18th Sep 2018 15:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - Walcom Group Ltd on Tuesday warned on a negative impact from the US-China trade war as its loss widened in the first half of 2018.
The China-based investment company said its pretax loss widened to HKD9.9 million, about GBP960,770 in the six months to the end of June. This compares to a HKD3.3 million loss reported for the same period the year prior.
Walcom was hit by a provision for bad debt of HKD7.9 million on a trade receivable from its largest customer in China. The company said its largest Chinese customer, which is a sizeable listed company, experienced a number of problems and these combined with adverse developments in the capital market during the first half year of 2018.
Revenue also declined by 2% to HKD19.2 million from HKD19.6 million due to low pig farmgate prices in provinces affected by an epidemic of African swine fever, in which Walcom operates.
Walcom's overall overseas sales improved by 2% compared with last year. Thailand remained the main contributor, with revenue up at HKD8.1 million from HKD7.9 million the year before.
The Korean market, however, remained weak during the period, Walcom said, with sales
decreased by 9% to HKD700,000 from HKD770,000.
"The recent China-US trade war has added further uncertainty to the Chinese economy," said Walcom Chairman Frankie Wong.
"This will affect the domestic consumer market and the negative impact could be passed on
to the group's sales in the PRC market," added Wong.
Shares in Walcom were untraded at 0.62 pence on Tuesday.
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