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Top 10 profitable companies in China

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-30 11:26

All but two of China's top 10 most profitable Shanghai- or Shenzhen-listed companies in 2009 are from the energy or financial sector, the Beijing Times reported Tuesday, based on 832 annual financial reports, or more than half of the total that were released by Monday morning.

With a staggering 129.4 billion yuan ($18.95 billion) in after-tax profit, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's biggest lender by market value, replaced PetroChina Co as the country's most profitable listed company, followed by China Construction Bank with 106.84 billion yuan ($15.65 billion), according to the newspaper citing Wind Info, a financial data provider in China.

PetroChina Co, the country's largest oil and gas producer, came in third with 103.39 billion yuan ($15.14 billion) in net profit last year and Bank of China, the country's third-largest lender by market value, took fourth place with 81.07 billion yuan.

Related full coverage: 2009 Annual Reports of Listed Companies
Related readings: China Construction Bank reports 15% net profit rise in 2009 Net profit of Sinopec more than doubles in 2009 PetroChina FY net profit declines 9.7% ICBC scores 130B yuan in net profit for 2009 China Unicom FY profit dips 73% Bank of China FY profit at 81b yuan

Sinopec Corp, Asia's top oil refiner, ranked fifth with 61.76 billion yuan ($9.05 billion), and China Shenhua Energy Co, China's largest coal producer, sixth with 30.28 billion yuan ($4.43 billion).

The other four are Industrial Bank Co (13.3 billion yuan), a mid-sized Chinese lender; China Unicom (9.56 billion yuan), China's No 2 mobile carrier; China Vanke Co (5.33 billion yuan), the country's biggest property developer by market value and Huaneng Power International Co (5.08 billion yuan), China's biggest listed electricity producer.

The total profit of the top 10 companies is 561.14 billion yuan, or 75 percent of the total for the 832 companies combined. The total profit for the 832 companies is 749.55 billion yuan.

Other companies that are likely to make the top 10 list include China Life Insurance Co and China Merchants Bank, which have yet to release their annual reports.

The list excluded Chinese companies that list in Hong Kong, like China Mobile.