China's Highest Skyscraper Fetches Handsome Profit

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 ◆ China's Highest Skyscraper Fetches Handsome Profit

Investors in China's tallest building, the 88-storey Jinmao Plaza in Shanghai's Pudong New District, are hoping to recoup their outlay in record time thanks to handsome profits reaped since it opened three years ago.

Wang Baochen, chairman and president of the China Jimmao (Group) Company, the investor and manager of the skyscraper, said the plaza's main business reported a turnover of 680 million yuan and a pre-tax profit of 140 million yuan in 2001, a threefold and twenty-fold increase respectively over the previous year.

The company estimated that with a modest growth, it could recover all the investment in 15 years, about five years sooner than in similar international cases.

Located in Pudong's central business district, the 420.5 meter high building has become the prime choice for politicians and businessmen staying in Shanghai, hosting international conferences, with international businesses vying for offices and tens of thousands of sightseers from home and abroad.

At a daily rent of 1.5 U.S. dollars per square meter, the highest in Shanghai, Jinmao's 120,000 square meters of offices are chased by big names in international business, such as Compaq, DowJones, and The Netherlands Bank.

The occupancy rate of its offices now stands at 80 percent and is expected to hit 90 percent by the end of the year.

The Jinmao-Hyatt Hotel in the plaza, with an aggregate turnover of nearly 1.1 billion yuan over the last three years, is among the most profitable hotels in Shanghai and the 14 Hyatt hotels in the South and East Asian region.

The sightseeing hall on the top story of the skyscraper is the top tourist attraction in Shanghai. Over the last three years, 3.3million tourists have marveled at the rising of the new Shanghai atop the skyscraper, bringing an income of 137 million yuan.

The skyscraper's good safety record rests on a high-tech system, which includes an electronic map system that allows instant location of any of the tens of thousands of wires, pipes and valves inside the building.