Chalco's Jan-Sept net profit soars on higher aluminium prices

Accendra Health

26/10/2017 13:49

BEIJING, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Aluminum Corp of China Ltd 
 601600.SS  2600.HK  ACH.N  said on Thursday that its nine-month 
net profit rose more than 10-fold  year-on-year due to strong 
rises in metal prices. 
    Chalco, the listed arm of China's biggest state-run 
aluminium firm Chinalco, said its net profit for the 
January-September period was 1.36 billion yuan ($205 million), 
from 124.27 million yuan a year earlier, on the back of rising 
aluminium prices. 
    Nine-month revenues were up 52.5 pct at 139.9 billion, the 
company said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. 
    Chalco plans to bring in external investors to invest up to 
a total of 16 billion yuan in five of its subsidiaries, it said 
in a separate filing to the stock exchange. 
    Chinese aluminium futures  SAFcv1  have soared by some 20 
percent so far this year on concerns that China's environmental 
crackdown and restrictions on industrial output later this year 
will leave the market short of supply.  
    Chalco's Hong Kong-traded shares are up more than 100 
percent year-to-date as the company reaps the rewards of higher 
prices, while avoiding curbs on production that have affected 
its rivals.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1L43BP 
    Trading in Chalco's Shanghai shares, however, has been 
suspended since Sept. 12 pending a major plan that may 
constitute asset restructuring.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1LT18G 
    In a disclosure to the Hong Kong stock exchange earlier this 
week, Chalco said the restructuring "involves issuance of shares 
for purchase of assets" and that the target assets "were 
preliminarily determined to be certain equity interests of the 
company's subsidiaries." 
    This would appear to rule out the possibility of a rumoured 
merger with another state-run enterprise.  
    Chalco said it requested that trading in its Shanghai shares 
remain suspended for a maximum of five months, from Sept. 12.  
 
($1 = 6.6340 Chinese yuan renminbi) 
 
 (Reporting by Tom Daly and Meg Shen; Editing by Lee Chyen Yee 
and Adrian Croft) 
 ((tom.daly@thomsonreuters.com;)) 
 
Keywords: CHALCO CHINA/RESULTS