(Yicai) Aug. 1 -- Shares of WuXi AppTec jumped after the Chinese pharmaceutical giant logged its highest-ever net profit in the first half and raised its 2023 gross profit growth forecast.

The Shanghai-listed equity of the contract development and manufacturing organization [SHA: 603259] closed up4.6 percent at CNY74.98 (USD10.46) today. Meanwhile, its Hong Kong-listed shares [HKG: 2359] advanced by as much as 6.8 percent to HKD78.55 (USD.10.07) at 3.09 p.m.

From January to June, net profit rose almost 15 percent to CNY5.3 billion (USD739.8 million) from a year ago, the Jiangsu province-based firm wrote in its earnings report yesterday. Revenue climbed 6 percent to CNY18.9 billion (USD2.6 billion) but the meager addition was caused by base effects because when excluding last year's Covid-19 revenue, this year's growth tallied nearly 28 percent.

WuXi AppTec's research and development services for other medical companies expanded steadily in the first half, the Chinese enterprise said, adding that the firm has been improving its operating efficiency and capacity utilization.

In the full year, the drug discovery company expects to increase its gross profit by 13 to 14 percent, up from the earlier prediction of 12 to 14 percent. Its free cash flow goal was hiked to go from 750 to 850 percent, higher than the earlier expectation of 600 to 800 percent. However, the firm retained its 5 to 7 percent target for revenue growth.

WuXi AppTec had over 600 new clients in the first half, and the number of active clients over the past 12 months exceeds 6,000. Most of the customers come from the United States as the US market made up 66 percent of WuXi AppTec's revenue in the first half, followed by Chinese clients that contributed 17 percent of the total, whereas the European market was No. 3 with a 12 percent share.

Editor: Emmi Laine