Stock News: Capitaland to invest 350 mln yuan in joint venture!

CapitaLand Ltd said it, through unit CapitaLand China Holdings Pte Ltd, has entered into an agreement with Chengdu Zhixin Industrial Co Ltd to form a 50-50 joint venture real estate company in China. CapitaLand China and Chengdu Zhixin will each invest 350 mln yuan into the joint venture company, Zhixin CapitaLand Co Ltd, it said. The Singapore-based firm's subsidiary will also provide a shareholder's loan of about 1.09 bln yuan. Zhixin CapitaLand has identified an initial five to seven development projects in Chengdu in China's Sichuan province with a potential gross floor area of up to 4.5 mln square meters, which will yield a pipeline of about 25, 000 homes from now until 2014, it said. "We target to launch the first project by this year. Currently, CapitaLand has about 8,000 homes in the pipeline spanning across Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Ningbo and Hangzhou," CapitaLand president and chief executive officer Liew Mun Leong said in a statement. "This joint venture, together with our stake in Lai Fung Holdings, will triple our residential development pipeline. We expect to see positive contribution from these two transactions from 2007," Liew said.