Distinguished investors and analysts, good afternoon. Welcome to CITIC Limited 2022 half-year results release and investor briefing. I'm Jin Xing with the board office of CITIC Limited. Due to the pandemic, today's briefing will be held by means of live webcast and telephone conference. We have Q&A session for today's briefing. If you wish to communicate with the management, please dial into the conference system in advance. Please press asterisk one to be connected. Please note that we are going to conduct the meeting in Mandarin, and we provide English interpretation. The contents and your questions will be recorded. First of all, please allow me to introduce you to the management attending today's briefing. They are Mr. Zhu Hexin, Chairman of CITIC Limited. Mr. Xi Guohua, Vice Chairman and General Manager. Ms. Li Qingping, Executive Director and Vice General Manager. Mr. Xi Zuo, Vice General Manager. Mr. Fang Heying, Vice General Manager. Mr. Cao Guoqiang, CFO. We also have Mr. Zeng Chen, Chairman of CITIC Pacific, joining the meeting by telephone. Now announce the start of the 2022 half year results briefing and investor briefing. First of all, let's welcome Chairman Zhu Hexin to address us. Dear shareholders, investors, analysts and our friends, good afternoon. Welcome to CITIC Limited 2022 half year results release and investor briefing. As the current COVID-19 pandemic remains severe, we will continue to share with our shareholders, investors, and analysts our results in the first half of the year in terms of the reform, development, management, and to communicate with you on the matters of your interest. In the first half of this year, in the face of a complex and challenging external environment, CITIC Limited has been able to maintain its momentum by working with one mind, coping with the situation, and making progress in a stable manner, and coordinating business developments with pandemic prevention control. In the first half of the year, we have a revenue of HKD 392 billion and a profit of HKD 50.1 billion, a rise of 13%. At this morning's board meeting, all the directors have recognized the company's achievement achieved in the first half of the year, and the board is confident in the company's achievements of the annual results and high quality development. In the past six months, the company's comprehensive financial service segment adhere to the philosophy of green finance, actively bolstered the real economy and continued to play the role as the cornerstone, with net profit increasing by 15.1% year-on-year, which is the largest contributor of profit. CITIC Financial Holdings was one of the first in the country that has been successfully awarded a license of financial holding company and was established and started the business smoothly, creating a new momentum for the comprehensive financial service segment, which will surely become a number one engine driving CITIC Limited high quality development. CITIC Bank's net profit increased by 12% year-on-year. The balance and ratio of non-performing loans both decreased, while the size of deposits and the loans exceeded RMB 5 trillion. CITIC Securities continued to maintain industry-leading position in its operating performance. CITIC-Prudential Life operated soundly with a comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio higher than regulatory requirements. In the last six months, the company's non-financial business segment has withstood multiple pressures such as recurring pandemic, shrinking demand and poor industrial chain, and it made every effort to ensure orderly production operation and continue to consolidate the good development momentum. Advanced intelligent manufacturing continued to increase investment in R&D and scientific and technological innovation, and its performance rose against the market's downward trend. The advanced materials overcame the impact of commodity price fluctuations, effectively guaranteed the stability of industrial chain and achieved an increase in operating income. The new consumption sector grasped the trend of organic integration, online, offline, consumption, and the performance of digital companies maintained a year-on-year growth. A new type of urbanization segment actively promoted risk mitigation and the integration of businesses of key projects. The performance continues to improve. Over the last six months, we continued to reform our efforts such as slimming down and building up sound business, reducing hierarchies, increasing income and reducing expenditure, cutting costs, increasing efficiency, deepening centralized fund management and reducing leverage by integrating finance and the non-finance business. The company's risk governance structure continues to be improved, and the risk management system has been improved, resulting in a more secure system to protect the development of company. Business synergy has been developed, and quality and efficiency has also been reinforced. Our ability in technology development has been grown significantly. ESG philosophies have been deeply integrated into the business of the company, and the concept of green low-carbon sustainable development has been reinforced. Since the beginning of the year, CITIC Limited has performed well, closing at HKD 8.09 per share on August 29th, up 10.95% from the beginning of the year, and significantly outperforming the 14.42% decline in the Hang Seng Index over the same period. Since August, CITIC Limited have steadily improved its price-book ratio ranking from the middle and the lower level to the second highest among comparable companies, further demonstrating the company's investment value to further reward investors for their trust and support. The company's board of directors has decided to further increase the dividend ratio by recommending an interim dividend of HKD 0.2 per share, an increase of HKD 0.05 over the same period last year. Recently, CITIC formulated an action plan for building a world-class enterprise and pressed the fast-forward button for comprehensively deepening reform, thus starting a journey of building a world-class enterprise. We closely follow the three key issues of who to compare, what to compare, and how to compare, so as to base ourselves on the new situation and tasks of reform and development, adhere to the enterprise's policies and measures, unswervingly push the company to become stronger, better, and bigger, and constantly improve its competitiveness, innovation, leading position, and influence. The journey ahead is long and full of challenges. We shall work even harder to accomplish what we aim for. This year marks the second year of CITIC Limited's 14th Five-Year Plan. CITIC Limited will continue to enhance its competitive strengths through integration, build an integrated ecology through synergy, and strengthen its development momentum through expansion, and will also respond to the national strategy and the requirements three new and one high, complete the annual targets and steadily move forward with the goal of becoming a world-class enterprise. We have arranged the two sessions. Next, first of all, I want to give