CITIC Pacific, steel to property conglomerate, saw its net profit jump nearly 50% YoY to HKD 8.92 billion or HKD 2.44 per share in 2010.

This is the mainland conglomerate's second best result ever, made possible by strong performance of its special steel business and a gain of HKD 3.01 billion when it sold its non core assets. A final dividend of 30 HK cents was declared.

CITIC recorded a 48.6% growth on profit of special steel and a 121% jump on energy, but lost HKD 346 million on iron ore mining operations.

Mr Zhang Jijing MD of CITIC said that "If everything goes well, the project can be constructed and begin operation in the following one year. The mine has a targeted production capacity for the first and second phases of around 24 million tonnes of fine ore."

That is more than enough to meet demand from the group's own special steel plants, so two thirds of the ore will be sold to other mainland steel factories. The company said it will hold discussions with the Australian government on a proposed resource tax plan. The company expects Canberra to consider imposing different tax rates for different types of mines.

Mr Chang said that Beijing's tightening measures in the property sector will have an impact on the company in the short term. But this will not change our long term development strategy. He added that the company's current land bank is enough to meet its development needs for the next seven to eight years.

Meanwhile, the company will continuously assess its non core businesses, and may consider selling them at an appropriate time. There are also no plans for the parent company CITIC Group to list in the mainland.

(Sourced from www.thestandard.com.hk)