Poly Auction House today reported that its profits for the first six months of this year totaled 209,622,000 Chinese Yuan (or around $34 million), an increase of 8.4 percent over the same period last year.
The auction house went public earlier this year and is now the world’s third largest after Christie’s and Sotheby’s. The uptick would seem to reflect the growth of the Chinese art market, but the state-backed house, which started out selling weapons for the PLA, faces a number of issues—like winning bidders who later refuse to pay—that hinder its simply riding the wave of art’s newfound popularity in that country.
The full earning report follows: