HONG KONG / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2021 / COSCO SHIPPING Development Co., Ltd. (the "Company" or "COSCO SHIPPING Development") is pleased to announce the consolidated results of the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Group") for the year ended 31 December 2020(the "Period").
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world and hit the global economy hard. Major developed economies were affected by the lingering pandemic and saw a slow recovery. In the meantime, the global economy is under gradual recovery and the Chinese economy is now entering a stable positive growth. With space for widespread application of digitized technologies, a new status quo is gradually phased into the global economy and trade.
In 2020 the Company recorded a revenue of RMB14.42 billion, an increase of 49% from 2019, and a net profit attributable to owners of the parent of RMB2.13 billion, an increase of 22% from 2019. The basic earnings per share amounted to RMB0.1556. The Board proposed a final dividend of RMB0.056 per share.
Riding on Advantages in the Value Chain, Vessel Leasing Business set to venture into new business areas
During the period under review, the revenue generated from the shipping and other industry leasing segment was RMB7.751 billion, representing a steady increase of 19.7%. The Company consistently deepened its direction of "Integrating industry and finance, facilitating industry development with finance and creating synergy" and achieved significant breakthrough in extending financial service in its shipping industry chain. In 2020, the Company commenced 10 pulp carriers building and leasing projects with COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers and COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry. In addition, the Company had also worked with COSCO Shipping Bulk and COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry to commenced 16 operational leases of Ghana bulk carriers, to replenish the capabilities of the Company's leased fleet for supporting the main shipping business. Moreover, the Company focused on both the internal and external aspect hand-in-hand and steadily expanded on its external market business and extended its large transportation leasing business market to make an effort in developing new centers of profit growth. The segment realized a revenue of RMB680 million, representing an increase of 13.4%. In terms of container leasing business, the Company made advance deployment facing adverse market conditions through measures such as advance deployment and revitalization of containers on the ground in the first half of the year, which allowed the Company to make good use of market opportunities and realized sound revenue through leveraging its outstanding advantages in industry chain and market influence. Operating income saw a rise of 28.1% to RMB4.36 billion. In terms of other business leasing, the scale of finance leasing saw continuous expansion, with revenue steadily rose for 9.7 % to RMB2.71 billion.
Container Business Comprehensively Enhanced Management Capabilities to Carry Forward Assets Acquisition for Sustained Development
In 2020, the global pandemic situation is in a serious state and there is a structural lack of containers in the market with concurrent volume and price hike in the container market. The Company closely monitored the market situation and leveraged its scale and synergistic effects to achieve highly effective management and sound economic benefits, which served to realize an operating income of RMB8.13 billion with a substantial hike of 77.4% year-on-year, representing 56.4% of the Company's total revenue. At the same time, the Company actively promoted the acquisition of container assets by further integrating the Group's containers manufacturing assets and optimizing its production capacity to expand its diversified operations and enhanced technological capabilities to facilitate leasing and manufacturing, thereby achieving an effective enhancement of its comprehensive competitiveness.
In the face of imbalance between supply and demand in the container market in 2020, the Company exerted its influence in the industry and actively and orderly arranged production to meet market demands, to provide key logistics support services for the stabilization of international and domestic dual-cycle.
The Investment and Service Segment innovated a new model in Industry-Finance Cooperation to push forward supply chain finance service
The Company innovated new models in industry-finance cooperation and introduced external resources. Various investment projects achieved great yields. At the same time, the Company was able to enhance its operating income through building a one-stop supply-chain financial services platform to provide more comprehensive and comprehensive financial solutions.
Advocating Proactive Profit-Sharing to Safeguard Investors' Interests
The Company is dedicated to safeguarding the interests of investors and promoting its long-term sustainable development. As such, the Company has paid cash dividends for two consecutive years to share its development achievements with shareholders. In 2020, the Company completed the dividend distribution to A-share and H-share investors for 2019 by distributing a total of RMB520 million of cash dividends to all shareholders. In 2020, The Company continued to reward investors with an active and stable dividend policy.
Taking advantages of new developments and opportunities to foster a new supply chain comprehensive financial service platform
In 2021, the global economy will experience a gradual recovery. Supply and demand in the shipping market is expected to further improve, and the global trading landscape will see gradual structural adjustments. Financial market regulation is transiting into the stage of risk mechanism construction, and the financial policy will continue to show a trend of gradual tightening. With good development momentum in the new economy and the continuous advancement of the hi-tech industry and the establishment of a dual-cycle new development model, vast opportunities will be available to the upstream and downstream sides of the shipping industry chain. Through these efforts, it is expected that the shipping finance ecosystem empowered fully by supply chain finance will gradually improve.
Looking forward, COSCO SHIPPING Development said that the Company will seize new opportunities in economic development and accelerate the establishment of a new development model, and strive to build an integrated financial services platform for supply chain based on its deployment in its main lines of shipping and logistics industries.
About COSCO SHIPPING Development Co., Ltd.
COSCO SHIPPING Development Company Limited (2866.HK), a company affiliated to China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, specializes in the provision of supply chain integrated financial services. Formerly known as China Shipping Container Lines Company Limited, it was established in 1997 with headquarters in Shanghai, the PRC, and is listed both in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The Company aims to base on its shipping finance operation and leverage its strengths in shipping logistics to integrate the value chain, thereby building a business portfolio with a primary focus on shipping and related leasing services, container manufacturing, investment and services. It strives to create a one-stop shipping financial service platform which features market-driven mechanism, differentiation advantages, international vision, the integration between industry and finance, the collaboration between financial companies, and the collaborative development of multiple businesses.
