Hong Kong-listed China COSCO Holdings Ltd, operator of Asia's largest container line, has raised its net profit estimate for 2007 by 50 percent to 18.2 billion yuan on better-than-forecast revenue from its international shipping operations.

In September the company said it was expecting net profit of 12.2 billion yuan under Hong Kong accounting standards. In a statement late yesterday to the Hong Kong stock exchange, China COSCO said it now sees its net profit exceeding its September estimate by 50 percent.

'The conditions in the international shipping market in the second half of 2007 were better than the forecast conditions at the time of the issuance of the above earnings forecast,' it said.

According to its website, China COSCO made a net profit of 2.03 billion yuan in 2006.

China COSCO's new estimate of 2007 net profit is still below the forecasts of some analysts.

'The news affirms our above-consensus 2007 earnings estimate of 20.2 billion yuan and could be positively viewed by the market,' Goldman Sachs said.

'We believe there is still upside to the company's recently revised earnings guidance for 2007.'

Goldman Sachs has a 'buy' recommendation on China COSCO stock.

Shares of China COSCO declined last week after Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing unloaded some of his companies' holdings in the shipping line. The stock fell as much as 8.6 percent on Dec 12 after Li's ports-to-telecoms conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa and his flagship property company Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd sold a total of 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars worth of China COSCO shares.