Shanghai's Orient Shopping Centre, a potential takeover target by Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Industrial Holdings, has posted satisfactory sales growth in the first six months of the year, a company official says.
Sales reached 500 million yuan (about HK$465 million) between January and June.
The official said growth was satisfactory considering that China's retail market was sluggish under the three-year old credit crunch.
He said management was optimistic about sales growth for 1996, although it might not be as large as last year's. 'It is because our comparison base has become larger.' Last year, sales at Orient Shopping Centre amounted to about 800 million yuan, compared with less than 500 million yuan in 1994.
Opened in 1993 with an investment of 100 million yuan, Orient Shopping Centre is an equally held joint venture set up by Shanghai Industrial Investment Holdings, the commercial arm of the Shanghai municipal government and parent of listed Shanghai Industrial Holdings, and Shanghai First Department Store Group, China's largest retail group.
Shanghai Industrial Investment has confirmed that it might inject its Orient stake into the listed subsidiary.