Midea's revenue jumps 60 percent in first nine months

Home appliance giant Midea Group posted a 60 percent jump in revenue in the first three quarters amid a booming air conditioner business and as it expanded in the robot sector after accquiring Germany-based Kuka.

The Shenzhen-listed company's revenue surged 60.6 percent to 186.9 billion yuan (US$28.2 billion) in the first nine months while net profit grew 17 percent year on year to 15 billion yuan.

The company is expected to benefit from the booming home appliance demand and aggressive globalization strategy to boost its revenue to 240 billion yuan for 2017, Guotai Junan Securities said in a note today.

The share price of Midea shed 1.47 percent to close at 51 yuan today.

In the three quarters, Midea’s home appliance business generated a revenue of 156.4 billion yuan, up 39 percent annually. 

Kuka, one of the top robot companies globally, contributed 19.8 billion yuan in revenue to Midea in the first nine months, up 27 percent.

In 2016, Midea paid 4 billion euros (US$4.64 billion) to acquire Kuka.