Beijing-based SOHO China is enlarging its property portfolio by acquiring two projects in the capital. Chairman Pan Shiyi said the company was also studying new plans to seek a listing in Hong Kong after a failed attempt to secure a dual listing in New York and Hong Kong last year.
At the suggestion of investment bankers, we are now considering a listing only in Hong Kong as overseas funds which have interests in China have all set their eyes on Hong Kong, he said yesterday.
But he declined to unveil the timetable for the move or the amount of funds it hopes to raise.
Listing is a god idea it will upgrade the company s international image and raise funds for expansion, he said.
Morgan Stanley Asia managing director Wu Changgen last month said he expected 10 mainland companies, including Soho China, to list in Hong Kong this year.
Mr. Pan said the company was in final discussions to acquire two office-retail-residential projects in Beijing, which would provide a total gross floor area of more than 700,000 square meters.
One of the deals would be announced on March 21, he said, adding that the other one would be finalized in the first half of this year.
The company will start building its one million square meter Soho City in outer Beijing in the first quarter of next year.
Mr. Pan said 80 per cent of another Beijing development, the 790,000 square meter Jianwai Soho, had been sold.
He was speaking in Hong Kong yesterday, a day ahead the firm s sale of 20 Jianwai Soho flats to Hong Hong buyers. The flats, ranging from 100 to 170 sq. m, are priced at 15,000 yuan per square meter.
The sale is hoped to test Hong Kong residents interest in upmarket Beijing properties, Mr. Pan said. We will consider putting more flats up for sale in Hong Kong if the response is good.
Mr. Pan said the prices of upmarket properties in Beijing had remained stable in the past two years and would see a better outlook in the long run now that the Beijing municipal government had simplified the taxation system.
