CCM: Northeast Pharmaceutical predicts financial turnaround in H1 2016

  On 14 July, 2016, Northeast Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (Northeast Pharmaceutical) released its corrected H1 2016 financial pre-announcement:

  
•          

        Net profit: +USD0-0.75 million (+RMB0-5 million), vs. -USD12.95 million (-RMB86.13 million) in H1 2015     

    

  
•          

        Earnings per share: RMB0-0.011, vs. RMB-0.18 in H1 2015 (exchange rate: USD1.00=RMB6.6496 on 1 July, 2016, sourced from the People's Bank of China)     

    

  Source: baidu

   This is mainly thanks to:

  
1. Rises in sales prices of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) like chloramphenicol and amantadine in H1 2016.
2. Larger sales volumes of preparations like fosfomycin dodium for injection, carprost suppository, and levocarnitine.

  
Early in the last financial pre-announcement released on 27 April, Northeast Pharmaceutical predicted: "The company will suffer a loss of USD0-1.5 million (RMB0-10 million), a great decrease compared to the corresponding period last year." After revision, the net profit is estimated to realize a YoY increase of 100.00%-105.81%, giving a strong boost to the company's stock price. On the very date when the corrected version was released, the stock price was up by 2.39%.

                                                               Northeast Pharmaceutical's net profit, 2013-H1 2016 E

  
•          

        Revenue: +USD576.64 million (+RMB3.83 billion), down 11.51% YoY     

    

  
•          

        Net profit: -USD57.80 million (-RMB384.36 million), vs. +USD13.09 million (+RMB87.08 million) in 2014     

    

  
As one of the leading producers of VC, Northeast Pharmaceutical has kept under great business pressure. Early in late Feb. 2016, the company stated that the current sales price of VC still remained low. According to CCM's price monitoring, from Jan. to June 2016, the domestic market price of 99% feed grade VC averaged USD3.76/kg (RMB25/kg), down over the same period in 2014 and 2015.

  
The continuous losses have pushed the company to hunt for profits.

  
•          

        In Feb. 2016, the company purchased RMB financial products from the Bank of Communications with an equity fund of USD15.04 million (RMB100 million), aiming to improve its efficiency of capital utilization, generate investment returns and increase its revenue     

    

  
•          

        In April, together with its branch company, the company set up an investment partnership which serves as a financing and investment platform. Northeast Pharmaceutical is said to be the limited partner taking 90% of shares, with a fund of USD13.53 million (RMB90 million)     

    

  
Notably, some of Northeast Pharmaceutical's major shareholders unloaded their shares. For instance, Wang Zilong, one of the company's shareholders, unloaded his 16.64 million shares (3.51% of the company's total equity) in the company through Block Trading System from 27 May to 7 June, 2016. After this, Wang Zilong no long holds any shares.