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GLOBAL REAL ESTATE ROUNDUP
- Beijing Concrete Firm Posts Quarterly 42.47% Profit Increase to $2.96M
- Lennar Shows First Profit Since 2007
- EastGroup Pays $5.3M for 2 Charlotte, NC Distribution Buildings
- Jennifer Lopez-Marc Anthony take $1M Hit on Sale of Home
- Campus Apartments Adds 5,865 Beds to Management Portfolio
- DHL Airpark Formally Transferred to Wilmington, OH Port Authority
(BEIJING, CHINA) -- China government's drive to build more roads, bridges and related infrastructure in numerous growing metropolitan areas is paying off for China Infrastructure Construction Corp. (OTC BULLETIN BOARD -- CHNC).
CHNC, one of the major U.S.-listed providers of ready-mix concrete in Beijing, posted a net revenue increase of 23.06 percent to $2.96 million for its second quarter of fiscal 2010 that ended Nov. 30, 2009. Gross profit margin rose to 22.09 percent from 17.3 percent a year ago.
For the first half of its 2010 fiscal year, the company showed a net revenue increase of 16.25 percent to $31.41 million year over year. Adjusted net income increased 28.85 percent to $4.86 million. Gross margin rose to 21.99 percent from 17.65 in the 2009 fiscal period.
"With the Chinese government's strong support to improve infrastructure construction, we are confident that our performance will continue to be strong in the coming quarters," says CHNC chairman and CEO Yang Rong.
He attributes his company's strong quarterly financials to "the increased demand due to the government's stimulus plan in the infrastructure and real estate industries." Yang says the sales volume of concrete products increased about 23 percent for the three months ended Nov. 30, 2009 compared to the same 2008 period.
Yang is a controversial and legendary figure in China's business community. He has headed or helped to found several companies.
Yang, who is also called Yeung Yung, was at one time China's most influential carmaker. He helped transform Brilliance China Automotive Holdings from a stagnant state-owned auto factory into the country's top maker of mini-vans.
He fled China in 2002 after being accused of economic crimes. An arrest order was later approved by the government of the northeastern province of Liaoning, where Brilliance is based.
Yang denied wrongdoing and told Reuters at that time he was in the process of resolving a disagreement with the Chinese authorities on the rights of the certain assets.
"They (the Chinese government) said the assets belong to them and I said the assets belong to me and you can't say this kind of issue on asset rights is crime," Yang told Reuters.
In 2001, Forbes listed the 53-year-old Yang as the third richest business executive in China with a net worth of $841 million.
Stuart Miller
In a conference call with analysts, CEO Stuart Miller said the company posted its first quarterly profit in almost three years and talked optimistically about 2010, boosting its shares and those of its rivals across the battered industry, according to Reuters.
Miller said Lennar will make money next year, even in the absence the one-time gain from federal taxes that boosted its fourth quarter, Reuters reports. The company last made a quarterly profit in the first quarter of 2007.
"I think we're back to a normalized business model today, and I think that's part of what has us enthusiastic about closing out 2009," Miller told the analysts.
Lennar, one of the top five U.S. homebuilders, reported earnings of $35.6 million, or 19 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended Nov. 30, compared with a year-earlier loss of $811 million, or $5.12 per share. Revenue fell 29 percent to $913.7 million.
It recorded a gain of $1.34 per share from an extension of federal tax law allowing companies to apply losses to prior income.
Wall Street expected a loss of 48 cents a share before special items, on revenue of $862.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Thomson Reuters could not determine whether the results compared directly with estimates.
(JACKSON, MS) -- EastGroup Properties (NYSE--EGP) has acquired two business distribution buildings totaling 193,000 square feet in Charlotte, NC's southwest submarket. The $5.3 million purchased price equates to $27.36 per square foot.
The buildings, constructed in 1981 and 1987, will be renamed Commerce Park 2 and Commerce Park 3. The properties are 87 percent occupied by nine tenants.
EastGroup president and CEO David H. Hoster II says the buildings should generate an annualized 11.7 percent yield at their current occupancy and rents.
"The acquisition of Commerce Park 2 and 3 allows EastGroup to expand in an attractive infill submarket where we have a successful base of assets and increases our ownership in the Charlotte market to over 1.8 million square feet," says Hoster.
The acquisition is EastGroup's third industrial property purchase in the last eight months. "We continue to seek new investment opportunities," Hoster adds.
(LOS ANGELES, CA) -- Hollywood jet-setters Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have sold their 7,357-square-foot French-style villa in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles for $7.5 million. The gated four-bedroom, five-bath property was listed for $8.5 million. Lopez-Anthony bought the house in 2005 for $6.25 million.
Wall Street hedge fund manager Mark Spitznagel bought the villa. The deal included
The home's complete furnishings valued at $1.3 million. Spitznagel is the founder and chief investment officer of Santa Monica, CA-based Universe Investments LP.
Another financial industry figure, Daniel Mudd and his wife, Maura, bought a 15,000-square-foot home in Greenwich, CT. for $6.45 million.
Mudd lost his job as CEO of Fannie Mae when the government took over the mortgage firm in 2008. Mudd now heads Fortress Investment Group, a Manhattan-based private-equity and hedge-fund firm.
(PHILADELPHIA, PA) -- Campus Apartments, a 50-year-old, privately held student housing developer and manager, has won 14 new contracts from six different owners to manage a total 5,865 beds in 10 states.
"With many property owners nationwide seeking to consolidate management services under an experienced operator, third-party management has become one of the fastest-growing lines of our company's business," says Campus Apartments president David Adelman.
Adelman says his company has more than $1 billion worth of assets under management with more than 26,000 beds in 23 states.
Campus Apartments "has an advantage over traditional third-party management firms as it brings an owner's mentality to all of its engagements and a unique ability to enhance a property's value," says Adelman.
That strategy has brought the company new management opportunities from "an increasing number of student housing owners and investors who realize the value of experienced property managers," Adelman adds.
(WILMINGTON, OH) -- Ownership of the 2,200-acre Wilmington Air Park, once the largest privately owned airport in the U.S., was formally transferred Tuesday (Jan. 19) by Brussels-based shipping and delivery carrier DHL to the city of Wilmington, OH and the Clinton County Port Authority. No money was involved in the deal.
DHL, a subsidiary of Bonn-based Deutsche Post World Net, ceased its U.S. domestic-only air and ground services at the airport on Jan. 30, 2009. DHL was losing $5 million a day on its operations, as Real Estate Channel reported Nov. 15, 2008. (Largest Privately-Owned Airport in US Could Evolve as Huge Real Estate Development Project)
The property is expected to be redeveloped into a mixed-use campus offering possibly a combination of commercial, residential, industrial and retail real estate products.
Chris Schock
In a public ceremony at Kelly Center on the Wilmington College campus, Jon Olin of DHL Express formally donated title to the property to Port Authority chairman John Limbert.
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