the floor to Mr. Cao Guoqiang, CFO of CITIC Limited, to introduce the company's 2022 half-year results. Thereafter, the management and I will share our views on the matters of your interest. Thank you, Chairman. Dear investors and analysts, good afternoon. Next, I would like to present you the review of 2022 half-year results of CITIC Limited. In the first half of the year, in the face of complex and challenging external environments and the pandemic, we have decided the targets and our operations and production have been pushed forward smoothly, and our operation has been maintained very stable, and we have realized a revenue of HKD 392.4 billion, a profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of HKD 50.1 billion, rise 11% and 13% respectively year-on-year. The earnings per share is HKD 1.72 and dividend per share HKD 0.2, rise by 13% and 33%. At the end of June, the total assets exceeded HKD 12 trillion and rise by 13% compared to the beginning of the year. The total ordinary shareholders funds, HKD 752 billion, rise by 0.1%. In terms of the segment information, 94% of total assets is the comprehensive financial services. For revenue, the contribution is mainly from financial services as well as advanced materials business. For revenue, the comprehensive financial services contributed 40%. For profit, it contributed 69%. Advanced materials contributed 39% to revenue and 21% to profits. Next, on the next slide, what you can see is the structures of shareholding of the five business segments of CITIC Limited for your reference. The next slide, this is the summary of the earnings of the core subsidiaries of CITIC Limited. You can see the changes of the earnings, and I'm going to dive into more details later. Let's look at the respective segments. In terms of comprehensive financial services, we realized a revenue of HKD 159 billion, with a net profit of HKD 51.9 billion. A rise of 20%, 55.1% year-on-year, respectively. It increased credit support to public and private enterprises in key areas such as green credits and strategic emerging industries. On March seventeenth, CITIC Financial Holdings was the first one to be awarded a license, and the company was officially started and established and completed consolidation of the financial resource of CITIC Securities. On April thirteenth, it laid a solid foundation for a world-class securities company. Let's look at the financial subsidiaries. First of all, CITIC Bank, it recorded revenue of RMB 108 billion and a profit of RMB 32.5 billion, grew by 2.4% and 12% year on year, respectively. We have higher bond yields that led to a year on year increase of 8.9% in net interest income, and contribution increased by 1.9 percentage points to 31.8%. Interest earning assets increased by 4.6%, but the net interest margin narrowed by 10 basis points. Due to the market rate, resulting a decrease of 0.3% in net interest income. Asset quality continued to improve with decrease in both the NPL ratio and NPL balance. NPL balance decreased by RMB 1.9 billion to RMB 65.5 billion, while the NPL ratio decreased by 0.08 percentage point to 1.31%. Provision Coverage Ratio increased by 17.08 percentage points to 197.15%, a seven-year high. For CITIC Securities affected by the downturn in the market, revenue was RMB 41.9 billion, and the profit was RMB 11.2 billion, decrease of 4.4% and 8.2% year-on-year respectively. It has maintained industry leadership and it ranked first as the lead underwriter of equity and bonds by value. Market share of investment banking business increased by 1.4 percentage points to 15.7% for CITIC Trust. It recorded revenue of RMB 3.3 billion and a profit of RMB 1.5 billion, a decrease of 18% and 24% year-on-year respectively. Maintained top-three peer ranking. CITIC Trust made a RMB 1 billion impairment and increased the provisions by 8%. Year to date, the provision coverage ratio reached 139%. It's proactively fostering new growth drivers. Contribution of new businesses such as distressed asset management, family trust, and enterprise annuity increased significantly to 66%. For CITIC-Prudential Life, it continued to enhance bancassurance as a major distribution channel while actively expanding online platforms and other emerging distribution channels. Premium income was RMB 15.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13%. However, affected by capital market fluctuations, profits was RMB 460 million, a decrease of 60%. The comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio was maintained at a healthy 242%, remained the only domestic insurance company that has been rated Class A for 25 consecutive quarters, beginning in 2016 in the quarterly integrated risk ranking. Let's look at advanced intelligent manufacturing segment. It recorded revenue of HKD 29.1 billion. Compare year-on-year, it is 766% and a 15% increase. Advanced intelligent manufacturing has increased investment in R&D and intensified market development efforts, maintaining growth momentum in its operational performance. CITIC Dicastal has increased by 8.1%. The company has recorded revenue of CITIC Dicastal of RMB 19.9 billion and a profit of RMB 540 million, increase of 28% and 8.1% year-on-year respectively, and a deepening integration in the construction overseas basis. It's ranked 50th in the top 100 global auto parts suppliers 2022, up eight places from last year. For CITIC Heavy Industries, recorded revenue of 34.3 billion RMB and profits of RMB 180 million, growth 13% and 5.7% respectively. Fostered high-end industries and achieved a solid growth in major equipment and in special equipment. New orders increased by 31% year-on-year to a record high revenue of RMB 6.8 billion. Successfully awarded as the 2021 leader of China's heavy industry machinery. For the advanced materials overall, the revenue for the first half of the year is 152 billion, increased by 6.8% year-on-year. While profit was HKD 9.29 billion, a decrease of 31% year-on-year. It focused on maintaining the stability of the supply chain. Production operation remained stable with growth in revenue. Profit declined mainly as a result of lower commodity prices as compared with the first half of the year in 2021. For the CITIC Pacific Special Steel, revenue increased 5.6% year-on-year to RMB 51.8 billion, and profit declined by 9.8% year-on-year to RMB 3.8 billion. Despite weak market demand, sales revenue of special steel products increased 2% to a record high of 7.68 million tons through the optimization of the product mix. Continued to enhance procurement, production, technology and management to offset the impact of rising raw material prices, remained an industry leader in profitability. For Sino Iron, overall, overcoming multiple challenges including the pandemic, bad weather, inflation, and labor shortages, it focused on reducing costs and improving efficiency, and was able to maintain stable production operation, and exported 10.1 million wet metric tons of iron ore concentrate to remain the world's largest seaborne supplier of magnetic concentrate to China. Profit declined 63% due to the decrease in iron ore prices compared with