Companies

Evergrande stock continues to advance on Q1 figures

By Bonnie Cao (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-15 13:33

The Evergrande Real Estate Group booth at a property expo in Beijing. The company's contracted sales rose 50 percent in March to 5.5 billion yuan ($842 million) from last year. [Photo / China Daily]

Real estate group's sales more than doubled to 20b yuan in that period

BEIJING - Evergrande Real Estate Group rose for a second day in Hong Kong trading and closed at a record after saying March sales jumped 50 percent.

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Evergrande climbed 9.38 percent to HK$5.48 (70 cents) on Thursday, the biggest rise since October. The company's contracted sales rose 50 percent in March to 5.5 billion yuan ($842 million) from last year, and more than doubled to 20 billion yuan in the first quarter, said Lai Lixin, the company's vice-president, on Tuesday in Hong Kong. Evergrande planned to start selling homes in five projects in April and about 10 in May, the company said.

"With the company's good sales in the first quarter and more projects upcoming, investors believe it might achieve the annual sales target by September or October," said Johnson Hu, a Hong Kong-based property analyst at CIMB-GK Securities Research Pte Ltd.

Although the Chinese government is making efforts to keep housing affordable and curb surging prices, China Vanke Co Ltd said last week that the company's March sales rose 48 percent from a year earlier.

SOHO China Ltd rose 2.2 percent to HK$6.98 on Thursday.

The Chinese government has intensified efforts to curb speculation after prices rose for 19 consecutive months to December and climbed in 68 of the 70 cities it monitored in the first two months of the year.

"Currently, we don't see the likelihood that the government will issue further curbing measures," said Evergrande's Chief Executive Officer Xia Haijun.

About 40 cities last month said they will cap new home prices below annual economic and disposable per-capita income growth or keep it steady in responding to the central government's measures to keep housing price in check.

The government raised the minimum down payment for second-home purchases this year and levied taxes on residences in Shanghai and Chongqing. Beijing and Guangzhou imposed restrictions on housing purchases in February. The central bank also raised interest rates twice this year.

The current round of interest rate hikes will not have a big effect on the company's cost, Xia said.

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