SF Holding net profit up 112.5% in 2016

BEIJING - Chinese delivery giant SF Holding on Monday announced that its net profit in 2016 rose 112.5 percent as strong e-commerce drove demand for express deliveries.

In its first annual report released after it went public late last month, SF Holding said its net income reached 4.18 billion yuan ($605.4 million) last year.

In 2016 its revenues rose 19.5 percent to 57.5 billion yuan.

With an 8.25 percent market share, SF Holding generated 14.46 percent of all the revenues in the industry, according to the State Post Bureau of China.

Shares in SF Holding closed the morning session 3.05 percent lower on Monday at 60.99 yuan. The shares earlier surged 46 percent to 73.48 yuan in the four trading days following the listing.

SF Express went public on Feb 24 on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange through a reverse merger with listed company Dingtai, which announced a name change to SF Holding the same day.

SF Express, founded in 1993 in Guangdong province, is one of the largest private express logistics firms in China.

China's courier services have grown steadily along with e-commerce development.

The total number of packages delivered increased 51.4 percent year on year in 2016 to more than 31 billion. Total industry revenue hit nearly 400 billion yuan, marking year-on-year growth of 43.5 percent, according to the State Post Bureau of China.

All of China's top five courier services -- STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, Shanghai Yunda Express and SF Express -- are now listed on stock markets.