Kerry Properties is aiming for a 31.6 per cent increase in property sales to HK$5 billion this year from HK$3.8 billion last year by selling more projects in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
'About HK$3.6 billion [of the target sales] will come from Hong Kong and HK$1.4 billion from the mainland,' chief financial officer Louis Wong Chi-kong said.
The sales target was unveiled when the developer announced yesterday that last year's profit fell 14 per cent to HK$2.23 billion, excluding revaluation gains from investment properties.
This was below analysts' consensus forecast for Kerry's profit of HK$2.74 billion before revaluation gains, according to Thomson Reuters Mean Estimates.
Net revaluation increase in investment property was HK$822 million, against HK$3.97 billion the year before.
Taking into account those gains, the developer's bottom line fell 54 per cent to HK$3.05 billion last year from HK$6.56 billion in 2007.
Kerry declared a final dividend of 40 HK cents per share, bringing the full-year dividend to 70 HK cents a share, against 95 HK cents in 2007.
