Developer SOHO China announced that it has suffered a net loss of 145.8 million yuan through June mainly due to the delay in booking of residential sales.

The company CEO, Zhang Xin, said the company has realized 6.6 billion yuan pre-sale revenues between January and September. She expected the revenue will double to 8 billion yuan for the whole-year, of which 5.9 billion will come from commercial- and residential-mixed project Sanlitun SOHO.

"Since constructions of some projects, including Sanlitun SOHO, were halted during the Beijing Olympics and Qianmen project has not received government's approval, 4.3 billion yuan of the pre-sale revenue will be deferred to book in 2009," she said.

Asked when the company will inject Chairman Pan Shiyi-held Qianmen project into the listing arm, Zhang pointed out that the company is still in discussion with the government. She, however, didn't give any timetable for it.

The company's cash position was about 10.7 billion yuan in June.

The company CFO, Sean Wang, noted that total GFA of 150,000 square meters is due to complete this year. The company has locked in 80 percent of the sales for the time being.

He said that the soon-to-be-released projects included Beijing SOHO Residences, Guanghualu SOHO, Chaoyangmen SOHO and Zhongguancun SOHO, which are scheduled to roll out in the second half of the year.

Zhang admitted that the mainland property market has entered a period of hybernation. "When the spring comes around depends on government policies."

Property transaction volume in Beijing dropped 36 percent in August. She believed the central government will loosen its grip in order to avoid the property market "hard landing".

She expected the government to relax the threshold of banking mortgage by the end of the year.

(HK Edition 09/19/2008 page1)