China: Tsingtao Brewery net profit increased by about 8% in Q1 2005
Tsingtao Brewery Co Ltd, China's leading brewery in terms of revenue, announced on April 28 its first-quarter net profit increased by 7.99 % to 68.92 million yuan (US$8.3 million) versus 63.81 million yuan the previous year, based on Chinese accounting standards. Earnings per share stood at 0.065 yuan, up 7.97 pct year-on-year. Total revenue rose 12.82 pct year-on-year to 2.03 bln yuan, against 1.8 bln yuan a year earlier.
Tsingtao, in which Anheuser-Busch has a 27 % stake, controls about 13 % of China beer market. The brewer produced and sold 755 million litres of beer in the first three months of the year, up 4.86 % year on year.
Tsingtao gave no financial outlook for the full year. Its total assets were valued at 10.39 bln yuan at the end of March, up 5.18 % compared to 9.88 bln yuan at the end of 2004.
The company said it would continue to adjust its product mix and improve quality to fight growing competition in China, the world's biggest beer market by volume.
China's beer industry is growing by roughly 7 to 10 % a year and has attracted a flood of overseas investment over the past few years.
U.S. giant Anheuser-Busch raised its stake in Tsingtao to 27 % from 9 % by exercising convertible bonds worth US$145.56 million earlier this month. Last year, it bought number-four China beer maker Harbin Brewery for US$720 million after a takeover battle with arch-rival SABMiller .
Tsingtao's Hong Kong shares ended down 0.6 percent at HK$8.35 and were down about 2 percent in the past three months.
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