Yunnan Baiyao, a classic remedy to stop bleeding, has won a lot of Western customers on online retailing platforms. Photo: Internet

Chinese pharmaceutical company Yunnan Baiyao reported a loss of 1.55 billion yuan ($242.29 million) in stock investment in the first three quarters of 2021, according to its quarterly fiscal disclosure on Thursday. 

According to the report, revenue stood at 28.36 billion yuan in the first three quarters, up 18.52 percent year-on-year. But net profits plunged 42.38 percent to 2.45 billion yuan, factoring its heavy losses from securities investment.

Its investment in smartphone vendor Xiaomi, for instance, led to a loss of 610 million yuan during the first half of the year.

The company said that it will gradually optimize the investment structure and withdraw from securities investment, media reports said, after its loss became among the hottest search trends on China's twitter-like Sina Weibo on Thursday.

The company said that it had invested in stocks to use its capital more efficiently.

According to the company's 2020 annual report, its net profit in 2020 reached 5.52 billion yuan, with returns from its stock and fund investment hit 2.24 billion yuan, accounting for 32.94 percent of its total profits.

The report also showed that investment in research and development for the first three quarters totaled 196 million yuan, accounting for less than 1 percent of its total revenue.

In August, Yunnan Baiyao was fined 110,299 yuan by the local market regulator in Southwest China's Yunnan Province for producing and selling substandard masks. A batch of 35,095 disqualified masks was also confiscated.

In order to maintain the sound development of the company and regain customers' trust, Yunnan Baiyao should invest more in product development and focus on product quality, instead of increasing stock speculation, analysts said. 

Global Times