Inspur H1 profits up

Inspur International, a computer components maker based on Chinese mainland, said its first-half turnover jumped more than twofolds thanks to its strong revenue in information technology (IT) services.

Net profits for the six months ended June 30 this year jumped to HK$130 million, compared with a HK$4.6 million loss over the same period last year, the company said in a statement yesterday. Gross margin soared to 26.7 percent from 5.2 percent year-on-year.

Sun Pishu, chairman of the company, attributes the growth to its tax-collection services in six provinces across the nation. The company also helps develop and maintain IT systems for large State-owned enterprises, which guarantee rapid growth in revenue.

HK dollar ends low

The Hong Kong dollar ended yesterday slightly weaker against the US dollar, recovering from a near two-month low earlier in the day as some market players took profits on the greenback's recent rally.

The local currency was trading at 7.8108/10 per US dollar at 0845 GMT, down 0.01 percent from late Friday trade in Asia. It had touched a near two-month low of 7.8135 earlier yesterday. Local interbank rates were steady to a touch lower yesterday.

Chalco's Guangxi alumina JV

Aluminum Corp of China Ltd (Chalco) has no plan to expand alumina capacity at a joint venture in Guangxi because of high building costs and low alumina prices, investor relations manager Zhang Qing said yesterday.

The comments came despite the Guangxi government requesting the partners of Huayin Aluminum, which is 33-percent owned by Chalco, to double alumina capacity at the joint venture to 3.2 million tons. Alumina is used for aluminum production.

Huayi Bros'domestic IPO

Huayi Brothers Group Ltd, one of China's largest filmmakers, plans to list its shares on one of the main domestic boards in the fourth quarter of this year to raise several hundred million yuan, sources said yesterday.

Huayi has hired domestic securities houses CITIC Securities, China's largest brokerage, and Merchants Securities to advise on the planned initial public offering (IPO) of shares, the sources said.

It will be the first IPO by a major Chinese filmmaker.

Huayi, which had originally planned to seek a listing on a new Nasdaq-style market that China is preparing to set up for start-up companies, shifted its plan to the country's mainboard markets to seek more funds, they said.

China Daily-Reuters

(HK Edition 08/12/2008 page2)