Shares of CapitaLand (CATL.SI), Southeast Asia’s largest property developer, rose on Wednesday after it said it was open to the idea of a listing in China, where the firm’s shopping mall unit plans to almost double its number of properties.

CapitaMalls Asia (CMAL.SI) said it hopes to have around 100 malls, up from 53 now, in China within the next three to five years, the firm said in a filing to the Singapore Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

 

The Business Times quoted CapitaMalls Asia chairman Liew Mun Leong as saying it is “commercially logical” for CapitaLand to consider listing its operations in China as a large part of its business is in the mainland.

CapitaLand shares rose as much as 1.1% and CapitaMalls Asia gained as much as 1.6%.

At 0413 GMT, CapitaLand shares were trading at $3.80 on a volume of 10.2 million shares. CapitaMalls Asia were last at $1.89 with 2.5 million shares changing hands.

 

“What’s positive is the company remains committed in China and they seem to be a long-term player there, not an opportunistic investor who may have a hit-and-run strategy," said Wilson Liew, an analyst at Kim Eng.