(Yicai Global) Aug. 17 -- China Literature’s shares sank after the Tencent Holdings-backed e-book platform did not publish a forecast for the current six months, following a return to profit in the first half.

China Literature [HKG:0772] closed 10.6 percent lower today at HKD64.65 (USD8.30), after earlier slumping as much as 13.4 percent, giving it a market capitalization of HKD67.1 billion (USD8.6 billion).

The Shanghai-based firm logged net profit of nearly CNY1.1 billion (USD169.8 million) in the six months ended June 30, a big turnaround from the almost CNY3.3 billion loss it reported in the same period last year, according to the report it released yesterday.

First-half revenue climbed 33.2 percent to CNY4.34 billion. Online business revenue rose 3.4 percent to CNY2.5 billion, and income from copyright operations more than doubled to CNY1.8 billion, accounting for 41.5 percent of the total.

Meanwhile, both average monthly active users and paying users fell 0.3 percent and 12.3 percent to 232.7 million and 9.3 million, respectively. But average monthly income from each paying user rose 6.7 percent to CNY36.40 (USD5.6), reflecting the willingness of online readers to pay.

China Literature’s major shareholder Tencent appointed new management at the firm last April following the resignation of Wu Wenhui, founder and chief executive. Edward Cheng, vice president of Tencent, took over as CEO. He increased the free-to-read content at the expense of paid reading to attract traffic, while charging for derivative works.

With new management, the firm established closer ties with Tencent. China Literature, Tencent Pictures and New Classics Media co-launched several popular movies and television works in the first half. Tencent Comics and China Literature’s Comics & Animation Department have adapted more than 70 literary works into comics and released them on Tencent Comics’ platform.

Editor: Futura Costaglione