Steady growth for Shui On Land Ltd

Shui On Land Ltd, the flagship property arm of Hong Kong-based Shui On Group on the Chinese mainland, posted steady growth in the first half of 2019 as the company continued its transformation into a commercially focused property company.

Profit attributable to shareholders climbed 8 percent year on year to 1.3 billion yuan (US$181 million) during the six-month period, mainly fueled by a higher gross profit margin which stood at 45 percent between January and June, compared with 27 percent in the same period a year ago, according to an interim report by the company.

Rental and related income jumped 17 percent year on year to 1.1 billion yuan, as the Hong Kong-listed company stuck to its strategic transformation into a leading commercially focused property developer, owner and asset manager.

"The strong gains in rental and related income was the result of our sharp focus on value creation and innovation," said Stephanie Lo, executive director of Shui On Land, which is most famous for its Tiandi-series of projects in a number of Chinese cities. "Looking ahead, we will continue to rebrand our Xintiandi retail portfolio to fully maximise the value of our brand and keep innovating our INNO concept to stay ahead in the country's highly competitive office market."

In Shanghai, where the company is headquartered, it currently owns and manages a total gross floor area of 1.65 million square meters of retail and office premises, one of the largest in the city.

In terms of property sales, the company said it remains confident of achieving its target of 10 billion yuan for 2019 with the bulk of residential properties being scheduled for sale in the second half. The company said it has about 300,000 square meters of residential GFA across five projects which will be available for sale and pre-sale in the second half of this year.