Soho China Says 1st-Half Profit Soared – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | August 21, 2013

Here is a list of the day’s latest China real estate news collected from around the web:

• Real Estate Developer Soho China Says 1st-Half Profit Soared

  Soho China, the Beijing-based real estate developer led by billionaire couple Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, said first-half profit soared by 242% from a year earlier to 2.1 billion yuan, or $350 million.

  Turnover doubled to 2.5 billion yuan in part on the successful leasing of prime office buildings in Beijing and Shanghai, following a switch in its business strategy from “build to sell” to “build to hold” in August 2012. Among its successful projects, the office space in Soho Century Plaza, located in Shanghai’s financial district in Pudong, is 100% leased, the company said. Tenants include the Shanghai Futures Exchange and Everbright Futures, among other financial firms.

• Peter Pao joins BGC Hong Kong as director, Greater China

  BGC Partners, a brokerage company servicing the wholesale financial and real estate markets, has appointed Peter Pao as director, Greater China.

  Pao, who brings more than 30 years of broking experience and capital markets expertise, joins BGC Hong Kong to manage its business across Greater China and to pursue regional business opportunities.

  He will be based in Hong Kong and will report directly to Len Harvey, executive managing director and general manager, Asia-Pacific.

• Foreign Direct Investment Inflows on the Rise

  According to FDI data issued by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on June 18, the scale of China’s actual foreign direct investment inflows reached US$47.595 billion during January to May, 2013, up 1.03% from the same period in 2012. In May alone, the amount was US$9.256 billion, a 0.29% increase from last year. On the other hand, approval was given for 8,609 foreign invested enterprises to be established during January to May 2013, a fall of 7.04% from the same period of 2012.

  According to MOFCOM spokesman Shen Danyang, “Against the global backdrop, China’s foreign capital absorption trend is relatively stable. The positive growth during January to May this year proved that China’s economy is competitive and international investors can accept China’s investment environment.”

• Legal framework taking shape for Shanghai FTZ

  An executive meeting of the State Council said that a draft plan to suspend certain laws in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone will be submitted for the approval of the National People’s Congress.

  The measure was expected to ease the administrative approval procedures for foreign investment. It’s also a first step in setting up a new financial architecture as the country pursues a round of economic reform.

  According to the Friday meeting, the FTZ will explore an innovative “blacklist” management system, which only regulate the forbidden areas and all the rest will be open for investors, in a bid to improve the efficiency of investment.

  The establishment of the Shanghai FTZ was approved by the council on July 3, although no detailed plans have been announced yet.

• Longfor confident in sales target for 2013

  Longfor Properties Co Ltd expressed confidence on Monday in meeting its full-year sales target, as strong demand drove a sharp rebound in the property market.

  First-half sales were 22.4 billion yuan ($3.6 billion), or 49 percent of its 2013 goal, the Beijing-based company said in its interim results. Chief Executive Officer Shao Mingxiao said that there is “no problem” to meet the target.

  Longfor said last week that July sales jumped 44 percent year-on-year and 2.1 percent month-on-month to 4.42 billion yuan, representing 334,000 square meters of property.

• ‘Nail Houses’: Unlikely Monuments to Anti-Government Resistance in China

  Even as its economy slows, China’s investment in real estate and infrastructure has lost little steam. A common problem for developers, though, is that especially in and around major cities plum land parcels are often already occupied. The solution? Evict the residents. Sometimes developers or local governments compensate or relocate those they kick out, usually offering less than the original property’s value. Sometimes they don’t.

  But occasionally this combo of force and pay-out doesn’t work. The result is what is popularly called “nail houses” or “nail households,” referring both to their residents’ stubbornness and how they protrude on the skyline of already razed land.

• Dalian Wanda Owner is Now China’s Richest Billionaire

  Wang Jianlin, owner of China’s biggest commercial land developer, is the nation’s wealthiest person, based on regulatory filings that show his non-real estate businesses are more valuable than previously calculated.

  The chair of closely held conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, which became the world’s largest movie theatre chain after acquiring AMC Entertainment last year for $2.6 billion, has a net worth of $14.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

  Wanda has made headlines this year for billion dollar hotel projects in London and New York, as well as for the company’s acquisition of the AMC theatre chain in the US.

This list is updated daily, so tune in again tomorrow for more up to date information.

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