Industrial profit growth slows

PROFITS at domestic industrial firms grew more slowly in the first two months of the year as rising input prices pinched margins and overseas demand eased.

Profits totaled 348.2 billion yuan (US$49.6 billion) in January and February, up 16.5 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. That marked a significant slowdown from annual growth of 36.7 percent in the first 11 months of 2007, the last period for which figures are available. Earnings grew 31 percent in 2006.

Minsheng liquidates overseas fund

CHINA Minsheng Banking Corp. liquidated a fund that invests in overseas securities, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday.

The fund was dissolved after its value declined more than 50 percent, the Hong Kong-based newspaper said. The fund operated under China’s qualified domestic institutional investor, or QDII, program, according to the newspaper. Minsheng, which sold 100 million shares for the QDII fund at 1 yuan (14 U.S. cents) apiece in October, had agreed to liquidate the fund when assets fell below 50 percent of their initial value, the newspaper reported.

Ping An, Guangdong Nuclear Power in deal

PING An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd., the nation’s second-largest life insurer, signed a strategic cooperation deal with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group in Shenzhen on Wednesday, an important step in Ping An’s business expansion in Shenzhen.

The deal is expected to deepen the cooperation between the two Shenzhen-based companies in areas like nuclear project insurance, global expansion and employee social security plans.

Baosteel net down on stainless steel slump

BAOSHAN Iron and Steel Co. reported an unexpected fall in 2007 net profit Thursday, blaming weakness in the stainless steel market following a plunge in nickel prices.

Baosteel said net profit slid 3 percent to 12.72 billion yuan (US$1.81 billion) last year, the first annual fall since 2001. The result, one of the first earnings shocks by a major company during the annual corporate reporting season, was nearly 10 percent below the average forecast of 14.01 billion yuan given by five analysts. For the October-December quarter, net profit shrank to about 2.17 billion yuan, the lowest for any quarter of 2007.