Belle International Holdings, a mainland footwear wholesaler planning to raise US$1 billion from a Hong Kong initial public offering, saw earnings grow faster than its listed peers over the past three years thanks to aggressive expansion into retail and sportswear businesses, its listing arranger said.
'Due to business scope expansion and good organic growth, Belle recorded compound annual growth rates of 167.7 per cent in sales and 260.7 per cent in net profit for 2004 to 2006 ... the fastest growth rate compared with its peers,' said China International Capital Corp in a research report.
Net profit for last year surged almost fourfold to 976.6 million yuan compared with 2005 and the 2005 profit of 234.9 million yuan was up about three times from 75.1 million yuan in 2004. Turnover reached 6.2 billion yuan, up 260 per cent from 1.7 billion yuan a year ago.
Belle made a big push into the mainland footwear retail business in September 2005, bringing revenue from the sector to 66.5 per cent of total sales last year from 14.2 per cent in 2005.
Its sportswear business, which started in the middle of last year, accounted for 25.2 per cent of revenue last year. The wholesale business contribution fell to 5.8 per cent last year from 80 per cent in 2004.
Belle is offering 1.39 billion shares, 17 per cent of its enlarged share capital, of which 83.2 per cent will be new shares and the rest will be sold by four financial investors.