not vested
Scares drain Mengniu profits China Mengniu Dairy (2319) reported an 18-percent fall in first-half net profit from a year earlier to 645 million yuan (HK$787.3 million), as sales slowed due to negative reports about product quality.
Earnings per share dropped to 36.5 fens at the nation's largest milk producer and no dividend was recommended.
Total revenue fell 1.2 percent to 18.4 billion yuan from a year earlier.
This came as sales plunged by 30 percent in the first quarter, after reports at the year-end about alleged cancer- causing substances in its dairy products.
Premium products accounted for more than half of revenue in the six months to June 30 but sales dropped 1.8 percent.
The gross profit margin may have narrowed by 0.3 percentage points to 25.7 percent, but chief executive Sun Yiping is upbeat going forward.
"Sales have recovered [as the negative news has been almost absorbed]," she said. "We expect to see further improvements in sales in the second half."
However, she warned that margins will ease as Mengniu aims to boost its brand name and market share through fresh advertising and promotion drives.
The firm has pledged to speed up construction of self-operated dairies as part of a four billion yuan project and is confident that most sourcing will be internalized by 2015. Sourcing milk from small, scattered farms has been blamed for its recurrent product-quality scandals.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 20829&fc=4
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"