China Overseas Land raises sales target as profit jumps
After reporting a 31.6 per cent rise in interim profit, developer says it does not expect Beijing to relax property market tightening measures
China Overseas Land & Investment, the Hong Kong-listed mainland developer, raised its annual sales target by a fifth yesterday as it announced the possible injection of its parent company's real estate businesses into the firm.
The company said it achieved sales of HK$80.07 billion in the first six months of the year, prompting it to revise its annual sales target to HK$120 billion, from HK$100 billion.
The company said Beijing's tightening measures would not be relaxed and that the mainland property market would be confronted with "huge challenges".
It added that it expected the market to consolidate, which would be beneficial for large developers such as itself.
The developer said its net profit in the first half rose 31.6 per cent year on year to HK$11.03 billion. Core profit jumped 26.7 per cent to HK$8.06 billion.
Property sales amounted to HK$30.24 billion in the period, up 27.3 per cent, with some HK$650 million of them coming from Hong Kong and Macau.
The company said it would pay an interim dividend of 18 HK cents, up 20 per cent from a year ago.
