Cheung Kong, Hutchison Report Increased Profit in Half YearThe Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited and the Hutchison Whampoa Limited reported increased profit over the first half of this year, according to their interim reports for 2000 released here Thursday.Cheung Kong's unaudited consolidated net profit after tax for the first half of 2000 amounted to 17.395 billion HK dollars (2.23 billion U.S. dollars), representing an increase of 2.54 times as compared to the same period last year. Hutchison's unaudited consolidated net profit for the half year ended June 30, 2000, amounted to 31.126 billion HK dollars (4 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 3.26 times over the comparable period last year. Li Ka-shing, chairman of the two companies, attributed the progress of Cheung Kong, which mainly deals with properties, to continuing quality and value enhancement of properties, active expansion into the property markets of the Chinese mainland and other countries and regions as well as vigorous new technology development. Eighty percent of Hutchison's profit was generated outside of Hong Kong, he said. Hutchison, whose business covers ports and related services, telecommunications and commerce, earned 50 billion HK dollars (6.4 billion U.S. dollars) from the exchange of a 10.2 percent interest in Mannesmann for an approximate 5 percent interest in Vodafone AirTouch and 1.6 billion HK dollars (205 million U.S. dollars) from the subsequent disposal for cash of an approximate 1.5 percent interest in Vodafone AirTouch. It gained 1.72 billion HK dollars (220.5 million U.S. dollars) on the sale of a 50 percent interest in the Hong Kong fixed line telecommunications business to Global Crossing and 2.2 billion HK dollars (282.1 million U.S. dollars) on the sale of a 19 percent interest in the Hong Kong cellular operation to NTT DoCoMo. Hutchison's provision for the potential effect of share price and exchange rate fluctuations on the group's overseas investments totaled 30 billion HK dollars (3.8 billion U.S. dollars). |
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