Citic Pacific, the Hong Kong-listed arm of China’s largest investment conglomerate, on Wednesday reported its first annual loss after one-way bets against the Australian dollar cost the company HK$14.6bn last year.

Citic Pacific swung to a net loss of HK$12.7bn in 2008, compared with a profit of HK$10.8bn the year before. Excluding the mark-to-market loss, the company said after tax profit would have been HK$1.97bn. Turnover rose 20 per cent from HK$38.5bn in 2007 to HK$46.4bn in 2008.