	swire expects continued growth this year swire pacific ltd swpc hkg expects continued growth in all divisions this year though it sees problems in the marine sector chairman michael miles said he told reporters has started well for cathay pacific airways which looks forward to another good year swire properties expects further good results both from properties under development for sale and from its investment property portfolio he did not give any specific projections for ings the company earlier reported pct higher net profits at billion h k dlrs from a year ago swire also had an extraordinary profit of billion dlrs mainly from the sale of a pct interest in cathay pacific airways ltd caph hkg miles said the company will use the money to develop its business primarily in hong kong swire s stake in cathay was first reduced to pct from pct when cathay was publicly floated and then cut to pct when cathay issued new shares amounting to pct of the enlarged capital to the state owned china international trust and investment corp cathay last week reported its profits rose to billion dlrs from mln a year ago miles said despite last year s rapid expansion in cathay s flights and fleet load factor is still holding up at pct he said cathay s growth last year was the result of a marginal increase in the revenue load factor coupled with savings in fuel costs at present fuel prices are stable and will remain stable for the rest of this year he said though there might be a bit of increase later this year miles said swire is not abandoning its offshore oil service operations even though the marine sector is generally depressed obviously the marine industry is not getting any better he said the real estate market remained strong and swire last year revalued its property portfolio up mln dlrs compared with an increase of mln dlrs the previous year miles said he expects the property market to remain firm but said the firm has no available land for a major housing project such as its taikoo shing development on hong kong island now near completion he said the company s pct unit hongkong united dockyard ltd is negotiating with the government for the development of an existing petroleum storage depot into a major housing estate but it s not as big as taikoo shing he said reuter 
