China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCES) said it has won more new construction contracts in the eight months to August this year compared with the same period last year.

In a regulatory filing yesterday, the Shanghai-listed homebuilder said it has signed new contracts worth 224.7 billion yuan in the first eight months, up 20.4 percent from previous year. In the same period, property sales soared by 84.7 percent to 2.8 billion yuan while the area sold grew by 1.26 times, to 4 million sq m.

The conglomerate purchased another new land of 3.09 million sq m in August, taking its total land reserves to 38.88 million sq m.

Area of new construction fell 3.4 percent, slowing from previous year, while the area under construction grew 14.1 percent in the same period.

The company said it expects to maintain forward momentum as it has won tenders for an expo construction in Guizhou province and an inter-city railway project in Hubei province in September, with a value of 1.9 billion yuan and 5.132 billion yuan, respectively.

Property, infrastructure construction and investment businesses are the biggest contributors to the company's profit with the two sectors accounting for 13.4 percent and 13 percent of its first half revenue respectively, up 4.44 percentage points and 3.1 percentage points according to research notes of China Merchants Securities and Guodu Securities.

China's largest homebuilder is also going overseas as it recently signed an agreement with property firm Tishman and casino builder Revel Entertainment to build a casino resort in Atlantic City in the US. The project, with an area of 79,000 sq m is likely to be completed in 2011.

The company's profit for the first half of 2009 was 2.35 billion yuan, representing 85 percent of the whole year profit of 2008.

China State Construction completed its listing on the Shanghai bourse in July by raising 50.16 billion yuan after China's nine-month moratorium on IPOs in June, making it the world's largest IPO this year. Investors' huge interest in the company who built the "Water Cube" - Olympic aquatics center - was fired by central government stimulus focus on infrastructure and market rally in the real estate sector in the first half of the year.

Shares of the company rose 2.82 percent to end at 5.46 yuan in Shanghai yesterday.

(China Daily September 15, 2009)