GOODMAN (INTERVIEW, URGENT)* Plans over $3 bln in developments...

GOODMAN (INTERVIEW, URGENT)* Plans over $3 bln in developments projects in FY 2010, 2011
* Development projects planned over next 5 yrs worth $9 bln
* Comfortable with 18.2 percent CIC stake
By Lee Chyen Yee
HONG KONG, March 3 (Reuters) - Australia's largest listed industrial property group Goodman Group has nearly A$4 billion ($3.6 billion) in projects planned for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 as the global real estate market recovers, a top executive said.
The development projects running through the fiscal year ending June 2011 was part of the company's A$10 billion development pipeline for the next five years, with a focus on Asia and Europe, Chief Executive Greg Goodman told Reuters in an interview.

After the global real estate sector underwent a trying period in 2008 and 2009, many markets have sufficiently recovered for companies including Goodman to scout for investment opportunities.

"In 2011, we would see ... a more normalised state for the business after the financial crisis," Goodman said from the company's Hong Kong offices overlooking Victoria Harbour.

"We currently have A$1.2 billion of projects underway and effectively we would see that being close to A$1.8 billion by June and certainly couple of billion into financial year 2011 of projects globally," he said.

Goodman would develop projects with capital from its partners, including pension funds, sovereign funds and large institutional investors, which would help boost its assets under management of A$17 billion, executives said.

"We see that growing significantly over the next five years and we certainly see that growing significantly in the Asian region, being Greater China, including Hong Kong," Goodman said.

The 47-year-old New Zealander is in Hong Kong for a groundbreaking ceremony to unveil Interlink, a 222,000-square-metre warehouse that is Goodman's largest development globally and counts logistics company DHL, a unit of Deutsche Post , among its clients.

Last year, Goodman said it planned to develop a $390 million warehouse and distribution project in Hong Kong to tap growth in China, with the warehouse expected to deliver a forecast yield on cost of 9 percent. [ID:nSYD7367]

Like many foreign companies, Goodman is eager to tap the fast-growing China market through its alliances with Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Through the tie-up, CIC is the Sydney-based company's largest shareholder with an 18.2 percent stake. Goodman declined to say whether that stake would increase.

Goodman, which recorded an operating profit after tax of A$139 million but logged a net loss of A$500.3 million for the first half ending December 2009, expects to be on track to achieve its target operating profit of A$310 million for the fiscal year.

Goodman said operating profit would grow significantly in fiscal 2011, but declined to provide figures or forecast when the company would emerge from a net loss.

"We believe the valuation losses as far as we're concerned are over, and we believe investment markets around the world have stabilised, so we should not see any more devaluation losses coming through our profit and loss," he said.