China Vanke Co Ltd, the country's top property developer by market value, said its first quarter net profit rose 17.28 percent year-on-year to 718.13 million yuan ($102.5 million), with growth slowing from a year earlier due to a greater proportion of lower-margin projects in its sales mix.

In its first quarter report filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the company said it sold 1.15 million square meters of property in the first three months, up 82.9 percent, with revenue rising 119.1 percent to 10.1 billion yuan.

It sold 351,000 sq m, 340,000 sq m and 240,000 sq m of property in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Bohai region, respectively, with revenue at 3.84 billion, 3.34 billion and 1.69 billion yuan.

Sold and paid-for property totaled 803,000 sq m in the first quarter, with settled sales valued at 6.29 billion yuan.

Operating revenue rose 55.6 percent year-on-year to 6.4 billion yuan in the first quarter.

Earnings per share stood at 0.105 yuan, against 0.093 yuan a year earlier.

China Vanke said net profit growth slowed from 49.27 percent a year earlier due to a concentration of high-margin projects in the first three months of 2007.

A low-margin project - Shanghai Huacao - accounted for 23.7 percent of total settled area, as well as 12.7 percent of total sales value, in the first quarter of 2008.

The company said it had cash of 15.63 billion yuan at the end of March, with a net debt ratio of 30.9 percent, which it considers a reasonable financial structure to maintain as the government tightens its policy toward the property industry.

China Vanke did not provide an earnings forecast for the rest of 2008.