There is no self-owned ship, and the business has a certain scale. In 2015, the company ranked fifth among all foreign trade transshipment service providers in terms of container transshipment volume, and ranked second among non-state-owned enterprise competitors in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Hong Kong with a history of more than 22 years. As of December 31, 2015, the company has a total of 19 operating sites, including Hong Kong headquarters, including branches and representative offices in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region and Hainan Province. As of the latest practicable date, the company's fleet consists of 16 vessels, of which four are vessels used by the company under the priority use agreement and 12 are chartered vessels. The company's four ships under the priority use agreement are registered in China, one of which is registered as holding 40% ownership in the name of the company, while the other three ships are registered as holding 49% ownership in the name of the company.
The market environment led to a decrease in income and an increase in gross profit margin. In 2014, total annual revenue increased slightly by 0.6% compared with the same period last year, mainly due to an increase in revenue from regional ship services and carrier-owned box services, partly offset by a decrease in revenue from maritime freight forwarding services. The increase in revenue from the first two types of services is mainly due to the company's expansion of routes and operation scale in Guangxi and reduced allocation of resources to maritime freight forwarding services with low gross profit margin. In the same period, the company's gross profit decreased by 11.5% compared with the same period last year, and the corresponding gross profit margin fell from 14.7% in 2013 to 12.9% in 2014, mainly due to port congestion in Hong Kong in 2014. The company had to increase ship leasing to maintain the punctuality of shipping services, resulting in an increase in the cost of sales. In 2015, China's macroeconomic growth slowed and import and export trade continued to decline. The company's revenue decreased by 22.8% compared with the same period last year, and shipments decreased significantly accordingly. During the same period, international oil prices fell sharply, and the drop in fuel prices reduced the price of its services, thus offsetting some of the losses caused by reduced risk returns. During the same period, with the reduction in customer demand for related services, the company strives to further concentrate its operating resources away from maritime freight forwarding services on the other two types of services with higher gross margins. In 2015, the company benefited from this development strategy, with a 7.7% year-on-year increase in gross margin and a corresponding increase in gross profit margin from 12.9% in 2014 to 18.1% in 2015.
Without hedging oil prices, the imposition of fuel surcharges will help reduce operating costs. Recently, international oil prices have continued to rise, and the company does not have any relevant positions because of concerns about the long-term risks of oil price hedging strategies. At the same time, the company has been charging its customers a fuel surcharge. Therefore, we estimate that the company will not be much affected by fuel costs this year. Recently, the company has focused on the development of port business in South China except Hong Kong, in order to make up for the declining import and export volume of Hong Kong as a transit port.
It is recommended to subscribe carefully. The import and export data of the mainland have continued to decline since the beginning of this year, and the overall freight volume in Hong Kong has declined. Competition in the freight industry is fierce and the company does not own its own vessels, so we are cautious about its future business development. In terms of valuation, the price-to-book ratio as of the last feasible date is 2.73 to 2.92 times, and the 2015 price-to-earnings ratio is 10.72 to 13.58 times. Compared with the industry, the valuation is reasonable. It is recommended to subscribe carefully.