Chuanghui House Renting Group, one of China's largest house renting agencies, has shut down a majority of its branch stores along the Pearl River Delta, a southern region covering Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Zhuhai, the Southern Metropolitan News reported on January 16.

The group will only keep a few stores open in Huizhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen where the company is headquartered, the newspaper reported.

The company has trimmed business due to slim profit margins, according to Jiang Dexin, Deputy Marketing Supervisor of the group. Most of its stores only do one to two deals a month, Jiang said.

The firm lost more than 80 million yuan (US$11.06 million) in its fledgling market in Shanghai, causing business to tailspin nationwide, Zhang Min with the chief executive's office told the newspaper. According to Zhang, the blistering expansion in Shanghai created difficulties for the company to cool business down. The massive closure of branching agencies has resulted in internal chaos, the newspaper reported.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.jjxww.com/show.aspx?id=69938&cid=133)

(China.org.cn January 16, 2008)