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By Tang Guhan

China's famous high-end liquor makers, the Kweizhou Moutai Group and the Wuliangye Group disclosed their lower-than-expected revenue and profit growths in the third quarter recently.

The Kweizhou Moutai Group's revenue amounted to 52.242 billion yuan (7.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters, up 23.07 percent year on year while the net profit attributable to shareholders of the company were up by 23.77 percent to 24.73 billion yuan (3.55 billion U.S. dollars).

The company's revenue growth rate, when compared with a year earlier, slipped to a single digit of 3.2 percent with the net profit down to 2.71 percent, which were far less than the expected 20 percent by industry experts.

The stock price of the Kweizhou Moutai Group plummeted downward to the daily limit at the stock market on Monday.

Qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) are holding 12.26 million shares of the Kweizhou Moutai Group. Besides, 96 fund companies hold Kweizhou Moutai's shares.

The supply shortage was one of the main reasons why the company's financial performance was below the industry's expectation when compared with the figures for their better revenues and net profits during the same period a year earlier, said Xue Yuhu, an analyst at the Founder Securities.

The Wuliangye Group reported a 23.17-percent and a 19.6-percent increase in revenue and net profit respectively for the third quarter, while the figure was 33.1 percent and 26.3 percent respectively for the first three quarters accumulatively.

Chinese analysts said the liquor industry would grow steadily in the future, but with a slowed-down pace probably.