China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) expect its net profit for last year to have nearly doubled due to asset acquisitions, the expansion of valemax fleet and a recovery in tanker earnings.

In an exchange filing, the Shanghai-listed company said preliminary results showed its net profits grew by a range between CNY 520m ($76.5m) and CNY 630m in 2018.

When one-off items were excluded, net profit rose by a range of CNY 320m-CNY 390m.