Update | Greenland to launch internet finance business

Greenland Hong Kong Holdings, the Hong Kong-listed unit of mainland China’s largest developer by sales, said on Friday that it would launch an internet finance business this year.

The company said it was in the final stage of closing its first deal for a mainland Chinese project worth US$200 million.

“We decided to pursue the internet finance and fund management relating to the property industry, while developing existing property operations,” Greenland Hong Kong chairman Chen Jun said, without providing further details.

Greenland Hong Kong established a property fund management company, Blackwood Capital, and raised an offshore equity fund of US$1 billion. It completed the first investment by acquiring an office building in Shanghai in December last year.

Hou Guangjun, executive director and chief operating officer, said the company was now raising a second fund whose size will be about US$1 billion.

The diversification plan was unveiled as the company reported a loss, excluding property revaluation gains and income tax, of 21.14 million yuan for the year to December, against a profit of 596.86 million yuan in 2013.