Landmark decision

By LU HAOTING (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-03 08:54

Located southwest of the twin towers of the China World Trade Center, an up-market commercial development in the CBD, the center was designed by John Portman & Associates, Inc, an Atlanta-based architectural and engineering firm.

Beijing Yintai Center has two 43-story office towers and a residential building.

The 250-m high residential building is designed to be the focal point of the project. The 63-level building will have China's first Park Hyatt Hotel, which will include 237 rooms and the hotel lobby, restaurants and a lounge area located in the top level in Beijing Yintai Center's giant glass lantern. The building will also have 21 luxury apartments and 216 serviced apartments.

The luxury apartments, called Park Hyatt Penthouses, are the most expensive in Beijing, selling for about 70,000 yuan per sq m on average. The serviced apartments sold out within half a year at an average price of 42,000 yuan per sq m. Most of the buyers are from overseas.

China Yin Tai began evaluating the energy industry more than two years ago. Shen believes energy and environmental protection industries will become a new growth engine for his company in the near future because China's per capita energy resources are low while the country's rapid economic development exerts greater pressure for energy and environmental protection.

Shen's company has invested in three coal mining and processing projects in Shaanxi, Shanxi and Heilongjiang provinces. He declines to release further details of the projects.

"We will make more effort on this industry in the future," he adds.

As an investment company, China Yin Tai will also invest in other industries, Shen says.

"But we won't necessarily be the controlling shareholder. It will only be strategic investment," he says. "We are happy to invest in companies that lack capital, but have good prospects for an IPO (initial public offering) and good management team."

In many people's eyes, Shen is a strict and careful person. That character, he says, was cultivated during his 11 years' work at China Construction Bank (CCB).

Shen began to work at CCB's subsidiary in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, in 1986 after graduating from Zhongnan University of Economics in Wuhan, Hubei Province. He was soon promoted to several important positions, including having the authority to issue credit and in strategic planning. Six years later he became deputy general manager of a company affiliated with the CCB, where he started to learn about the real estate industry. The company, in South China's Hainan Province, focused on investment and real estate development.

"I learned a lot when working at the bank. Being careful and honest are both important requirements. I also had opportunities to get close to many companies and study their management. It laid solid foundation for my own businesses," Shen recalls.

He left the company four years later. Earlier media reports say that it was not only because of the burst real estate bubble in Hainan, but also due to the rigid system of State-owned companies.

"I just wanted to realize my own value by starting my own business," Shen says.

He set up China Yin Tai in 1997.

Beijing Yintai Center

(China Daily 12/01/2007 page12)

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