In a stock exchange filing on Saturday, the state-owned firm forecast an operating loss for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2019, but clarified that its financial data related to its performance forecast was still not audited.
Qinghai Salt Lake said it expects to post a net loss of between 43.2 billion yuan and 47.2 billion yuan (US$6.26-US6.84 billion) in 2019, compared with 3.45 billion yuan in the prior year.
“The main reason for the company’s loss is due to the bankruptcy reorganisation process, (which) incurred estimated losses from asset disposals,” said Qinghai Salt Lake in its statement, adding that the initial impact on profits stands at about 41.74 billion yuan.
The company had filed for bankruptcy with the Qinghai province court in September and halted trading in its shares in November.
It had failed to sell off its assets in multiple rounds of auctions on China’s Taobao e-commerce site in a bid to raise funds.
In its fifth auction round at the start of the year, its auctioned assets, which included equity, shares and fixed assets, drew an opening price less than a fifth of its value, according to the auction listings.
Qinghai Salt Lake added in its statement that after its sixth round of auction, which saw no participants, the company will sell its assets to Qinghai Huixin Asset Management Co., Ltd. for 3 billion yuan.