貿易通 2021 年年報

Management Discussion and Analysis (Continued) 管理層討論及分析（續） 26 Tradelink Electronic Commerce Limited Annual Report 2021 業務回顧（續） 投資中國聯營公司回顧 我們的中國主要聯營公司南方於二零二一年的業務 繼續令人失望，按年錄得進一步虧損，而我們分 佔南方的虧損亦相應增加，由二零二零年的港幣 1,400,000 元增至二零二一年的港幣 1,900,000 元。 於二零二零年，南方從中央政府收取多項有關疫情 紓困的津貼，公司並實施嚴格成本控制，有效降低 其總成本。因此，南方的業務能夠於二零二零年下 半年實現適度好轉，令二零二零年的全年虧損得以 減少。不過，由於政府在二零二一年削減有關疫情 紓困的津貼並收緊預算，南方的業務於二零二一年 下半年繼續錄得赤字，最終導致全年虧損進一步增 加。值得注意的是，於二零二一年多個南方本來有 信心爭取到的大型政府項目，均由於政府收緊預算 而於二零二一年被取消或擱置。在成本方面，南方 已於過去數年以各種方法盡力控制成本。 甚為可惜的是，南方失去了實際為壟斷市場的小船 艙單報關服務，其為過去一直最賺錢的業務分部之 一，加上與其中一位股東漫長的法律糾紛，令業務 更添負累。此外，南方的業務亦受到 COVID-19 疫 情的嚴重打擊。過去數年，南方一直努力奮鬥，尋 求減少損失且維持經營，冀扭轉局面。然而，該希 望似乎落空，復興的機會看來渺茫。因此為審慎起 見，我們已於二零二一年下半年選擇進一步撇減於 南方的投資，撇減金額為港幣 800,000 元。 由於外部經營環境不大可能得到明顯改善，因此南 方於二零二二年的業務前景仍未許樂觀。不過，南 方手頭上已有若干小型政府項目，加上大幅裁減過 去龐大的研發團隊，大大節省了成本，因此南方有 合理信心能於二零二二年稍為改善其表現。雖然南 方難以於二零二二年達致收支平衡，但我們希望南 方的虧損能略有減少。 Business Review (Continued) Investment in PRC Associate Review The business of Nanfang, our major associate in China in 2021, continued to be disappointing as they had incurred further losses, on a year-on-year basis. Our share of their losses has increased accordingly, rising from HK$1.4 million in 2020 to HK$1.9 million in 2021. In 2020, Nanfang received various subsidies from the Central Government as part of pandemic relief. The company also implemented stringent cost controls that effectively reduced their total costs. As a consequence, Nanfang was able to manage a modest business turnaround in the second half of 2020, resulting in the reduction in losses for the whole of 2020. However, due to the slashing of government pandemic relief grants and rationalization of the government budget in 2021, Nanfang’s business continued to run in the red in the second half of 2021, ultimately leading to a further increase in losses for the entire year. It was worth noting as well that several sizeable government projects which Nanfang was once confidently pursuing had subsequently been called off or held in abeyance in 2021 due to government budget constraints. On the cost side, they have been trying hard to rationalize their costs by various means over the past few years. It was rather unfortunate that Nanfang lost their de-facto monopoly on the river manifest declaration service as that had been one of their most profitable business segments, and be saddled by a drawn-out legal dispute with one of their shareholders. In addition, their business has been seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past few years, Nanfang had already been seriously struggling; seeking to reduce their losses and staying in business with the hope of achieving a breakthrough. However, such hope seems misplaced and the chance of a revival looks slim. As such, to err on the side of caution, we have elected to further write down our investments in Nanfang by HK$0.8 million in the second half of 2021. The outlook of Nanfang’s business in 2022 is still not that promising as the external operating environment would unlikely have significant improvement. That said as Nanfang has already on hand several government projects secured, albeit of smaller scale, and coupled with a substantial slash of their costs by a considerable downsizing of their used-to-be large research and development team, they are reasonably confident about having some slight improvement of their performance in 2022. Though it is unlikely that they could achieve a break even in 2022, we hope that their loss would reduce somewhat.