Beijing Capital Land sees revenue rebound this year

By Hui Ching-hoo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-04 08:03

Realty developer Beijing Capital Land said it expects to post a sales revenue of 6 billion yuan this year on strong property sales.

The Beijing-based company suffered a 53 percent fall in sales revenue last year to 3.74 billion yuan due to the rigid controls in the domestic property market.

Speaking on the sidelines of the company's annual results yesterday, Beijing Capital President Liu Xiaoguang said he was confident that property sales would rebound this year.

"The central government's stimulus package will buoy the country's housing demand," Liu said. "We had also deferred some of our launches last year due to the Sichuan earthquake. But we will now step up the pace to launch 13 new residential projects this year, compared with seven projects in 2008."

The company's Executive Director & President Tang Jun estimated that about 70 percent of the targeted 6 billion yuan revenue can be booked by the end of the year.

In January alone, the company had sales revenue of over 500 million yuan, up 92 percent year-on-year.

There will, however, be no selling price reductions, said Liu.

Tang said the company would set aside 3.5 billion yuan for capital expenditure this year. Land expenditure would be around 1 billion yuan, while construction expenditure would be 2.5 billion yuan.

Beijing Capital owns 7.12 million sq m of land reserves, spanning Shenyang to Chongqing. The land reserve is sufficient for development over the next four to five years.

In addition, Liu said that the company intends to lower its net gearing ratio from 110 percent to 80 percent within a year. "We hope that the improving sales can generate higher cash flow to enhance the company's financial status."

Shares of Beijing Capital yesterday closed at HK$0.83, up 9.21 percent.

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