Bitauto Holdings Q4 Earnings Surge

(RTTNews) - Bitauto Holdings Ltd. (BITA), a provider of Internet content and marketing services for China's automotive industry, Thursday reported a rise in earnings for the fourth quarter. The quarter also saw an increase in revenue, chiefly due to growth of bitauto.com advertising and the EP platform businesses.

For the fourth quarter, earnings surged to RMB93.39 million from RMB60.57 million a year ago.

Excluding share-based payments and non-capitalized follow-on public offering expenses, earnings were RMB103.31 million in the fourth quarter.

Revenue for the 3-month period rose to RMB483.61 million from RMB354.88 million a year ago.

For the full-year 2013, earnings increased to RMB241.23 million, from RMB135.16 million in 2012. Annual revenues advanced to RMB1.439 billion from RMB1.057 billion a year earlier.

For the first quarter of 2014, Bitauto expects adjusted earnings per share of RMB0.85 to RMB0.90 on revenue of RMB326 million to RMB336 million.

Looking ahead, CEO William Li said, "In 2014, we will continue to invest in our mobile offerings to ensure we continue to respond to the rapid trend among users towards mobile and to maintain our leading position."