Betting the wrong way on the Australian dollar resulted in such a huge annual loss for the Chinese cabinet-controlled investment company that it had to seek a $1.5 billion bailout from the government.

The first yearly loss in nearly twenty years - that too to the tune of HK$12.7 billion ($1.64 billion) - came on account of Citic Pacific's purchase of currency contracts for financing an A$1.6 billion iron ore mine in Australia. While the company had gambled that the Australian dollar would go up, the currency actually tumbled against the US dollar, spelling trouble for Citic Pacific!

Commenting on Citic Pacific's losses and the government bailout, analyst Kevin Luo, of Shenzhen-based Guotai Junan Securities, said: "The higher-than-expected loss is mainly due to the inventory write-down of specialty steel and losses from aviation and power businesses. The bailout from its parent will significantly reduce the company's bankruptcy risks."

Despite the whopping loss and a plunging demand for steel and air travel, Citic Pacific maintained in a filing that, following the Citic Group re-capitalization, it was financially secure, had a solid balance sheet, and a well-structured debt maturity.

However, with Citic Pacific falling 7.3 percent to HK$9.03, a Hong Kong-based analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co, Billy Ng, said that the investors will take some time to before they can "rebuild their confidence in the company."