China's Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Co. said on Tuesday its shareholders had approved a plan to buy back a 24.99 percent stake in a natural gas subsidiary from U.S. investment firm Newbridge Capital.

Xinjiang Guanghui will purchase the stake in Xinjiang Guanghui LNG Development Co. from Newbridge's Greenway Energy Ltd. for $45.97 million.

Greenway Energy bought the stake for $33.8 million last year. Under that agreement, Xinjiang Guanghui could buy back the stake if it failed to reach a gas supply deal with Greenway within six months. A deal has not been reached, Xinjiang Guanghui said.

The Chinese company said it would fund the buy-back mostly with internal funds.

Xinjiang Guanghui, which also has interests in logistics and trading services, announced on Tuesday that it booked 112.41 million yuan ($14.86 million) in net profit for the first half of this year, down 17 percent from a year earlier.

It blamed the fall on the buy-back. ($1=7.561 Yuan)