(Yicai Global) Aug. 17 -- China's Yuyue Medical Equipment & Supply has lured Bill Gates’s wealth manager Cascade Investment to become a shareholder after making as much as it did in the past four years during the first half of this year due to rising overseas orders of respiratory equipment amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Washington-based Cascade Investment became the Chinese company’s 10th-largest shareholder in the second quarter, holding 3.5 million shares, the Nanjing-headquartered firm said in its earnings report.

Yuyue's net operating cash inflow climbed to CNY2.4 billion (USD345.8 million) in the six months from a year ago, the report added. This is equal to that of the four years ended in 2019. Its revenue rose by 36 percent to CNY3.4 billion in the first half while its net profit more than doubled to CNY1.1 billion.

Yuyue's performance in the second half of the year could maintain robust growth due to its increase in accounts receivables, industry insiders told Yicai Global.

Oxygen concentrators and ventilators, a category which had dragged the firm's performance down last year, have been in high demand amid the pandemic as Yuyue's sales of oxygen and respiratory equipment rose nearly 60 percent to CNY1.2 billion over the six months.

Much of the demand came from abroad as the company's sales overseas almost tripled to CNY1 billion from a year ago. As foreign orders piled up, the firm received advance payments exceeding CNY1 billion by the end of June, more than four times that of the beginning of the year, which explains the sharp rise in its net operating cash flow.

Yuyue's stock price [SHE:002223] edged up 3.33 percent to CNY34.77 (USD5) by noon.

Editor: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine