Pan Shiyi, chairman of SOHO China, says the company plans to purchase commercial real estate projects in the center of Beijing, and Shanghai in the following months.

"The decline of net profit of 2008 was mainly for accounting reasons," President of SOHO China Yan Yan told Shanghai Securities News. "Because Beijing hosted the Olympics last year, our project in Sanlitun was delayed, which meant 4.3 billion yuan pre-sales income and 1 billion yuan net profits will be accounted for in 2009."

Pan Shiyi added, "The global financial crisis is an opportunity for SOHO China to enter the Shanghai market."

According to CEO of SOHO China, Zhang Xin, many commercial real estate projects owned by overseas funds from Japan and US, as well domestic developers, are up for sale at favorable prices as the owners look to raise cash. There are more projects available in Shanghai is than in Beijing.

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(China.org.cn by Ma Yujia, March 16, 2009)