Mon, Jan 15, 2018 TAIPEI TIMES

GREEN BUILDING:Taozhu Garden in Taipei’s Xinyi District is to be covered by 23,000 plants that are expected to absorb 130 tonnes of carbon dioxide

BES Engineering Corp (中華工程) is this year likely to receive an earnings boost from a high-profile residential building in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) that is expected to obtain a use permit from authorities next quarter, company officials said on Thursday evening.

Taozhu Garden (陶朱隱園), dubbed the most expensive apartment complex in Taiwan, is to be covered with plants to make the building environmentally friendly, BES Engineering spokeswoman Vivian Cheng (程安慈) said.

The company would cover the building with 23,000 plants that are expected to absorb 130 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, Cheng said.

The building is to have 40 units of 300 ping (992m2) each, with 21 floors above ground and four below.

Hong Kong media have reported that the firm would charge NT$8 million (US$270,270) per ping, while Shanghai media speculated that a single unit might cost as much as 500 million yuan (US$77.5 million).

The company has refused to reveal its pricing strategy, saying that it has promised buyers that it will stay mum on the matter.

It would soon complete the construction and would put the units on the market likely in the third quarter, Cheng said.

Taozhu Garden was built with safety measures similar to those in a nuclear power plant and it could withstand a magnitude 7 earthquake, structural engineers said.

The project is likely to boost profits of BES Engineering, part of the Core Pacific Group (威京集團), which is building the complex on a site on which loss-making hotel Agora Garden Taipei (亞太會館) used to stand.

BES Engineering has NT$29 billion worth of civil engineering contracts on hand this year, including public construction works at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫), the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit System and the Ministry of National Defense’s dormitory, Cheng said.

BES Engineering reported revenue of NT$9.78 billion for last year, up 2.93 percent from NT$9.5 billion in 2016.

In the first three quarters of last year, the company’s net income was NT$397.1 million, with earnings per share of NT$0.16.

The company’s share price has over the past year advanced more than 32 percent to NT$8.1, giving the company a valuation of NT$12.4 billion as of Friday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.