COFCO

COFCO Corporation is a central state-owned enterprise. During Ning Gaoning’s tenure at the helm, COFCO developed a commercial real estate business centred on the “Joy City” brand. According to Bao Zhigang, operations director of COFCO Property, speaking in 2010, COFCO’s Joy City projects adopted differentiated positioning: Xidan Joy City focused on a young, fashionable shopping concept, targeting young people under 25, while Chaobei Joy City focused on one-stop community living services, catering mainly to the shopping needs of communities and families.

In November 2009, COFCO announced plans to build more than 20 Joy City malls in large and medium-sized cities across China, with total investment in large commercial real estate projects centred on the brand to exceed 70 billion yuan and a total floor area of about 8 million square metres. According to Bao Zhigang, by 2010 the occupancy rate of Chaobei Joy City had exceeded 90%, and he was very confident in the profitability of the whole project; Xidan Joy City had already been able to give back to the group by 2008, and Chaobei Joy City was expected to turn a profit within about two years. Whereas Wanda went it alone, Joy City was backed by its major shareholder COFCO.