Stocks

A Change in Focus

Chengdu Urban Construction Investment & Development

Year to date: Up 751%

The numbers behind Chengdu Urban Construction aren’t very impressive: Sales were just $12 million last year, down from $37 million in 2003, and the company lost $3 million. So why does Chengdu Urban have a market cap of $2.9 billion? One reason: The company, a specialist in demolishing buildings in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, early this year acquired Sinolink Securities, one of the many privately held Chinese securities companies looking to team up with moribund publicly traded companies in order to gain quick access to capital markets. In August, Chengdu Urban’s Sinolink subsidiary bought Sichuan Tianyuan Futures.