March 17 (Bloomberg) -- China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd., a Hong Kong-based builder controlled by the Chinese construction ministry, said 2010 profit climbed 66 percent on gains from property revaluations and the sale of stakes in several real estate projects.
Net income rose to HK$12.4 billion ($1.59 billion), or HK$1.51 a share, from HK$7.47 billion, or 92 Hong Kong cents a share, a year earlier, the company said in a stock-exchange filing today. That compares to the HK$9.31 billion average estimate of 18 analysts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose to HK$44.3 billion from HK$37.3 billion, the company said.
Premier Wen Jiabao said March 5 that China will “resolutely” press ahead with controls on the property market to curb speculation, reiterating a pledge to keep housing affordable. The government will “severely punish” irregularities in the real-estate market, implement differentiated credit and tax policies, and hold local officials accountable for maintaining stable home prices, he said.
“The China property market was inevitably affected to some extent” by the control measures, Chairman Kong Qingping said in today’s statement. “But the property market still performed well overall in 2010.”
The stock fell 0.8 percent to HK$13.04 at the Hong Kong trading break today, before earnings were announced. It has lost 9.3 percent this year, compared with the 8.4 percent decline in the Hang Seng Property Index, which tracks the seven biggest Hong Kong-listed builders including China Overseas.
