2012 will be the ‘inflection point’ for Capitamalls Asia, says spokesperson

Find out what the spokesperson exactly means.

In an email to Singapore Business Review, Capitamalls spokesperson  said that 2012 will be an inflection point for CapitaMalls Asia, with more than 60% of its malls in China by net asset value operational.

“Our malls continue to register strong tenant sales of 13.2% and shopper traffic growth of 7.5% in 2011. These malls, with a net property income growth of 20.7% in 2011, will start to contribute strongly to our bottom line moving forward,” he said.

CapitaMalls Asia opened three malls in China in 2011 – Minhang Plaza and Hongkou Plaza in Shanghai; and CapitaMall Crystal in Beijing.

The spokesperson said that the company targets to open another seven malls in China this year – CapitaMall Taiyanggong in Beijing, CapitaMall Rizhao in Rizhao, Raffles City Chengdu, Capitamall Xuefu in Harbin, CapitaMall Xindicheng in Xi’an, CapitaMall Wusheng in Wuhan, and Raffles City Ningbo.

In Singapore, meanwhile, the company targets to open JCube in the 1st quarter of 2012 and The Star Vista in the 3rd quarter of the year,

“Singapore’s economic growth for 2012 is expected to be between 1 to 3%. Given the lowest unemployment rate in Singapore in the last 14 years, strong visitor arrivals to Singapore and rising consumption, we foresee positive retail sales growth in the country,” said the spokesperson.

“ We also see strong potential for the shopping mall sector in China, given its solid fundamentals – low unemployment rate, rising disposable income per capita, rising consumption and strong retail sales. In Malaysia, the robust GDP and retail sales outlook is due to healthy GDP growth of 5 to 6% forecasted for 2012 and strong retail sales growth of 8.3% per annum targeted for 2011 to 201,” he added.