
HNA chairman Chen Feng (Image: PRNewsFoto)
If you wondered how China’s most acquisitive conglomerate plans to pay for the HK$27 billion in sites it just purchased in Kai Tak, then the mystery was solved today when HNA announced an upcoming rights issue that should cover part of the cost. Also in the headlines, it seems the price of China Vanke being bailed out is that the developer is now an SOE, but on the mainland it can be tricky to tell an SOE from a private company under the best of circumstances. Read on for all these stories and more.
HNA Subsidiary Plans HK$9.26B Rights Issue to Fund Kai Tak Projects
Hong Kong International Construction Investment Management Group, a listed unit of HNA Group, has proposed a two-for-one rights issue to raise about HK$9.26 billion to fund the acquisition of two land sites at Kai Tak that it bought over the past two months .
The company said it would issue about 2.27 billion rights shares at HK$4.08 each. The price represents a 0.99 per cent premium to the company’s closing price of HK$4.04 on Tuesday, according to the filings to the Hong Kong exchange on Wednesday. Read more>>
Shenzhen Declares Vanke as City-Owned SOE
Property giant China Vanke, the target of the most contentious takeover attempt in the country’s corporate history, has been declared a state-owned business directly controlled by the government of Shenzhen, elevating it to a status that could deter future raids.
Vanke was invited to a meeting with Shenzhen’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) as a company under its supervision, according to a March 23 notice on its website. Read more>>
Evergrande Vows to Deleverage After Debts Rise 80%
Chhina Evergrande Group, sitting on corporate China’s second-biggest debt pile, on Tuesday vowed to enhance debt control from 2017 by repaying most of its high-interest loans, and said it was confident its leverage ratio will fall after strong sales and an A-share backdoor listing this year.
The country’s largest homebuilder said it has started a second round of strategic investment fundraising, worth up to 20 billion yuan ($2.91 billion) and expected to be complete in May, as part of a backdoor listing valued at 198 billion yuan. Read more>>
Hangzhou, Xiamen and Fuzhou Hope to Destroy Demand for Housing
Authoriites in the eastern cities of Hangzhou, Xiamen and Fuzhou are set to roll out more measures to restrict housing purchases and cool the property market.
Hangzhou announced that starting Wednesday, single adults, including those who are divorced, who have a local “hukou” (permanent residence permits) and own at least one house, will not be permitted to buy new apartments in the city’s urban area. Read more>>
Having Bought Everything Else, HNA Hopes to Buy a Magazine
Mainland conglomerate HNA Group is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the owner of the publisher of Forbes magazine, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Hong Kong-based investor group Integrated Whale Media Investments (IWM), which holds 95 percent of Forbes Media, is also in talks with another Chinese media firm and is scouting for more potential buyers for most or all of its stake, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the talks are confidential. Read more>>
CapitaLand to Manage SingPost Centre Mall in SG
CapitaLand Mall Asia will manage the upcoming mall at the new SingPost Centre, which is targeted to open in 2H17. This comes after CapitaLand Mall Asia, the wholly owned shopping mall business of CapitaLand, signed a mall management contract with Singapore Post.
Under the contract, CapitaLand will oversee the pre-opening and retail management for the five-storey SingPost Centre mall, which has 269,000 sq ft of GFA (excluding carpark) and a net lettable area of about 175,000 square feet. Read more>>
Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter for headlines as they happen.
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