Tingyi profit falls amid anti-Japan mood

Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp, a leading Chinese instant noodle producer, said Monday that its fourth-quarter profit slid 75 percent as consumers shied away from its Japanese-style packaging and marketing amid a territorial row between the two countries.

Tingyi, which has a broad-ranging partnership with PepsiCo Inc and sells noodles under the Master Kong brand in China, said its net profit was $14.9 million for the three months ended in December, down from $59.9 million in the same period a year earlier.

Chinese Ting Hsin International Group holds the controlling stake of 33.27 percent in the noodle maker, while Japanese Sanyo Foods Co owns 33.18 percent.

Japanese-style noodle restaurant chain operator Ajisen (China) Holdings also posted a fall of almost 56 percent in 2012 profit as its sales were similarly hit by anti-Japanese sentiment.

Although the sentiment has calmed somewhat since the worst of the protests following Japan's illegal "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands in mid-September last year, the problem still hangs over relations between the two countries.

Toyota Motor Corp said combined January-February sales for China were down 13 percent year-on-year.

Tingyi said its profit for 2012 rose 8.5 percent to $455.2 million, its second highest annual result ever. But that lagged market expectations of $485.65 million, said Thomson Reu­ters Starmine SmartEstimate.

By contrast, rival Want Want China Holdings, the country's top food and beverage maker and distributor by market value, which did not have to deal with anti-Japan sentiment, this month posted a 32 percent rise in 2012 net profit to a record $553.8 million, largely due to softer raw material prices.

Tingyi, which commands just over half of China's $8.8 billion instant noodle market, has benefited as demand for consumer staples climbed, raw material costs fell and production efficiency improved at its bottling plants.