last year. For advanced materials, CITIC Metal Group revenue grew 12% year-on-year to HKD 67.6 billion, a historical high for the period, and profit decreased by 2%. In metal trading, revenue from the trading of non-ferrous metal and steel increased significantly. However, profit over the trading business decreased by 30% year-on-year due to higher iron ore trading profits recorded in the 2021 first half of the year. Mining investments, the second phase of the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine project in the Democratic Republic of Congo went into production ahead of schedule. It has produced copper in the second quarter reached a historical record of 87,000 tons. For CITIC Resources, benefiting from rising raw material prices, CITIC Resources recorded revenue of HKD 3.2 billion and profit of HKD 893 million, increase of 83% and 109%. For new consumption, it has delivered revenue of HKD 30.6 billion and profit of HKD 466 million, decrease of 7% and 41%. For CITIC Telecom International, recorded revenue of HKD 4.98 billion and profit of HKD 572 million, increase of 3.8% and 7.1%. It has also continued to enhance technological innovation and to broaden scope of service. For CITIC Press, recorded revenue of RMB 848 million and profit of RMB 90 million, decrease of 11% and 38% year-on-year respectively. Against the backdrop of the overall decline in the book market, CITIC Press continued to expand new media channels, achieving a market share of 3.808% by sales revenue, an increase of 0.25 BP over the first half of 2021, and ranking first in the publishing market. For Dah Chong Hong, recorded revenue of HKD 24.6 billion and profit of HKD 133 million, decrease of 7.8% and 53% year-on-year respectively. Underlying profit was stable, excluding one-off items. For motor business was solid, while the food and the FMCG businesses focused on driving synergy. Healthcare distribution grew in profit and market share across Southeast Asia. For the new type urbanization, its revenue decreased by 2.4% to HKD 21.7 billion, and profits grow 14% to HKD 3.59 billion. It has successfully completed construction for the Winter Olympics. Revenue declined due to the weak market and epidemic, and profit increased year-on-year due to a provision recorded in the first half of the year of 2021. Actively promoted risk mitigation for key projects and achieved substantial progress. For the property development operation and management, recorded revenue increased by 7.7% year-on-year to HKD 3.7 billion, while profit was HKD 3.3 billion, a decrease of 6% year-on-year. Despite the industry downturn and pandemic, key projects including Ningbo Fenghua and Shanghai North Bund were delivered seamlessly. Profits booked from the stake in COLI declined year-on-year. For construction engineering, due to the delays on some overseas projects, the revenue decreased by 18% year-on-year to HKD 11.9 billion. Operating profit was HKD 440 million, a decrease of 77% year-on-year if excluding the provisions. A new contract signed amounted to RMB 15 billion, an increase of 5.5% year-on-year, laying solid foundation for future developments. For urban operations, its revenue grew 46% to HKD 6.3 billion, mainly benefiting from the increase in the parallel imports of automobiles. Profit increased by fifty-three percent to HKD 220 million, mainly due to declines in the energy saving and environmental protection business. That's all for my briefing. Thank you. Thank you very much for the briefing. Now, we are going to move on to the Q&A session. If you want to ask questions, please press asterisk one and wait for connection. Please press asterisk one to wait for connection. Once you are connected, you are going to hear a prompt to be unmuted from the telephone system, then you may proceed with your questions. Before you ask the question, please identify yourself first and including your name and the investment institution you present. Now, let's welcome the first question. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm from Morgan Stanley. I'm Fang Yuan, the researcher. I have two questions to ask management. First is about macro economy. In the first half of the year, we still see COVID-19 cases happened in different cities. Under such backdrop, what impact does the active economic policies in China have on CITIC? Second question is about Huarong. I want to know that, you're saying, how are your sense CITIC increases investment? How does CITIC Group view the performance of Huarong in the past half year? Thank you for your question. About macroeconomy, as we know that this year we see rising complexity, severity and uncertainty of China's economic environment. CPC Central Committee and State Council have implemented timely and decisive measures, and launched a package of measures to stabilize the economy. We see that the effect of the policy appeared quickly. In the second quarter, we have seen the positive growth, and it is at such a trend of stabilization and recovery. This kind of a trend for CITIC it has reflected in three aspects. First, the financial sector. It is related with our group's situation and our characteristics. The People's Bank of China maintains a reasonably sufficient liquidity, and it guides financial institutions increase loans to the real economy. CITIC's comprehensive financial services segment plays the more prominent position on helping to stabilize growth and further increase the credit insurance and capital market support. Just now, our CFO has mentioned about our review of our first half results. For the first half of the year, we have seen a positive situation of the bank, and we have the consistent view about the market. The second is the manufacturing sector. The relevant departments have proposed a number of measures to promote development of manufacturing industry. For CITIC, it's positive, because we have CITIC Dicastal, we have CITIC Heavy Industries and products are actually supporting products for this. In manufacturing, it has good influence and a positive influence to us. For the real estate sector, the government emphasizes that we need to make sure the policy should be implemented according to the city, make full use of the policy and support the different housing needs. CITIC Bank joins hands with CITIC Urban Development & Operation and China Huarong Asset Management Co., Ltd. to give full play to the advantage of our industry finance synergy to continue to explore the coordination of business model innovation based on the principle of rule of law and the marketization. We also have innovative solutions. In the risk mitigation, it reflect our industry finance coordination. It has the positive effect as well. We will continue to implement decisions and improvements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to respond to the overall requirements of preventing COVID and stabilizing the economy and ensuring safety and development, and adhere to the working principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability. Because you have seen that we have quite good performance. At this time, we still need to keep a clear mind and