| 19 | Earnings per share |
The calculation of basic earnings per share for the year ended December 31, 2017 is based on the profit attributable to equity shareholders of the Company of RMB5,961 million (2016: RMB5,044 million; 2015: RMB3,736 million) and the weighted average of 9,923,585,348 shares in issue during the year (2016 and 2015: 9,817,567,000 shares).
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | ||||||||||
| million | million | million | ||||||||||
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Issued ordinary shares at January 1 |
9,818 | 9,818 | 9,818 | |||||||||
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Effect of issuance of H shares (Note 47) |
106 | — | — | |||||||||
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Weighted average number of ordinary shares at December 31 |
9,924 | 9,818 | 9,818 | |||||||||
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The amounts of diluted earnings per share are the same as basic earnings per share as there were no dilutive potential ordinary shares in existence for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015.