[photopress:Li_Sze_lim_1_2.jpg,full,alignright]Yet further development. Guangzhou R&F Properties, the city’s largest developer, plans to expand into eastern China and aims to spend RMB10 billion (US$1.3 billion) in the next two years building a land bank.
Chairman Li Szelim said the Hong Kong-listed developer will begin its expansion plan with an RMB600 million investment. It hopes to almost immediately complete the acquisition of about 400,000 square meters in Kunshan, Jiangsu province which is planned to be developed into low-rise high-end housing.
Li Szelim said, ‘We hope to raise our investment in eastern China to account for 20-25% of our total investment in two years.’ However, he does not expect this eastern China investment to contribute to profit until 2009.
As at the end of 2006, R&F had a total land bank of 24.51 million square meters in Guangzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, Xian, Chongqing and Hainan, plus investment properties including office buildings, hotels and shopping malls in Guangzhou, Tianjin and Beijing.
The developer has announced that profit attributable to shareholders for 2006 rose 69% year on year to RMB2.135 billion.
Source: The Standard