Dalian Wanda Gets $800M Offshore Club Loan and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda maybe have finally found its way out of China’s regulatory dog house as the mainland commercial developer is said to have been allowed to secure a $800 million offshore loan. While Wanda may be on the rebound, its fellow cross-border supernova HNA appears to still be struggling as its tech units announced that it had pledge three-quarters of the company’s shares in return for a loan and the company behind WeChat will be investing RMB 3 billion to make more space for servers holding all your voice messages and selfies. Read on for all these stories and more.

Dalian Wanda Gets $800M Offshore Club Loan

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co Ltd is borrowing a club loan of up to $800 million, its first offshore loan in almost two years, Reuters Loan Pricing Corp reported on Wednesday citing sources.

The company was on financial strains after China’s regulators last year told banks to stop providing funding for several of Wanda’s overseas acquisitions, part of a crackdown on what Beijing sees as irrational spending by some domestic conglomerates. Read more>>

HNA Tech Unit Pawns 75% of Shares in Scramble for Cash

HNA Technology Investments, a unit of HNA Group, said on Wednesday its controlling shareholder has pledged 75 per cent of the company’s shares with China Construction Bank against loans, heightening the risk of share price fall.

Companies that have pledged a large amount of shares tend to witness higher volatility in their shares as it’s difficult for them to increase their pledges when prices fall. It may cause lenders to sell these shares on the market to maintain the margin, which can lead to further price falls. Read more>>

China Resources Land Says Net Profit Grew 96% in 2018 1H

China Resources Land (1109) reported today that its half-year core profit from investment properties, excluding revaluation gain, grew by 151.8 percent 7.28 billion yuan.

Net profit, including the revaluation gain from investment properties was up by 96.1 percent from the year before to 8.85 billion yuan, the company said. Consolidated revenue for the developer rose 40.4 percent to reach RMB 43.78 billion, and property development revenue was up by 42.5 percent to RMB 36.49 billion. Read more>>

Vanke Says It’s Not to Blame for Rising Rents in China

One of China’s largest property developers, China Vanke Co, on Tuesday refuted media reports that the entrance of institutional landlords has led to current soaring rental prices.

“It is not until the past two years that large companies started to emerge in the traditional leasing market, but the penetration rate is less than 5 percent in China, which is too small to have a significant influence,” Vanke President Zhu Jiusheng said at a media conference in Shenzhen. Read more>>

Tencent to Invest RMB 3B to Expand Chongqing Data Centre

Chinese internet heavyweight Tencent Holdings Ltd said on Wednesday that it will invest 3 billion yuan ($438 million) to start building the second phase of its data center project in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese metropolis.

The new investment will help add 100,000 servers, bringing the total number of its servers in Chongqing to 200,000 units. The move is part of Tencent’s broader push to expand its presence in the cloud computing sector amid heightened competitions from rivals such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Read more>>

Country Garden Says It Will Slow Construction After Worker Deaths

Country Garden, China’s top property developer by sales, said on Tuesday it will slow the pace of new projects to focus on safety and quality, as core profit in the first six months hit a record high on stronger revenue and margins.

Responding to safety concerns after a series of incidents at its building sites, Country Garden’s president and CEO Mo Bin said the company will concentrate improving controls and management at existing projects. Read more>>

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