Centaline China, the country's largest real estate brokerage firm, may see a 20-percent drop in profits for 2008 due to shrinking transactions, the company's top management said yesterday.

According to un-audited statistics, Centaline China's performance will be down some 20 percent this year, Lu Cheng, vice general manager of the company was quoted in China Business News as saying.

To maintain the business development, the company has to lay off staff and shut down loss-making outlets.

Shenzhen and Shanghai used to be the biggest contributors to Centaline China's business income. The plummeting property transactions in these two cities has helped drag down the overall performance of the company this year, said Lu.

(China Daily December 17, 2008)