to know the future development. We need to evaluate the difficulties ahead. The aim is that to have a healthy and a stable development for our group. We expect that we will continue to continue our good momentum of development, and we will complete the overall target of the year. That's about the influence of macroeconomic development policies on CITIC. For Huarong is a hot topic, and every time when we meet with you, we talk about Huarong. Firstly, I'd like to take the opportunity to explain that the Huarong, it is CITIC Group, not CITIC Limited, to invest in China Huarong. We still will deliver our, you know, responsibilities. We are. still have challenges while we take the stakes. We continue to implement our responsibilities as shareholder to guide Huarong to kind of mitigate its risks. We have done a lot of work. For the first half of the year, there are a lot of work and also pressures and challenges. We think we have a lot of opportunities. There are some very good changes. It is like in March, but only less than half a year, and we see these good changes, which are mainly reflected in Huarong's risks have been continuously reduced, and its structure has changed as well. The scale and the structure of liabilities have been substantially optimized, so the changes have reflected on optimization. In the meantime We have seen that the disposal of non-performing assets have maintained a leading position in the market, so Huarong has reflected its advantage in the market. You can also refer to the information disclosed at Huarong's results release meeting. Lastly, I would like to share with you that we have incorporated Huarong into our portfolio, and we are the biggest shareholder of Huarong because we are very optimistic about non-performing asset management business. Also, we are going to complete the structure and the layout of comprehensive financial services of CITIC, and we are going to continue to serve the real economy and to improve our core competitiveness. In the future, CITIC will continue to actively respond to policy orientation of the Party and the State Council on preventing and resolving major financial risks and serving the real economy. We are going to grasp the business opportunities, and we are going to fully support the development of Huarong, and also to support it focus on its main business, and so that it can reflect and to realize its values as of Huarong, as well as the value of, CITIC. We are going to support Huarong and encourage it to become a new driver of the business of our financial holding or the even, beyond. Next, I would like to welcome the second question. Dear management, I'm with Goldman Sachs. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. We'll have two questions. The first question is, I would like to congratulate the good results achieved in the first half of the year. I would like to ask our... The management to look into the performance of the whole of CITIC Limited in the whole year. There is this goal for by 2025. What is the future growth of the company? This is my first question. My second question is, I would like to ask about the question of financial holding. After getting the license, it has attracted a lot of attention for the development of CITIC Financial Holdings. I would like to ask about the question on wealth management business, how the business will be conducted. Thank you. Thank you very much for the question. The first question will be answered by Xi Guohua, Mr. Xi Guohua. Please. To answer your question, and we also have General Manager of CITIC Financial Holdings, Madam Li Xinping, is going to answer your second question. Thank you very much. In the first half of the year, when we had a very good start in the first quarter, we have also realized our goal. We have accounted half or already half of the targets in the second quarter by the second quarter. We have laid a solid foundation for Q3 of realizing the whole year's targets, as well as to look into the future in the Q4. Our shares, the price of our shares, has increased 48.76%. We hope we are going to reach a new high this year, and we want to take this opportunity to thank all the analysts, investors, for you to choose CITIC, and CITIC will not fail you. We will work together to create more possibilities. In the second half of this year, when the pandemic is under control and the policies have played their role in stabilizing the economy, we believe that in Q3 and Q4, the growth rates will pick up. And the CITIC will unswervingly handle our own business, comprehensively deepen our reform, and focus on technological innovation, strengthen finance, and to support the real economy, prevent and resolve major risks, promote high-quality development. Just now, the Chairman has proposed the requirements, and we are very confident to achieve all the business targets this year. We are going to ensure that the growth rates will outperform the average of the market. I would like to say to our investors and analysts, for the whole years, the net profit target should be more than RMB 100 billion. As to realize the development goals of CITIC. In the future, we are also very confident to maintain stable growth of our business. The drivers are from four aspects. Firstly, financial business. For our financial business, the first engine is CITIC Financial Holdings. Financial Holdings will be the first engine to drive the growth of CITIC. An establishment of CITIC Financial Holdings will help us to prevent and guard against risks and to improve our wealth management business, asset management, and integrated financing business, as well as to contribute and to provide room for imagination and numerous possibilities of the industry. The second driver is CITIC Bank. The quality of the assets of CITIC Bank has been improved, and three-pronged core enhancement strategies have been implemented, maintaining a good momentum of growth, which has helped to stabilize the performance of the business. CITIC Securities' aim is to build a world-class securities company in the world. It's very important, and also it has contributed to the overall growth of the business. The financial business sector of CITIC has incubated new businesses, which in the future will become new drivers of our business and performance. The second driver is from our non-financial business. The new materials segment and the new type of urbanization segment are going to contribute new momentum of growth, achieving significant growth. Thirdly, regarding the third aspect, in terms of the management of CITIC Limited, we are going to ask for performance by improving our performance management. We're going to start our new journey to become a world-class enterprise to improve our business operation and the performance. We are going to maintain a stable growth of our business and the performance. First, to deepen reform. We are going to improve our performance by deepening our reform. The first is our advantageous business will be divided and to be listed. CITIC Metal is now under the review to be listed. The scattered business will be integrated and packaged to apply for IPO. Some