Hong Kong-listed LPG, oil product and natural gas distributor New Ocean Energy warned it will make a loss of about HK$1.35bn ($147.2mn) in the first half of 2020 because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The loss is worse than the estimated HK$340mn it flagged earlier this month.
New Ocean Energy posted group profit of about HK$301mn in the first half of 2019.
The company's oil bunkering business in Hong Kong and Singapore and its electronics business in China were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent slump in global oil prices in the first half of this year, eliminating its profit margin.
It also took an impairment of HK$1.08bn on trade receivables, inventories and property, plant and equipment.
New Ocean Energy sells and distributes LPG, oil products and natural gas in China. It imported 540,000t of LPG in 2019.
The company previously expected to record a loss of HK$340mn in the first half of this year because of delays in payments and falling inventory values. It did say why its projected loss had increased so much, ahead of the release of its interim results next week.
