Harbour City landlord Wharf REIC says fate of Hong Kong’s retail market depends on outcome of trade war
- Wharf Real Estate Investment plans to exit China market completely and concentrate on Hong Kong
- Harbour City contributed 63pc of revenue and 72pc of operating profit in 2018, but saw lower year on year sales growth this January
Wharf Real Estate Investment (REIC), the owner of Harbour City and Times Square shopping malls, said it plans to continue reducing its mainland property investments after registering a modest 6 per cent growth in underlying profit to HK$10.05 billion (US$1.28 billion) last year.
“We sold some homes in the mainland last year and will continue to reduce related investments,” Stephen Ng Tin-hoi, chairman and managing director of Wharf, said during the results briefing on Tuesday.
Ng had said last March that Wharf REIC’s focus would be on Hong Kong and that it planned to sell its homes, hotel and office in Suzhou, ruling out any possibility of returning to the mainland market after the disposals were completed.
The company’s mainland properties incurred an operating loss of HK$109 million in 2018.
Meanwhile, Ng expects a challenging retail environment in Hong Kong this year.
