SHKP may cut sales target by up to 15 per cent as demand for homes weakens
Developer achieved just 35 per cent of its full-year target in first six months
Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), Hong Kong’s largest developer by market capitalisation, said on Friday it may cut its HK$32 billion sales target for the year to June by as much as 15 per cent because global financial turbulence is damaging buyer sentiment.
That comes after Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah insisted in his budget speech on Wednesday there was “no room” to scrap the government’s cooling measures on property prices, with many still finding it difficult to afford a home.
“The firm may cut 10 to 15 per cent of the sales target based on declining transactions in the primary market compared with 2015 due to the impact of external economic factors,” SHKP deputy managing director Victor Lui Ting said. “We will slow down the pace of marketing new projects.”
The developer achieved just HK$11.3 billion in contract sales, or 35 per cent of its full year target in the six months to the end of December.
We will slow down the pace of marketing new projects
It also expects lower sales revenue because of the deferral of sales at its 2,500-unit Grand Yoho project in Yuen Long.
The application for the occupation permit for Grand Yoho had been postponed from June to late in the second half of the year, Lui said.
He said the firm would release less than 4,000 units in eight projects in the remaining 10 months of this year.
Chairman Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, however, said SHKP had recommended a higher interim dividend to indicate its confidence in a positive second -half performance. It raised its interim dividend by 10.5 per cent to HK$1.05 per share, up from 95 HK cents a year earlier.
Underlying interim profit, excluding revaluation gains on investment properties, rose 9.8 per cent to HK$9.29 billion. Turnover rose 8.7 per cent to HK$34.9 billion.
Net profit dropped 6.3 per cent to HK$14.7 billion because of a smaller revaluation gain on investment properties.
In 2014, SHKP announced plans to raise up to HK$22 billion by proposing a bonus warrant for every 12 shares. Each warrant entitles the holder to subscribe for one new SHKP share at HK$98.60 before April 22 this year. But the company’s shares closed at HK$88 on Friday.
The developer has raised HK$16 billion so far, still HK$6 billion short of its target.
“My family has exercised all bonus warrants for the share subscription,” said Kwok, whose family is the controlling shareholder.
Based on their 43 per cent stake in SHKP, it will cost the Kwok family about HK$9.5 billion to subscribe to the bonus warrants.
Although some shareholders might not exercise the bonus warrants at the current stock prices, Kwok reminded shareholders that the company’s net asset value was HK$157 per share.
Separately, Cheung Kong Property said it aimed to release 3,000 units worth as much as HK$30 billion for sale in Hong Kong this year.
