Red-chip Cosco International Holdings has applied the brake to its property expansion in Hong Kong because of the weakened state of the real-estate sector.
Managing director Gordon Kwong Che-keung said property investments in Hong Kong and the mainland usually were the company's major earnings stream.
'However, in view of the downturn of the Hong Kong real-estate sector, the company will shift its focus on the mainland property market,' he said.
Hong Kong property prices are reported to have fallen as much as 40 per cent since the middle of last year and some analysts see room for a further decline.
Cosco International Land director and general manager Yan Chi-ming said the company would not expand in Hong Kong unless it received attractive offers.
Cosco's major asset in Hong Kong is the floors in Cosco Tower in Sheung Wan which it received from its parent Cosco (Hong Kong) Group in February. Last August, it also acquired a small residential plot in Sha Tin at a government land auction.
