Aug. 17, 2012 (China Knowledge) - CITIC Pacific Ltd<0267>, the Hong Kong-listed arm of China's biggest state-owned investment conglomerate, CITIC Group, said yesterday that its net profit fell 8.82% YoY to RMB 5.48 billion in the first half of this year, dragged down significant declines in profit from steel and energy businesses.

Basic underlying earnings per share decreased by 15 HK cents to HK$1.5 in the period.

The company's operating revenue rose 8.7% YoY to RMB 49.9 billion in H1, of which HK$39.1 billion was from mainland China, HK$6.4 billion from Hong Kong and HK$4.4 billion from other countries.

Earnings from investments skyrocketed 16 times YoY to HK$2.5 billion in the first half, while gain from investment property revaluations dipped 31% to HK$910 million. Profit from special steel business plunged 62% to HK$520 million, and that from property business in mainland China dropped 67% to HK$550 million. The company suffered a loss of HK$110 million from iron ore mining business, compared with HK$370- million loss in H1 of 2011.