Yue Yuen posts banner first-half

Taipei, June 12, 2003 (CENS)--Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Ltd. Of Taiwan recently announced that its revenue in the first half of the fiscal year (from October 1 to March 31) grew by 36.6% from last year pushing after-tax profits up 37.1% to US$151 million, up 37.1%.

The good news sent the stock price of Yue Yuen's parent company, Pou Chen Corp., up to the daily ceiling of NT$34.4 (US$0.99 at US$1: NT$34.7) on transaction volume of over 57,000 on June 10--a 2.23-fold increase the from previous day.

The strong performance of Yue Yuen, the world's largest maker of sporting and recreational shoes, has made Pou Chen one of the constituent stocks of the Hong Kong-based Hang Sang Index (HIS) and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) stock index.

Yue Yuen's first-half revenue reached US$1.24 billion. The company attributed its strong profit performance mainly to the strong sales of shoe products and shoe-making materials.

Excluding its newly procured shoe-making material business, Yue Yuen's fiscal first-half revenue grew 27.3% from the same period last year. Sporting shoes accounted for US$820 million, or 73.4% of the company's first-half revenue and recreational shoes for US$199 million (17.7%). Sales in the two categories rose by 18.6% and 29.4%, respectively, from the year-earlier period.

As of March this year, Yue Yuen had 279 shoe production lines, compared with 254 lines in September 2002. In the huge mainland China market, Yue Yuen said, it and various subsidiaries there have together signed up 550 distributors and 150 retail outlets to sell its sporting shoes and sportswear.