Sa Sa sees 10% decline in sales

Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd saw a 10-percent drop in retail sales in Hong Kong and Macao during this year's Spring Festival holidays, compared with the same period last year. The company's number of transactions attributable to mainland tourists grew by 5 percent despite a decrease in their arrivals in Hong Kong during the period. The growth in transactions was offset by a 15-percent decline in average sales, resulting in an 11-percent drop in sales to mainland customers. Sa Sa's retail sales growth and same store sales growth in Hong Kong and Macao for the first two months of this year were 3 percent and 7 percent year-on-year, respectively.

New projects lift China Vanke sales

China Vanke Co Ltd - the mainland's largest residential real estate developer - achieved a sales area of 756,000 square meters, with sales in February reaching 8.4 billion yuan($1.3 billion). The company said for the first two months of this year, it had an accumulated sales area of 2.72 million square meters and a sales amount of 31.6 billion yuan after having acquired two new property projects. Vanke's Huanggu Zitai project in Shenyang, Liaoning province, has a net site area of about 68,000 square meters. The company is obliged to pay land premium of approximately 617 million yuan. Its Wulong Mountain project in Chengdu, Sichuan province, has a net site area of about 66,000 square meters, and the company is obliged to pay land premium of 158 million yuan.

HK billionaire ranks swell

Ten new Hong Kong faces have boosted the SAR's share in the 2015 Forbes Billionaires List, increasing the number of the city's billionaires from last year's 45 to 55. Li Ka-shing took the No. 1 spot among Asia's billionaires for the 17th year and ranked 17th globally, moving up three places from last year with an estimated net worth of $33.3 billion - up from $31 billion a year ago - following the restructuring of Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison Whampoa. Among the new Hong Kong faces on the list are Pan Sutong, chairman of Goldin Properties Holdings, with an estimated net worth of $8.6 billion, and electronics and textile magnate Tang Hsiang-chien.

Stock rally boosts MPF return for HK

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped 0.7 percent to 24,702.78 points on Tuesday. But a rally in the US, European and Japanese stock markets last month drove the Mandatory Provident Fund's (MPF) average return back to 1.99 percent, according to data company Lipper. The 481 MPF investment funds' average rate of return last month also beat the Hang Seng Index's 1.29-percent gain last month. Mainland stocks also sagged on Tuesday as investors' excitement over a weekend interest-rate cut waned. The CSI 300 Index, designed to replicate the performance of 300 stocks traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, lost 2.95 percent to 3,507.9 points. Market professionals said they expect mainland stocks to resume its upward momentum as Beijing is likely to announce measures this year to support the economy.

China Daily - Bloomberg

(HK Edition 03/04/2015 page8)