GD Midea (000527), a maker of home appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines, posted an 18 percent year-on-year rise in 2011 net profit to 3.7 billion yuan on a 25 percent increase in revenue to 93.1 billion yuan, reports Shanghai Securities News, citing a company filing. Earnings per share hit 1.11 yuan.
The company announced cash dividends of 4.5 yuan for every 10 shares held.
Domestic sales accounted for 67.2 billion yuan of the revenue, up 24 percent from a year ago. Revenue from the company's overseas business increased 26 percent to 25.9 billion yuan.
Sales of air conditioners and refrigerators rose 32 percent and 15 percent year-on-year to 63.8 billion and 11.4 billion yuan, respectively.
Sales of washing machines remained unchanged at 9.76 billion yuan, with a gross profit margin of 17.78 percent, up 2.1 percentage points from 2010.
The rapid growth of the past several years in the home appliances sector began to slow in late 2011 as stimulus policies such as those encouraging purchases by people in rural regions were about to expire.
GD Midea responded by improving operational efficiency, product quality, and gross profit margins.
The gross profit margins for its air conditioner business rose 2.85 percentage points to 20.54 percent, while that for its refrigerator business was up 1.79 percentage points to 19.42 percent.
The gross profit margin of its washing machine business was unchanged at 17.32 percent.