Central SOEs' net profit falls 59% to $18b

The total net profit of China's centrally-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) dropped 58.8 percent year-on-year to 130.4 billion yuan ($18.44 billion) in the first quarter of this year, according to the country's top State assets regulator.

The total operating revenue of central SOEs fell 11.8 percent on a year-on-year basis to 6 trillion yuan between January and March, said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

Over 80 percent of central SOEs saw decreases in operating revenue during this period.

The commission said the decline of net profit and revenue was due to the COVID-19 outbreak during the three-month period.