China's central SOEs post steady revenue, profit growth in Jan.-Sept.

BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) saw steady growth in revenue and profit in the first nine months of this year, the country's top state-owned assets regulator said Tuesday.

The central SOEs raked in 29 trillion yuan (about 4.05 trillion U.S. dollars) in revenue in the Jan.-Sept. period, up 10.9 percent from the same period last year, said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

The total profits of central SOEs reached 2.1 trillion yuan during the period, up 5.7 percent year on year.

The operating profit margin of the central SOEs was at 7.2 percent in the first nine months, remaining at a relatively high level, according to the commission.

During the first three quarters, the research and development (R&D) investment of central SOEs increased by 17.5 percent from the same period last year.

Tuesday's data also showed that the overall solvency of central SOEs remained stable. By the end of September, the average debt-to-asset ratio of central SOEs stood at 64.8 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from the end of August.