SOHO China expands by leaps and bounds

SOHO China Co Ltd has gained an operating profit of approximately 1.53 billion yuan ($222 million) in the first half of 2018, a 144 percent year-on-year increase according to the company's statement released Friday. As a leading property developer in China, its rental income in the period has reached approximately 848 million yuan, with rental income from retained properties increasing by 17 percent, the statement read. The company's net profit reached 1.09 billion yuan in the same period, including valuation gains of 480 million yuan.

SOHO 3Q, SOHO China's co-working space business, expanded to seven cities by the end of June, operating over 30,000 seats in 31 centers and achieving 88 percent average occupancy rate. It will seek further expansion in three more cities in China, the company's top management said, without revealing the names of the target cities. "After consideration based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics, we included 10 cities into our expansion strategy," said Pan Shiyi, president of SOHO China.

"The first step for the success of a co-working space company is to expand its business scale," said Xu Ling, director of finance and investor relations at SOHO China. "The company plans to make scale expansion its top priority while improving quality in each co-working space center."

Currently, the proportion of SOHO 3Q's operating income is still low, Pan said, without revealing a specific number.

Fan Hang contributed to this story