HONG KONG (July 6, 12:55 p.m. ET) — The chairman and founder of China’s largest plastic pipe maker, China Liansu Group Holdings Ltd., has invested an additional HK$20.1 million (US$2.6 million) into the company, increasing his ownership share of the publicly-traded firm to a little more than 70 percent.
In a July 4 statement, Liansu said Wong Luen Hei made the investment to demonstrate his confidence in the company in the face of weak prospects for the global economy.
“As the chairman of the company, I raised my shareholding because of my confidence in the future development of the company,” Wong said in the statement. “The group expects the global economy in 2012 to remain sluggish, which casts a shadow over the industry.”
“However, as a leader in the plastic pipe industry, the group believes that its business can achieve stable and healthy development in the second half of this year with opportunities presented by the 12th Five-year Plan in urbanization, water conservancy infrastructure and environmental protection,” he added.
Liansu, based in Foshan, Guangdong province, is traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In its last earnings report, filed in March, it said sales in 2011 rose 31 percent to 10.14 billion Chinese yuan (US$1.61 billion) and profit rose 11 percent to 1.26 billion yuan (US$200 million).
But since then, other large plastics industry firms in China, such as Hong Kong’s Chen Hsong Holdings Ltd., have reported falling revenues and profits as both the European debt crisis saps global growth and China’s own economy slows.
Senior Chinese government officials have said recently that the country may not hit its target of 10 percent combined growth in imports and exports this year, and China’s central bank this week cut interest rates for the second time in a few weeks to try to bolster its economy.
Liansu’s next earnings report is due out later this summer, possibly in August.
