BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Yunda Holding Co., a major Chinese express delivery firm, reported on Monday a 40.4 percent jump in its first-quarter net profit as booming e-commerce drove up demand for its courier services.
In a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Yunda said its net profit jumped to 566.6 million yuan (84 million U.S. dollars) in the January-March period from 403.6 million yuan a year ago. Meanwhile, revenue increased by 151.6 percent year on year to around 6.68 billion yuan.
In 2018, the courier firm earned a net profit of around 2.7 billion yuan, up 69.8 percent, and raked in a revenue of 13.9 billion yuan, up 38.8 percent, according to its annual financial report filed to the bourse on the same day.
The company carried about 6.99 billion parcels last year, grabbing a market share of 13.77 percent, the second largest in the industry, said the report.
China's booming e-commerce drove the growth of the express delivery sector. In 2018, the industry delivered 50.7 billion parcels, up 26.6 percent year on year, according to the State Post Bureau of China.
Online retail sales of physical goods in China grew 25.4 percent year on year to 7 trillion yuan last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Shares of Yunda closed 1.12 percent higher at 38.08 yuan Monday in Shenzhen, even as the Shenzhen Component Index fell 1.62 percent to close at 9,622.49 points.