of the projects have been initiated. Thirdly, we are deeply study and discuss refinancing possibility for CITIC Financial Holdings to improve the adequacy supplementing of finance of financial CITIC Financial Holdings. Thank you. I'm going to answer your second question. CITIC, as a comprehensive financial corporation, it has a very large potential for wealth management business. We have 147 million individual users, and we have increased by 6% of our AUM. For the share holding banks in China, we've been ranking the second. We have a large potential in the management of the wealth. We are the first in China to obtain the financial holding license. We are going to tap into the potential because we have a very good platform. In the future, we are going to control the risks and to build the platform and to build the system mechanism and improve synergy so as to unlock the potential of CITIC Financial Holdings. First of all, in terms of strategy, according to the high quality of wealth management creating values, and we have developed Wealth Management 1314 strategy system, including one management committee, so as to push forward the system and to serve our customers and to provide the high-quality products. Centering on these three core competencies, we are going to build the platform so as to perform the cross-sales integration of data management and to manage the team performance, evaluation, brand management, channel management. Those are the four pillars of the industry, of the business. In terms of the organization, it has developed a wealth management committee, and we are going to manage at the micro level, and do not interfere with the micro businesses, and we took the lead to plan the system and institutional arrangement. In terms of the model of operation, according to the one plus three operation model of the Wealth Management Committee, we have set up the investment banking business, retail system and asset allocation subcommittee in order to focus on wealth management. Under the asset allocation subcommittee, we have developed from CITIC high-quality products and asset allocation two. We have these two platforms and to focus on R&D, as well as to select the high-quality products. We have developed the pool of sharing the resources for CITIC, which has been recognized by the market. Looking to the future, the blue ocean wealth management business has great potential for development. CITIC is going to make sure, make use of the advantages as a comprehensive financial company, as well as our very solid base of customers to explore the new connotations of financial holding and to create a new landscape in the comprehensive financial service. Thank you. Mr. Xi and Madam Liu. Let's welcome the next question. Dear leaders, I'm from Citibank. I'm Yang Haiy ang. I want to congratulate on the achievement of the good results in the first half of the year. I have two questions. The first question is that for the real estate business, so it is under a lot of pressure and met a lot of difficulties. There is great potential in the banking business of CITIC, but I've seen that the NPL balance and ratio have both decreased. I want to ask the management of the business and risk exposure of CITIC's real estate business and how to mitigate the risk. Secondly, I have seen that CITIC Limited and the parent company increased investment into Huarong and also the shares allocation of the bank. I wanted to ask about the leverage ratio as well as how to respond to the challenges. Thank you. Thank you, Yang Haiyang, for the questions. For the first question, we have Xi Guohua here. He's going to share with you on the first question. The second question is about the financial performance. I'm going to ask, Fang Heying, our CFO, to answer the second question. Analysts and investors are very interested in the business of CITIC's and the real estate business, as well as mitigation of risks. As we see that CITIC's own real estate business is relatively stable. Our real estate business involves two subsidiaries, CITIC Pacific Properties and CITIC Urban Development & Operation, and another 10% stake in COLI. Both of the subsidiaries adhere to the principle of prudent operation, adhere to differentiated positioning, and do not conduct high leverage and high turnover businesses. The net profit in the first half of the year also exceeded the planned targets. COLI also continued to maintain a steady development momentum, outperforming the markets. For the financial business in the real estate industry, in the integrated financial sector, it has increased for the first half of the year, but the industry's concentration showed a downward trend. Non-performing balance and non-performing proportion of investment of financial business has decreased. The important progress has made in risk mitigation for banks and trust real estate customers. Here, I also like to emphasize that, in a process of resolving risks, we have applied our advantages to mitigate the risks in the real estate. We know that CITIC is international and large-scale enterprise. In mitigate the risk, we have our own advantages to combine the industry and the financing and. It is a systematic way and related with finance laws and also the asset management and a lot of special management. Under the maximization and to balance the risk and our revenue, we have played the good role of combining the industry and the finance so that we could use the finance and also use the market. Our real estate subsidiaries will evaluate the key situation, and they will deliver their advantages, so the risk could be reduced, and they will be managed by the subsidiaries to manage those risks. With these advantages and under such basis, we could help to reduce those exposures to risks. At the same time, we could help the risk real estate companies to mitigate their risks and to help the livelihood of people. I mean, in recent years, we have actively to reduce these risks, and we have innovative ways to mitigate those risks and to have many measures, implement different ways, and use, like, the risk mitigation and some custody method and other methods. We could use different ways, and there are many representative cases has been made. It has stabilized the market and retain people's confidence. As just now I have mentioned one project, which is the Kaisa, Shenzhen Kaisa Asset Package project, which is a representative case. It has been jointly operated by different parties, and so we have used many different ways to help with this package, and it could be put into our packages, and we could have the debt payoff system. We could use different ways to use our assets and our capital and to better control risks, and to have a better control about the certainty of payback, of paying off those debts. Up to now, the project has been completed in June, and all the projects in the package has realized the payoff, and some of the projects have get their capital returned, so that we have successfully do a good job. We have also helped the government to solve some problems and some difficulties and to help to stabilize the markets. It has helped to