The financial turmoil has forced many companies to lay off employees. Centaline may cut its workforce up to 20 percent by the end of this year and about 400-500 staff have resigned since June. Edmond Tang

The Centaline Property Agency, one of Hong Kong's biggest real estate brokers, said it might cut up to 20 percent of its workforce by year's end to sustain its profits.

The news accompanies expectations that the city's apartment sales figures in 2008 may drop sharply as the credit crunch hits Asia.

Centaline Chairman Shi Wing-ching said the local property market has entered an "ice age", and he said the company has seen about 400 to 500 employees quit since June.

Centaline currently has 20,000 employees in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

Another leading property agency player, Ricacorp, now has 105 branches and 1,250 employees, down from 115 branches and 1,450 employees earlier this year.

And Hong Kong-listed property agent Midland Holdings said it will fine-tune its business over five phases to tackle the challenge, including making layoffs and closing some branches, according to managing director Kitty Ip.

The number of transactions may fall 42 percent to 11,000 this year, from 18,943 in 2007, said Wong Leung-sing, an associate director at Centaline.

Lenovo Group, the world's fourth-largest personal computer (PC) maker, said yesterday that it will cut 50 jobs at its US headquarters by the end of 2008, as the global economic crisis overshadows its business outlook.

Global PC shipments grew a slower-than-expected 15.8 percent in the third quarter of this year, as companies and consumers cut their IT spending and opted for low-cost computers, according to research firm IDC.

"We are continually assessing our business for optimal structure, driving for efficiency, and in light of unprecedented worldwide economic challenges, Lenovo is eliminating jobs in some locations between now and the end of the year, on a country-by-country basis," Lenovo said.

China's largest PC maker, Lenovo has 1,680 employees at its US headquarters and 23,200 worldwide.

Last year, the company laid off 1,400 workers and moved jobs to emerging markets to better compete with rivals Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer.

Shares in Lenovo were up 2 percent yesterday, outpacing the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

Lenovo's global PC shipments grew 7.7 percent in the third quarter of this year, well below analysts' forecasts, and its global market share of 7.4 percent is the lowest for the quarter since its acquisition of IBM's PC arm in 2005, according to IDC.

Analysts say China's biggest PC maker was mainly hit by its high exposure to enterprises and limited presence in consumer retail channels.

"In the overseas markets, Lenovo underperformed the market and was hurt by its high exposure to large enterprises - particularly in the US, Western Europe and Japan - and a lack of low-priced consumer notebooks," Cazenove analyst Zhao Xin said in a recent research note.

Dell said last month that slow demand had spread from the US to Europe and Asia, and hasn't rebounded as expected after the summer lull. Dell plans to realign its business to boost competitiveness, cut headcount, and invest in infrastructure and acquisitions.

Reuters contributed to the story

(HK Edition 10/23/2008 page2)