Singapore property developer CapitaLand has set ambitious targets for its China operations, as it marks 15 years of doing business on the mainland.
It wants to double the number of its shopping malls and housing developments in China in the next five years. It is also looking to expand its service apartments business.
CapitaLand is celebrating 15 years in China with a bang. It said China will continue to be the engine of growth for the company and it has long-term plans for the mainland.
Liew Mun Leong, president & CEO, CapitaLand Group, said: “I think in the next five years, I like to do something like… double its size in terms of scope, in terms of number of shopping malls and number of housing we can build and service apartments. The order of things is we should be able to double every five years.”
The company intends to grow its total business assets from the current 28 per cent to between 35 and 45 per cent in the next five years, worth approximately S$10 billion. This will make China the largest overseas market for the company.
CapitaLand first entered the Chinese market in 1994, focusing on Shanghai and 15 years later it has over 100 projects in 40 cities across the mainland.
With China saying it needs 20 million homes every year as the country goes through urbanisation, Mr Liew said CapitaLand’s focus will continue to be in the residential market.
However, there are areas that he would like to expand on as well.
Mr Liew said: “We (are) still focused… (on our) core business of building homes, residential – not necessarily the luxury – but more the commoner’s home. We will concentrate on our shopping malls; we have been very successful, we have 50 shopping malls all over China and we think we can grow it much more.
“The third is building up our service apartments business and operations because the demand for serviced apartments is very high.”
CapitaLand currently has five Raffles City developments in major cities and a sixth one will be announced early next year. Together with four more such projects by 2014, it will bring the total of 10 Raffles City developments in China in five years.
Looking ahead, besides growing in China, CapitaLand is also looking to list on the mainland when the market is ready for international listings. Mr Liew said he does not rule out having a local Chinese be the number one man to the CapitaLand business on the mainland – hopefully in five years.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 11 Dec 2009
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