support livelihoods and support the stability. In Hengda, two projects of the Beijing, because it's influenced by the pro- the Hengda, so it has been at the status of being stopped progression. We do a lot of work to avoid this risk could be expanded. We have cooperated to support the Beijing government to start the project and the asset. We have uh established the asset project. We have also provided special custody services, and we've realized how to support the reasonable and legal rights of different parties. This also helped livelihoods and maintain the financial stability and safeguard the social and people's livelihoods. We have also used to maintain our main business and to play the role of our ways, our special position to solve those problems. In Shenzhen projects, we have realized the shareholding segregation and to have a better custody of the capital so that we could have the return for the stock in asset. In Zhuzhou, we have also realized the hub management custody method. We supported like 8,000 families who have bought the assets. Thank you for your question. About leverage, CITIC Limited since 2016, we have paid great attention to the level of leverage ratio, and we have implemented a series of control measures, especially in 2017. We have done some reforms and the leverage management is the important part of it with some institutions, including some evaluation and some policies. Especially last year, we have used the industry and finance coordination so that the leverage ratio has been reduced significantly, and the dynamic ratio has been reduced to half. The static leverage level has been maintained at 27% in recent years. It reached the good fine level defined by SASAC. For the asset liability ratio is also some like 60% something, and it is supporting the strategic layout for the current economy situation. This year, we have increased our allotments of the shares. Several years ago, we have reduced the leverage. Up to now, the leverage ratio is quite healthy and still have a room. In the future, we'll continue to have a better management for it, so that it lay good foundation for the future's industry layout. In recent years, we also see smooth financial channels. In Hong Kong, we have the like $9 billion medium-term note quota. We have issued a public medium-term note of $1 billion this year, so it is a good control of the cost. In July, we also have issued a private placement bond of $100 million. In the future, we will prudently carry out external financing based on actual capital needs and market condition, and strive to maintain a leverage ratio at a reasonable level. Thank you, Xu Zuo, Mr. Cao. Next question. Dear management, I am from Tokio Marine, thank you for the opportunity for me to ask the question. I have two questions. The first is, we see some downward economy, and there are two challenges for the banks. I'd like to know how is the operation of CITIC Bank in the first half of 2022, and what is your outlook for full year operating results? Another is that we have seen the COVID cases also happen, it also has risks. I'd like to know what is your quality of the capital and what is your expectation for the future. Mr. Fang Heying is here, who could answer this question. Thank you for your question. I'll also like to thank you for your attention to CITIC Bank. Just know the chairman also mentioned that CITIC Bank has progress in stability. In overall, we have been good in momentum, and our efficiency had improved significantly, asset quality continued to be optimized, and asset growth stabilized. In the efficiency, we have a double-digit increase. For the NPL, we have a double decrease, which has also decreased for the seventh consecutive quarter. I'd like to talk about the characteristics of the operation for the first half of the year. First is that we have seen the significant results were achieved in the management of net interest margin. Although the net interest margin has declined, it has changed from being weaker than its peers in the previous several years. Up to now, we have a full BPS better than its peers. That means we have adhered to volume-price balance and stabilized the interest margin, which began to bear fruit. Our non-interest income also maintained a growth of 8.9%, which was better than its peers. We have seen a more balanced structure of income for the company. Retail and financial markets accounted for 44%, 38.8% and 60.1% of the revenue respectively, which also shows that our new retail strategy and the strategy of improving trading capability have gradually shown effects. Third is characteristics is about business transformation and an energy transformation. We have effective transition and support the development of the real economy, and we focus on green finance and strategic energy industries with growth rates of 41% and 18% respectively. We have doubled the amount of cooperation projects with new and special enterprises and the business, and we increased investment in capital markets by over 50%. Our business adjustment is closely integrated to support the real economy and stabilize the overall economic market. In addition, we have three core capabilities, including wealth management, asset management, and comprehensive financing, drive some sustainable growth of our development. Our technology is helping us to drive development. We're also seeing that the retail has been improved and all these capabilities has been improved. For the look back at our management of the first half of the year, we are stable, which could help us to stabilize, and we have good momentum, and we have new things, and we could help the new promising future. We will stabilize our interest margin and to look at our quality and our intermediate business. We will continue to get some new opportunities. For our investments, we will coordinate and implement our orientation of stabilizing the economy, and we will strengthen the Our focus and to avoid and mitigate our risks. For the second half of the year, we will continue to keep the momentum. The whole year, we can continue the growth of revenue and the quality of assets will be improved, and scale also will also rise. Because this year marks the 35th anniversary, and we have a slogan. Moving forward, we are going to have a brighter future ahead of us. For your second question about the quality of assets, just now Chairman Zhu and General Manager Xi were answering your questions, have talked about the quality of assets of CITIC Bank, and also made projections. We wanted to say that in the first half of this, CITIC Bank's asset quality improves, and we judge that the internal driving force of the improvement of quality of the assets is improving. We see that we have already overcome the most difficult time, and this judgment has been proved by evidence. The trend of the continuous improving of assets, and this is reflected on two aspects so far. Currently, CITIC Bank has crossed a turning point. The asset quality, like I said before, the NPL balance and ratio fell for seven consecutive quarters, and the new non-performing loan ratio was 1.256%, down by 0.06 percentage