LONDON (Alliance News) - Auhua Clean Energy PLC Monday reported a fall in first-half profit, despite growth in revenue, due to an increase in capital expenditure, but said it remains on track to report a pretax profit for 2014 in line with market expectations.
The AIM-quoted China-based environmental technology group posted pretax profit of CNY25.6 million or GBP2.4 million for the six months to June 30, down from CNY32.5 million or GBP3.5million a year earlier.
It said the fall in profit was due to increased expenditure on expanding its distribution network in China and research and development costs in Taiwan Ziolar, a Chinese business it acquired in August last year.
Amid the fall in profit, Auhua reported a 5.3% increase in revenue to CNY116.2 million, or GBP11.1 million, up from CNY110.3 million in the first half of 2013.
It said its order book at June 30 was CNY80 million, up from CNY64.8 million last year, while it said a strong focus on selling to property developers in the first half drove a 4.3% increase in the number of units sold, increasing to 36,500.
"The group will continue to focus on working with larger property developers to drive sales growth, and it expects to increase its production capacity during 2015 following the completion of its current round of fund raising," the company said.
Going forward, Auhua said it will continue to invest in research and development, and said it expects its pretax profit for 2014 to be in line with market expectations.
The company's stock was trading 1.8% lower before midday Monday at 27.00 pence.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; rowenaharrisdoughty@alliancenews.com; @rharrisdoughty
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
