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CapitaLand’s group president and CEO Liew Mun Leong says the company aims to grow further in China and up to 45% of its total assets may come from operations there in the next few years.
To support its expansion, the property group has cooperation agreements with two major Chinese banks which will give it access to up RMB25 billion.
The group soft-opened a Raffles City mall in Beijing last Friday (a soft opening means we are open for business but there, as yet, has been no formal opening) and was joined by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to launch the Raffles City brand in Ningbo ( an impression in the illustration) last Saturday.
The mall in Ningbo will be CapitaLand’s fifth Raffles City project in China.
According to Mr Liew, the target is for operations in China to make up 40 or 45% of total group assets in the next few years.
CapitaLand will expand in cities it is already in and also to new ones. He added that the group usually enters new markets through residential projects because of their fast turnaround and higher capital productivity.
In Ningbo, CapitaLand started out with the Summit Residences project. The first phase of 174 apartments, fully sold at around RMB16,000 ($2,340) per square metre. The entire 850-unit development sits behind Raffles City Ningbo, which is under construction.
Business Times Singapore reported that agreements were in place with Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to obtain up to RMB25 billion (about $3.6 billion).