Property developer Beiijng North Star posted a 34.28 per cent gain in net profit to 212.76 million yuan (about HK$199.4 million) for the year to December 31. The H share attributed the growth to increased occupancy rates of its hotel, office building and shopping centre and the turnaround from loss to profit in properties and land sales. Operating profit from properties and land sales was 50.23 million yuan last year, against the operating loss of 20.6 million yuan in 2000. Overall operating profit rose 55.16 per cent to 175.18 million yuan. Turnover fell 4.9 per cent to 1.85 billion yuan. Earnings per share were 11.4 fen, up from 8.5 fen a year earlier. General manager Zhao Huizhi said 100 million yuan to 200 million yuan this year would go on redevelopment and another 200 million yuan on the more than one billion yuan cost associated with its Bei Cheng Building. The company is looking to infrastructure projects for the 2008 Olympic Games to spur growth. The firm said it had about 100,000 square metres of land on which part of the Olympic infrastructure might be located. Ms Zhao said the whole Olympic-related project would span 2.9 square kilometres.
