Booming flat TV sales drive Hisense profits up 90% in H1

In a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the Qingdao-based company said it reaped 167 million yuan ($24.45 million) of net profit in the first six months of this year, up 87.9% from a year earlier. Operating revenue grew 21.94% to 6.878 billion yuan.

Earnings per share rose 88.3% from 0.18 yuan (2.64 cents) a year ago to 0.339 yuan (4.96 cents), according to the exchange's bulletin.

The company attributed the strong half-year data to the rising demand of flat-panel TVs as many families in China are replacing their bulky cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs with flat-screen sets. The government's home appliance subsidy program in rural areas also helped to promote TV sales.

In the first six months of this year, Hisense saw flat-panel TV sales surge 141% with domestic sales grew even faster to nearly double of last year's figure.

Income from TV business amounted to 6.866 billion yuan ($1.01 billion), up 23.79%, according to the company.

Hisense said it plans to raise 1.5 billion yuan ($219.6 million) through a private share placement to finance its LCD TV module and components projects.

It will build five Integrative assembly lines for LCD modules and five LED rear projection lines. Annual module output of these projects is expected to reach five million sets.

Shipments of flat-panel TVs in China reached 4.76 million units in the first quarter of this year, up 70% year-on-year, World Hua Caixun said, citing a report from research firm GFK. It is a steep jump from a 20-30% growth predicted earlier by analysts.

DisplaySearch predicted that the shipment amount of LCD TVs in China will grow 45% in 2009, and the annual average compound growth rate will be 35% in the coming three years. It also said that the shipment amount of LCD TVs will surpass that of CRT TVs by 2010, to be the NO. 1 TV type in China.

Shares of Hisense Electric closed almost flat on Wednesday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange at 13.64 yuan ($1.997), surging 124% from 6.1 yuan ($0.893) at the beginning.