Sina (SINA) Q1 Net Profits More than Double

BEIJING, May 18, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) — China’s largest Internet portal the Sina Corp. (NASDAQ:SINA) (SINA.NASDAQ), saw net profit in the first quarter jumping 149.8 percent year on year to 24.4 million US dollars.

Its EPS stood at 37 cents, compared with 17 cents during the same period last year.

Revenue from advertising gave a strong boost to the Q1 performance. It rose 26 percent to 54.3 million dollars.

Revenue from non-advertising business line remains flat at 30.7 billion dollars.

The company’s net revenue increased 15 percent to 85 million dollars.

Its gross margin climbed from 52.4 percent in Q1 last year to 56.6 percent.

The company expects 90 million to 93 million dollars of net revenue for Q2, of which net revenue excluding the carved-out real-estate advertising business would range from 70 million to 72 million US dollars and revenue from non-advertising business would be 20 million to 21 million US dollars. (Edited by Wu Xiaobo, wuxb@xinhua.org)