OREANDA-NEWS. May 17, 2011. China Natural Gas, Inc. ("China Natural Gas" or the "Company") , a leading provider of compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicular fuel and pipeline natural gas for industrial, commercial and residential use in Xi'an, China, announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011.

Qinan Ji, Chairman and CEO of China Natural Gas, Inc. commented: "During the first quarter, we continued to diligently grow and expand our business. The total number of fueling stations that we operated was 38. We also continued to make progress with the preparation for production of our liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Shaanxi Province and we were also actively expanding in other regions including Henan and Hubei Province. The successful expansion of our CNG fueling station business in Xi'an and Henan Province has been a significant factor driving our revenue growth and results of operations for the quarter. We intend to continue to increase the number of CNG fueling stations in Xi'an and Henan Province, and we anticipate the growth of our CNG fueling stations and our LNG facility coming online continue to add to both our top-line and bottom-line growth."

First Quarter 2011 Results
Revenue in the first quarter of 2011 increased by 24.5% to USD 24.11 million from USD 19.37 million in the first quarter of 2010, driven by the net increase of 2 in the number of fueling stations , and the growth in unit sales price, as well as an increase in the number of residential and commercial pipeline customers from 110,713 to 115,787 over the period. Sales revenue of natural gas grew by 31.5% year-over-year to USD 20.35 million, from USD 15.48 million in the first quarter of 2010.

Gasoline revenue in the first quarter of 2011 decreased by 11.0% to USD 1.31 million, from USD 1.47 million in the same period of the prior year, mainly because 4 gasoline stations were closed during the fourth quarter of 2010, though 1 of them were reopened in the first quarter of 2011. Installation and automobile conversion services revenue grew by 1.7% year-over-year to USD 2.45 million, from USD 2.41 million a year ago. In the first quarter of 2011, sales of natural gas, gasoline, and installation and automobile conversion services contributed 84.4%, 5.4%, and 10.2% of total revenue, respectively.

Gross profit in the first quarter of 2011 increased 6.9% to USD 9.72 million from USD 9.09 million in the same period of the prior year. Gross margin in the first quarter of 2011 was 40.3%, compared to 47.0% a year ago. Gross margin decreased primarily due to the increase in average procurement prices increased at a higher proportion to prior prices than that of the increase in sales prices.

Operating income in the first quarter of 2011 was USD 3.23 million, a decrease of 26.4% year-over-year from USD 4.39 million, largely impacted by the increase in procurement costs and operating expenses in the first quarter of 2011 by approximately USD 1.78 million as compared to the same period of the prior year.

Income tax expense was USD 0.96 million at an effective tax rate of 27.8%, as compared to an effective tax rate of 18.6% in the first quarter of 2010. The increase was primarily because certain start-up, non-operational entities incurred a considerable amount of selling and management expenses for the first quarter of 2011, materially reducing of income before tax, the denominator in the calculation of effective income tax rate.

Net income in the first quarter of 2011 decreased by 37.8% to USD 2.49 million, or USD 0.12 per diluted share, from USD 4 million, or USD 0.19 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2010.

As of March 31, 2011, the Company had USD 8.93 million of cash and cash equivalents on hand, compared to USD 10.05 million of cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2010. The decrease was primarily attributable to the construction of the LNG plant, and market development initiatives.

Net cash provided by operating activities was USD 2.46 million for the first quarter of 2011, as compared to net cash provided by operations of USD 4.85 million for the first quarter of 2010. The primary reason for the change was the correlating decrease in net income, the increase in accounts receivables, higher balance of inventories, the increase in other assets and the reduction in unearned revenue (customer prepayments).