Developer Beijing Capital Land's shares rise on news of sales target

Beijing Capital Land is the latest mainland developer to announce an ambitious sales target for this year, a move that helped boost its shares yesterday along with strong January contracted sales by companies in the sector.

The mid-sized developer said it aims for full-year contracted sales of 28 billion yuan (HK$35.6 billion), marking the start of its five-year plan which will see sales reach 60 billion yuan in 2018. The 2014 target would represent an increase of 43 per cent from last year's contracted sales of 19.6 billion yuan, which itself was 48 per cent higher than the 2012 level.

Separately, Yuzhou Properties said it was aiming for a 65 per cent rise in this year's full-year sales target to 13.2 billion yuan.

"We expect the sector's profit margin to fall," Beijing Capital Land's president and executive director Tang Jun said. "We will continue to focus on products with rapid turnover and strong demand from owner-occupier buyers in an effort to maintain sales momentum."

The company has amassed a 10 billion yuan war chest to buy land this year in the heated markets of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing and their surrounding areas.

Other developers, including China Merchants Property, CIFI, Country Garden and Evergrande Real Estate, all released robust sales numbers for January.

Beijing Capital Land also announced yesterday it planned to raise US$1 billion via a medium-term note programme, joining mainland developer Agile Property, which also proposes issuing a US dollar-denominated note.

Ratings agency Fitch assigned bond a rating of BB-plus, while giving the company a negative outlook.

"Contracted sales in 2013 were volatile," Fitch said. "Strong reliance on sales in Beijing and Tianjin could result in lumpy sales and reduced cash-flow visibility."

Beijing Capital Land's contracted sales grew only 14 per cent in the first 10 months of last year from 2012, but surged 160 per cent in the last two months. Thirty-five per cent of last year's sales were from Beijing while another 21 per cent were from Tianjin.

Its shares closed up 9.82 per cent yesterday at HK$3.02, outperforming a 0.39 per cent dip in the Hang Seng Composite Properties & Construction index.