point year-on-year. The provision coverage ratio and the provision-to-loan ratio are increased. On and off balance sheet, the distressed assets were disposed of by RMB 54 billion. Many major risks have been mitigated or resolved. Mr. Xi also introduced us the coordination in across the group, and we have already improved our tools and made effective exploration. In the future, the positive trend of assets quality will be stable and sustainable. Firstly, we are confident in the asset quality. The historical burden has been basically lifted, and the impairment of return to balance sheet risk asset and off balance sheet risk asset, distressed assets have been relieved. We have consolidated the foundation of the quality of the assets. Secondly, the indicators of non-performing indicators have stabilized and improved. We see the double reduction of NPL balance and ratio. Certainly, the existing asset structure is good, and our credit structure is strong, and our risk appetite is more stable, and industry credit distribution is more balanced. The customer concentration continues to decline. We see the very stable cash flow, as well as we are now paying more attention to the management of leverage. Firstly, the risk control system is improved. We are now improving the accountability system and to make more research, as well as to have accurate placements of credits. For the second half of the year, we see the increase of the policies to stabilize the economy, and we will see a stabilization of economic indicators. We see the recovery of the repayments by clients. Of course, in the future, we may face the risk of expansion of risks. We have already been tested by the pandemic successfully, and we have seen that there isn't significant risk of extension of repayment of principal, and our management system has been continuously improved. Our resistance to risks have been reinforced, and we are disposing risks in an orderly way. We are confident and able to maintain the good and positive trend of improvement of asset quality. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fang. Next. Let's welcome the next question. Thank you very much. I'm from CITIC Bank and have two questions for the management. The first question is about the dividend rate. CITIC Limited has a very strong risk resistance capability, which has been reflected on the dividend rate. I would like to ask the management whether the dividend rate will be improved, and is there any plan for buyback? My second question is about CITIC Pacific Special Steel. I'd like to ask how Special Steel has maintained a good profitability under the significant fluctuation of the price of raw materials. There's two questions. The first question is about buyback and the dividend. I would like to give the question to Mr. Cao Guoqiang, our CFO. The second question is for Mr. Xi Guohua, who's going to answer your second question. Thank you very much for your question. About your first question, about the dividend rate. This is a matter of great interest to investors and analysts. It's about our capability to generate profits and value. Last year, CITIC Limited, our total dividends for the year reached HKD 17.63 billion, with a dividend rate of 25.1%. In the middle of this year, CITIC Limited plans to distribute a dividend of 0.2 HKD per share, an increase of 0.05 HKD compared with, which is higher than the growth rates of our profits. The dividend increase, the dividend rate to be distributed is an increase of 33%. We see with the improvement of the returns to shareholders, the dividend rate has also continued to increase in recent years. The company's average cash dividend rate in the past five years has reached 24.6%, which is higher than the average level of 23.5% for similar comprehensive enterprises listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The total cash dividend is also increased from HKD 8.7 billion in 2015 to HKD 17.6 billion in 2022. An increase of 101.9%, which is very high. Last year in 2021, CITIC Limited has been incorporated into Hang Seng High Dividend Yield Index, which is a recognition by the market. Next, we are going to consider multiple factors such as our profitability, capital status, long-term development needs, the shareholders' concerns, market value management reform, so as to maintain the stability of dividend rate or even increase the dividend rate. For the buyback of shares. According to the requirements of the stock exchange, the public shareholding ratio of the company cannot be less than 21.87%, so there is no plan to buy back shares. Thank you for your question. In recent years, CITIC Pacific Special Steel's ROE has maintained around 25%. The reasons lie with... To make it simple, CITIC Pacific Special Steel is dedicated to science and technology innovation, and also it's benefited from its advantages of its competitiveness as well as continuous improvement of its technological innovation capabilities. To be more specific from the perspective supply and demand pattern. Under the background of building a new development pattern and stabilizing growth, the demand for special steel in new infrastructure, new energy vehicles, wind power, high-end equipment manufacturing, national defense, aerospace and other industries continues to grow while the supply of special steel is insufficient. We are in a very favorable condition of competition in the market. Secondly, from the perspective of our clients, CITIC Pacific Special Steel's downstream clients are the high-end clients in the downstream for good quality in the long run. In the long term, we worked and established close supply chain and a cooperation relationship with our high-end and medium-end companies and clients. We have been working together to increase our ability to mitigate and resist risk. From perspective of product, CITIC Pacific Special Steel produces a complete range of bearing steel, automotive steel, new energy steel, ultra-high strength steel and other products with high technological content. Most of the products we provide are customized. The customers' stickiness is very high. In terms of pricing, CITIC Pacific Special Steel and its clients adopt an annual and a quarterly negotiated price model. After we negotiate the base price, by taking into consideration of the market, the quarterly or monthly steel market and the raw material price, we determine the final price together. In terms of internal control and the management, CITIC Pacific Special Steel has established a highly market-oriented operation system incentive mechanisms, including management and core employee stock ownership plans, and has always maintained a keen market awareness. We have maintained a high sensitivity to the market, the management capability and our capacity to control costs outperform the market. CITIC Pacific Special Steel is one of the leading manufacturer of special steel materials and also a core member of CITIC Advanced Materials segment with the world-leading technology and a complete set of equipment. Here, I also sincerely welcome all analysts and investors. If condition allow, please come to visit CITIC Pacific