Steady rise in profits for central SOEs in Q1

Source: Xinhua | 2019-04-18

China’s centrally administered state-owned enterprises reported steady profit growth in the first quarter of 2019, official data showed yesterday.

The combined profits of central SOEs saw a year-on-year increase of 13.1 percent to 426.5 billion yuan (US$63.6 billion), according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

In March alone, profits of central SOEs were 188.28 billion yuan, up 10.8 percent from a year earlier. Sectors such as mining and construction outperformed the others.

Fixed-asset investments at petroleum and petrochemical companies surged 39.3 percent in the quarter, said SASAC spokesman Peng Huagang, adding that investments in the steel and coal sectors fell.

Central SOEs reported combined Q1 revenue of 6.8 trillion yuan, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier.

They made 384.02 billion yuan of fixed-asset investment in Q1, up 9.7 percent from a year earlier.

The debt-to-asset ratio continued to fall as regulators took measures to contain debt in the sector. At end-March, the average ratio stood at 65.7 percent, down 0.2 percentage points,.

Their average ratio of interest-bearing liability to assets stood at 40.2 percent, a fall of 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier.

As central authorities have made curbing financial risks an economic priority, SASAC has put the capital structure, financing leverage, investment and risk of central SOEs under greater scrutiny in recent years.

The country has set a timetable for SOEs deleveraging as part of its efforts to defuse financial risks.