Anbang is kicking its sales into high gear
Downturns, debt and slowdowns lead the region’s real estate news today as southern China tries to dry out from the weekend typhoon and checks to see if all the windows are still in place. Once mighty Anbang has raised $519 million by selling off a securities brokerage, while housing sales in the northern China city of Langfang could point to trouble for overeager investors. All these stories and more await you below.
Anbang Sells Securities Brokerage for $519M
Anbang Insurance Group Co., the once-highflying insurer seized by the Chinese government, has sold off a securities unit to two state-backed firms in the first big asset sale to raise cash for the troubled company.
Shenzhen Qianhai Financial Holdings Co. and Xiamen International Trade Group Corp. will pay 3.56 billion yuan ($519 million) for a majority stake in Century Securities Co., according to a filing Thursday by the Xiamen trade group with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Read more>>
China Real Estate Investment Slowed in August
China’s real estate investment moderated in August on slower construction and home sales, as authorities’ tight controls on the sector continued to take out speculative heat.
Real estate has been one of the few bright spots on China’s investment front, partly due to robust sales in smaller cities where government efforts to tame hot property prices were less stringent. A slowing property market could sharply increase the risks to China’s economic outlook, especially if a tit-for-tat trade war with the United States worsens. Read more>>
Langfang Leads China’s Housing Downturn
You only need to drive an hour out of Beijing to find an example of the Chinese property frenzy gone pear-shaped. This is the zone with some of the country’s worst-performing housing markets, according to research from China Real Estate Information Corp.
Langfang, a city of 4.7 million that’s south-east of Beijing saw home prices boom from late 2015 on speculation that the city would benefit from plans to move government offices out of the center of the capital to ease congestion. Peaking in August last year, prices have cratered on curbs such as residency requirements for purchasers. Read more>>
India’s DLF Vows to Pay Down Debt
Indian realty major DLF is working towards making its housing business debt free by March next year and the cash flow from sales of completed inventories worth around Rs 14,000 crore would be utilised to fund new projects, its CEO Rajeev Talwar said.
In a recent interview Talwar reiterated that the company would sell flats only after completion of the project and there would be no pre-launch sales.”We are working towards that,” Talwar said when asked about the company’s target to become zero debt in housing business by March 2019. Read more>>
Oceanwide Reduces Chinese Loans in Attempt to Close Genworth Deal
Genworth Financial Inc. is making some changes in its long-delayed plan to be acquired by the China-based investment firm China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. Ltd.
Henrico County-based Genworth, which employs thousands in Virginia, said Friday that the two companies have developed an alternative capital structure for the deal that Oceanwide could implement “in the event that international political and economic developments cause potential delays in implementing the original funding structure.” Read more>>
Hong Kong Buyers Exploit Weather Window to Buy New Homes
Thousands of Hong Kong homebuyers took advantage of Saturday’s calm before a pending super typhoon to get their hands on the second batch of Nan Fung Development’s LP6 flats in Tseung Kwan O, casting aside any concern of rising mortgage rates, or the city’s first bear market in stocks since 2015.
The developer sold 464 apartments, or about 95 per cent of the 488 units on offer, for a total sales value of HK$4.28 billion (US$540 million) as of 9pm Saturday, while Super Typhoon Mangkhut was 528 kilometres away in the South China Sea on its way toward Hong Kong. Read more>>
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