China Evergrande Issues $1.8B in New Bonds

Evergrande boss Xu Jiayin looks like he just figured out the cost of borrowing $1.8 bil at double-digit rates

Just one week after China Evergrande was reported to be shopping its most valuable offshore asset in return for a loan, the mainland’s most debt-happy developer has just sold $1.8 billion in bonds at interest rates of up to 13.75 percent. With deleveraging now dropping out of the mainland economic picture, there may be hope for Hong Kong fast-fading real estate market, after prices fell nearly 1.5 percent in September and some of the biggest speculators in strata-title assets find themselves becoming landlords instead of floor flippers. Read on for all these stories and more.

China Evergrande Paying Up to 13.75% for $1.8B in Bonds

China Evergrande Group said on Wednesday its units have sold three tranches of senior notes worth $1.8 billion, paying coupon rates of up to 13.75 percent, with chairman Hui Ka Yan buying $1 billion of the notes.

The debt-laden property developer said in a filing the amount of the two-year, four-year and five-year dollar bonds was $565 million, $645 million and $590 million, respectively. Read more>>

Faraday Future Co-Founder Quits, Says Car Maker is Insolvent

Nick Sampson, co-founder of Gardena-based electric vehicle manufacturer Faraday and Future Inc., resigned on Oct. 30 after calling the company “effectively insolvent.” Sampson’s departure is the latest defection from Faraday; the company’s vice president and chief engineering designer Peter Savagian left on Oct. 29.

In an email obtained by The Verge, Sampson said “the company is effectively insolvent in both its financial and personnel assets, it will at best will limp along for the foreseeable future.” Read more>>

Hong Kong Home Prices Fell 1.44% in September

The warning bell has rung in Hong Kong as prices of used homes in September dropped at a much faster speed than in the previous month, continuing a slide that is sparking worry through the property market, from agencies to homeowners to developers.

The price index of used homes dropped 1.44 per cent in September, to 388.8 from 394.5, a bigger drop than the 0.08 per cent recorded in August, according to data released by the government’s Rating and Valuation Department on Wednesday. August marked the first decline in used home prices after a 28-month rally. Read more>>

Indiabulls Buys 140 Acre Site Near Delhi

Indiabulls Real Estate Tuesday said it will acquire 140 acre land at Manesar in Gurugram to develop an integrated township and commercial building.

In a filing to the BSE, the Mumbai-based developer said that its wholly-owned subsidiary Loon Land Development Ltd has “entered into definitive agreement(s) to acquire a land parcel/development rights on approx 140 acre land, situated at Sector 79, Manesar, Gurugram, for development of integrated township and commercial building”. Read more>>

SG to Sell Trio of Sites That Could Yield 2,000 Homes

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Housing Board announced on Wednesday (Oct 31) the release of two residential sites and one white site for sale, which together can yield 2,000 private homes and 540 hotel rooms.

Up for tender by the URA is a land parcel in Kampong Java Road while the HDB is tendering an executive condominium site in Tampines Avenue 10. Both sites come under the Confirmed List of the second half 2018 Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme. Read more>>

CK Asset’s Victor Li Says No Housing Bubble in HK

Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, the elder son of Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing, says Hong Kong’s housing market is not in a bubble waiting to burst despite continued skyrocketing prices, and dismisses suggestions he is about to change the development path of the group his iconic father founded.

His comments contrast with a UBS report released in September which suggested the market remained the world’s most overvalued for homes, and was seriously at risk of overheating. Read more>>

Buyers of HK’s The Center Stuck as Strata Market Dries Up

Talk about bad timing. Super wealthy investors who paid US$5.15 billion for The Center – in the world’s most expensive real estate transaction ever – have mostly been spinning their wheels over the last six months trying to sell it off floor by floor.

Plans for quick riches were hampered by the US-China trade war, the global stock market slump, and the growing doom and gloom hanging over property generally now in Hong Kong. Read more>>

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