Lotus Pharmaceuticals (LTUS) announces update on land in Inner Mongolia

The company today announced that it plans to sell or transfer approximately 165 acres (1,000 MU) of company-owned land in the Chahaer Industrial Park, Inner Mongolia. Lotus' operating entity, Beijing Liang Fang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., purchased the land-use rights for the property in 2008. Lotus had originally intended to build a pharmaceutical manufacturing and storage facility on a portion of the property.

In March 2010, Lotus began construction on a 250,000-square-foot facility in Beijing after receiving permission from the Beijing Chaoyang District Planning Bureau. The new building will house the Company's R&D center, manufacturing operations, storage facilities, sales and administrative offices. The building will become Lotus' new corporate headquarters following its completion. Management expects to move into the building by June 2011.

Lotus' Chairman and CEO, Mr. Zhongyi Liu, stated, "We have decided not to move forward with the construction of our planned facility in Inner Mongolia in order to focus our efforts and resources on expanding our core business in Beijing. We believe that selling or transferring this property will be a more effective use of our capital."

I found this in their last 10-Q :
If Lotus East fails to obtain all of the funding necessary to complete the construction of the new facility in Inner Mongolia, which is estimated to be approximately $52.9 million in the next five years, it could get back approximately $40.6 million spent to date, including the approximately $33.4 million for the payments on the land use rights, which is refundable if the Chinese local government would not grant it land use rights certificate.