Daily news - 17 Oct

$1b sales from Mid-East projects: CapitaLand
CapitaLand – Has made about $1bn worth of sales in two projects in the Middle East. The company said that it had sold 849 units out of a total of 1,559 units in the two developments since June. The developments are the 691-unit Raffles City Bahrain and the 868-unit Rihan Heights in Abu Dhabi. Raffles City Bahrain is owned and developed by the Syariah-compliant Raffles City Bahrain Fund, which is managed by CapitaLand, while Rihan Heights is the first phase of CapitaLand's 49%-owned associate company Capitala's US$5-6bn flagship integrated development Arzanah. CapitaLand said that it had launched 750 residential units of its 80 per cent-owned The Vista, Vietnam and 590 residential units of its 49%0-owned The Orchard Residency, India. While The Vista units have been fully booked, 309 units at The Orchard Residency have been sold. In Thailand, TCC Capital Land, CapitaLand's 40%-owned joint venture with TCC Land, has sold or booked over 2,400 residential units to date. Raffles City Bahrain, in the country's capital city of Manama, will be an integrated project comprising residential, retail and serviced residence components.

Four S-share firms clarify net cash positions
JES International, Sino Techfibre, China Hongxing and Synear – Over the past two days, the four Chinese firms have issued updates or clarifications on SGX to clarify their net cash positions. Sino Techfibre, China Hongxing and Synear were among the S-shares cited in a media report to have negative cashflow. These fears apparently heightened after a media report this week cited some S-share companies with negative cash flow, possibly pointing to a risk of their running into financial difficulties. Sino Techfibre said in an SGX filing that contrary to what was reported, it is financially strong with a net cash inflow from operating activities of RMB144.3m (S$31m) in the second quarter. As at June 30, the group has cash and cash equivalents of RMB171.6m. It has also maintained a low gearing of 1.4%. In the same vein, sports apparel firm China Hongxing clarified yesterday that it is in a net cash position, with cash balances of RMB2.2bn and net current asset base of RMB3.34bn as at June 30. On Wednesday, frozen food producer Synear clarified that it is in a net cash position of RMB1.34bn as at June 30. In response to various queries received recently, JES said yesterday that its financial position remains healthy. It had net current assets of about RMB1.7bn as at June 30, which included some RMB1.1bn in cash and cash equivalents.

Source: Kim Eng