Special Steel so that you can have a first-hand experience of the technological strengths and the management advantages of CITIC Pacific Special Steel. Thank you, Mr. Cao and Mr. Xu for the answers. Let's welcome the next question. Dear management, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity. I'm with the CICC. Have two questions to ask the management. The first question is I'd like to ask about the performance of Sino Iron and what are the highlights of the business, and how do we look into the results for the whole year? The second question is about CITIC Press. We have seen that CITIC Press has a good reputation, and I would like to ask a question about the operation of CITIC Press in the first half of the year, and what is your expectation of CITIC Press? We have Mr. Zhang Chen, Chairman of CITIC Pacific online with us. He's going to answer your questions on Sino Iron. Thank you, Chairman. I'd like to start the question from the analyst. Sino Iron in the first half of the year, its performance has been affected by the iron ore price, because compared to the same period of last year, the price decreased, so our net profit declined year-on-year. Historically speaking, the profitability has maintained a very good performance and the market still has a very strong demand for high-grade iron concentrate from Sino Iron. Most of the products are purchased by our long-term clients. Let's look at the production and operation in the first half of the year. We are confronted with a lot of challenges, the bad weather, especially this year because of climate change. We have seen the heavy rainfall, which has affected the mining activities of open pit mines. Like, and the pandemic policies have changed in Australia. We have seen several rounds of pandemic, which has hit our staff, organization of business. Sino Iron's team have overcome different kinds of challenges and completed our planned targets, exported 10.1 million wet metric tons of iron ore concentrate, and continue to maintain as the largest source of iron ore concentrate in China, ranking maintaining the highest market share. In the second half of the year, Sino Iron will proceed because we have seen there are some fluctuations in iron ore prices. From the operation from manufacturing and from sales, we will based on the schedule and budget to proceed our work, so we could overcome all different difficulties to ensure to complete all the operational requirements and targets for the whole year. For the CITIC Press, it has a high reputation and is a good brand. It can be described as a beautiful business card of CITIC. From the management, we're very satisfied with CITIC Press. I want to talk about CITIC Press from four different levels or aspects. The first, CITIC Press is in line with the trend of social consumption, transformation, and upgrading in China. It has a strong new consumption attributes. It is in line with people's demand for high quality reading and consumption upgrades. This is historical change and a kind of a historical trend. CITIC Press have create cultural value, social value, and economic value for the society and the consumers. Secondly, CITIC Press has been in a leading position in the industry, in the fierce competition, and has a stable operation capability. Over the years, CITIC Press has ranked number one among publishing houses in the market share. In particular, influence of economics and management books have continued to expand, and its market share has continued to lead the market. In children's book, cultural life, popular science and biography, they are at the leading position of the market. The CITIC bookstore was selected as the top three national brand chain bookstores against the pandemic and also the weak consumption in the first half of the year. As a listed company on the Growth Enterprise Market, CITIC Press achieved operating income of over RMB 800 million and net profit of RMB 100 million, maintaining a stable operation. Thirdly, CITIC Press actively implements the concept of sustainable development. We have high quality books such as China Theory and the Ecological Theory have been widely praised. We have, together with Sina, hosted the 2022 Global Leaders Summit, which is the conference with the very highest international participation. It has made contributions to advocating social attention to the concept of ESG. We also participated in social welfare activities. Finally, CITIC Press is an important subsidiary of CITIC Limited in its diversified operation and has very high brand value. It is, CITIC Press is rooted in the CITIC's state-owned integration. We have done the different changes, like the organizational changes, management changes. In the future, we will continue to optimize its operating mechanism, and, as a parent company, we will continue to support, CITIC Press. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Xi and Mr. Zhang. Thank you for your questions. In the interest of time, we can only take the last question. Thank you. Please. Dear, I'm Yuan Ye from China Securities. Thank you for giving me such opportunity. My question is, in recent years, and we see this year, there are, very complicated, overall environments, and, we see global commodity prices have fallen sharply. So what impact does this have on CITIC? Mr. Xi, can you answer this question? Xi. Thank you for your question. We know that recently, Mr. Xi Guohua has published articles on People's Daily and in other magazines, and it has introduced about CITIC's system and its reforms and some innovations. This is also something we have done in the leading position. We have set the models to do such kind of a CITIC model. In for commodity price risk and derivatives business management, we have three-tier, our subsidiaries and our headquarters have established a systematic management mechanism, and we have enough experience and capability to respond to such a situation. Now, we have sufficiently to respond to the fluctuations in commodity prices. We have included the daily management mechanism for commodity prices to actively manage and control it. We have, from the channel maintenance and risk management and control, CITIC Metal has improved the management and control of some transaction quota and credit lines so that we have seen stable operations. For the first half of the year, we have seen there are 109% increase year-over-year. We have also see CITIC Dicastal have promotes technology innovation and application and builds a green supply ecological chain. CITIC Heavy Industries strengthens the cultivation of large customers and the large orders. In the first half of the year, those companies have enjoyed year-over-year growth for income and net profit. Of course, we will continue to focus on the trend of commodities around the world. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Xi. In the interest of the time, so our today's results briefing and investor briefing ends here. I would like to thank all the management and shareholders, investors, and analysts. If you have new questions, you may communicate and contact our shareholder group team. Thank you.