Wharf’s Stephen Ng had some good news about 2016
Some of Hong Kong’s biggest developers chose Friday to release their 2016 earnings, and those reports of success or failure lead today’s property headlines. Top builder Wheelock is cheerful enough after their results to test out the idea of a separate listing for their investment assets, while Joseph Lau’s Chinese Estates is offering the ailing tycoon/fugitive little relief from his recent woes. Read on for all these stories and more.
HK’s Wharf Hopes to Spin Off Investment Assets
Wharf Holdings will consider separately listing some of its investment property assets by way of introduction, chairman Stephen Ng Tin-hoi said yesterday.
He said the prerequisite for any possible spinoff is that Wharf would not reduce its current stakes in those investment properties. Ng said a preliminary option the company is exploring could see it become two entities. Wharf recorded a 25 percent year- on-year increase in core profit to HK$13.8 billion in 2016, with net profit rising 34 percent to HK$21.4 billion. Read more>>
Wheelock Shares Rise on Record Core Profit
Wheelock and Company Limited, the Hong Kong property and logistics conglomerate that controls Wharf Holdings, saw its shares surge to a record high on Friday following strong core earnings for 2016, thanks to a greater profit contribution from Wharf, strong home sales in the mainland and Hong Kong, and robust rental income.
Annual core profit, excluding investment property revaluation gains and exceptional items, surged 11 per cent to HK$11.8 billion in 2016, the company revealed. Read more>>
GLP Leases Out More Sheds in Japan and China
Logistics facilities provider Global Logistic Properties (GLP) has signed 69,000 sq m of new leases in China and Japan over the past three months, it announced on Thursday.
The customers are using the facilities to service growing demand from online and offline retail distribution channels, it said. Read more>>
Guangzhou R&F Boosts Sales Target by 21% for 2017
Guangzhou R&F Properties has raised its sales target for the year as the Chinese developer is upbeat on its prospects in lower-tier cities in eastern China despite government measures to cool the property market.
The Guangzhou-based developer announced on Friday a contracted sales target of 73 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) for 2017, up 21% from a year ago. “Maintaining our annual sales target at 80-90 billion yuan in the next three years won’t be a problem,” said R&F’s Chairman Li Sze-lim at the company’s earnings briefing. Read more>>
Chinese Estates Net Profits Fell 17.7% in 2016
A week after a major share restructuring by the former chairman Joseph Lau Luen-hung, Chinese Estates Holdings reported 2016 net profit fell 17.7 per cent due to a sharp drop in rental income and smaller gains in revaluation on properties as a result of continuing asset disposals.
For the year to December, net profit was HK$6.36 billion (US$818 million), down from HK$7.72 billion a year ago, according to a company filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday. Read more>>
China’s CSCEC Wins Deal to Build Africa’s Tallest Tower
The biggest builder in the world by turnover, state-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), has been awarded the contract to build the tallest tower in Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya.
Reflecting hopes that Kenya will soon be a major oil exporter, a named investor is oil marketing firm Hass Petroleum Group, whose $195m (Sh20 billion) Hass Towers scheme will consist of two towers: a 45-storey Hilton hotel, and a record-breaking 67-storey tower with Grade A office, retail and leisure space, Capital Business reports. Read more>>
Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter for headlines as they happen.
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