Business Activities News
- SouFun expects 70 percent profit growth
Date: 22-Mar-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
SOUFUN.COM, China's top real estate and home furnishing Web site controlled by Australia's top telco Telstra Corp. Ltd., said Tuesday that future earnings growth would be around 70 percent while it looked for domestic acquisitions.
'We expect to see more than or around 70 percent growth going forward,'SouFun Holding Ltd. chairman and chief executive, Vincent Mo, told reporters in an interview.
'Bottom line growth will probably be faster,'he said, without specifying a timeframe.
Telstra paid US$254 million last year for a 51 percent stake in SouFun, a startup that broke even in 2002 and doubled profits in 2006 to more than US$10 million.
'We are keeping our eyes out for an acquisition in the country,'said Mo. 'But finding a good company is difficult.'
Besides providing a platform for buyers and sellers of new housing to make contact, SouFun is also moving into rentals, previously owned housing, insurance and other services that people moving into a new home would need.
Telstra is moving to expand in Asia as its traditional fixed-line business declines.
Telstra reported a 20 percent decline in first-half net profit due to restructuring costs while looking to faster growth areas including broadband, mobiles, directories and overseas markets, to offset its fixed-line business.
SouFun still aims to float shares by the end of this year, and wants to expand rapidly into 100 Chinese cities by the end of next year, said Mo.
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