(JW Insights) Nov 1 -- Chinese state-owned enterprises listed in Shanghai upped their spending on research and development in the third quarter from a year ago, according to the earnings reports so far released by these companies, reported Yicai Global.

Their R&D outlays rose 3.7 percent to RMB151.5 billion ($20.7 billion) in the three months ended September 30, the reports showed.

As of October 30, there were 274 centrally administrated SOEs listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with a total market value of about RMB24.2 trillion ($3.3 trillion). Some 215 of them, or 80 percent, have published their third-quarter earnings reports so far.

R&D spending at 57 SOEs accounted for more than 5 percent of their revenue in the quarter. Meanwhile, the 25 listed on the SSE’s Nasdaq-like Star Market that have released reports spent a combined RMB7 billion ($957 million), equal to 7.7 percent of their revenue.

The total spent by Shanghai-listed centrally administrated SOEs rose to over RMB420 billion last year from about RMB55.7 billion ($7.6 billion) 10 years earlier, growing at a compound annual rate of 22 percent.

The average share of spending on R&D to revenue at the SOEs has risen to 2.3 percent from 1.2 percent. Last year, among the top 20 Shanghai-listed companies for R&D expenditure, 15 were centrally administrated SOEs.

Combined revenue and net profit at the 215 Shanghai-listed SOEs that have released earnings reports rose 2.1 percent and 7.2 percent to RMB14.4 trillion($1.9 trillion) and RMB1.7 trillion ($232.3 billion), respectively.

Shanghai-listed central SOEs are also the main cash cows on the bourse, despite only 80 percent of them paying dividends. Last year, these firms paid out a total of about RMB1.1 trillion($150.3 billion), accounting for 61 percent of all dividends disbursed by Shanghai-listed companies. The figure for the past three years was RMB2.6 trillion($355.2 billion), making up 60 percent of the total, according to the Yicai Global report.

(Yuan XY/Gao J)