques and sales price linkage with the main raw material price have effectively maintained the increase of gross profit. Thirdly, the milk powder cans market is experiencing growth derived mainly from more orders from well-established and renowned customers.

Mr Wang Jinchang, Executive Director and Chairman of CPMC, said, “The performance of the Chinese economy has been positive during the first half of this year. China’s GDP grows by 9.6% year-on-year in the first half of 2011. China’s total retail sales of consumer goods grow by 16.8% year-on-year, while the performance of CPMC increases to a higher level. We have strived to capture market opportunities presented by this positive operating environment guided by our strategic objective and maintained our leading positions within several segments of the metal packaging industry. We have also planned to add two-piece beverage cans production lines in Tianjin, Chengdu and Guangdong in order to achieve a great leap in development in the two-piece beverage cans as well as the plastic packaging businesses”.

The product portfolio of the Company mainly includes beverage cans, integrated metal packaging products and plastic packaging products.