Asia Property Edge July - Dec 2009

Asia Property Edge July - Dec 2009

True to the analysts’ prediction on Asia’s quick recovery from the global financial crisis, the market rebounded strongly in the second half of 2009. The healthy forecasts for India, China and the Asean countries have, to some extent, put to rest some initial doubts over the sustainability of Asia’s recovery. For one, a top state-run think tank has forecast that China will return to double-digit growth this year, with a 10 per cent rise in GDP.

Such projections have not been baseless; numerous examples abound of how the markets across Asia in various sectors have recovered. Our report card for Asia tells a similar story. At the end of 2009, CBRE’s revenue in the Asia Pacific region, of which Asia is a part, rose 43 per cent to US$177 million for the fourth quarter of 2009, from US$123.6 million a year ago. Operating income for the Asia Pacific region improved sharply to US$23.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2009, up from US$2.1 million for the same period of 2008. EBITDA also increased significantly to US$26.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with US$3.6 million for last year’s fourth quarter. These encouraging results reflect better business performance throughout the region, particularly in Australia and China. We have leveraged on our winning formula of a diversified service platform to deliver outstanding results from areas such as Asset Services, Valuation and Advisory Services and Structured Transactions.