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Profits slump at Hong Kong’s protest-hit rail giant MTR Corporation with recurrent business plunging 44.8 per cent to HK$4.98 billion
- It was the sharpest decline in percentage terms since the government-controlled corporation went public in 2000
- Firm warns of more bad news this year, with the damaging legacy of protests and the unfolding coronavirus outbreak likely to result in another big hit
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Hong Kong’s social unrest has taken a heavy toll on rail operator the MTR Corporation, which saw profits from recurrent business plunge 44.8 per cent to HK$4.98 billion (US$638.46 million) in 2019 from a year earlier.
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It was the sharpest decline in percentage terms since the government-controlled company went public in 2000.
CEO Jacob Kam Chak-pui said on Thursday: “2019 has been the most challenging year in the corporation’s 40-year history.”
The embattled firm warned of more bad news in 2020, with the damaging legacy of the anti-government protests and the unfolding coronavirus outbreak expected to shave HK$1.3 billion off its recurrent business profit in the first two months of this year.
Including non-recurring items and property gains, the corporation’s net profit shrank 25.5 per cent to HK$11.93 billion last year. Profits from property development in Hong Kong more than doubled to HK$5.7 billion last year from HK$2.5 billion in 2018.
The MTR Corp said recurrent business profit would have risen 7.7 per cent to HK$9.71 billion if provisions of HK$2 billion related to the overbudget Sha Tin to Central link project and HK$436 million over a rail franchise in Britain were taken out.
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