Hong Kong developer SHKP has no overseas expansion plans after reaching record HK$40 billion in contract sales

Developer reports a 22 per cent rise in core earnings to HK$24.17 billion for the full year to June

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Victor Lui, deputy managing director (left) and Raymond Kwok, chairman and managing director of Sun Hung Kai Properties, attend the annual results media briefing on Thursday. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 5:58pm, 8 Sep 2016Updated: 10:59pm, 8 Sep 2016

Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong’s largest developer by market value, said it has no immediate plans to embark on an overseas expansion after it achieved record contract sales of HK$40.7 billion for the year to June amid a property market correction.

“We will focus on Hong Kong and the mainland [property market],” said chairman and managing director Raymond Kwok Ping-luen.

His remarks come after Cheung Kong Property Holdings chairman Li Ka-shing said in August that “the [CK] group will also pursue other global investments to extend its reach in new business areas” given the challenges it faces in identifying investments with reasonable returns in the current cyclical stage in the property market.

Kwok said the Hong Kong property market has experienced several rounds of difficult periods since he returned to the city in 1978.

“As our recurrent income is growing, it will strengthen our position. The firm will maintain our dividend payout ratio of 40 to 50 per cent,” he said.

Kwok hopes the government will release more residential and office sites for tender so that “developers will have more opportunities to participate in government land sales”.