[1/4]U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen gives a statement to the press during her visit in Mexico City, Mexico December 6, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril Acquire Licensing Rights
MEXICO CITY, Dec 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. and Mexico agreed on Wednesday to cooperate on stronger screening of investments to reduce national security risks and discussed integrating cross-border payments systems, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen insisted that the moves were not motivated by concerns about China.
The Treasury and Mexican Finance Ministry signed an agreement to exchange information on technical information and best practices as Yellen wrapped up a three-day visit to Mexico City.
The Biden administration is promoting Mexico as a premier investment destination for U.S. supply chains and wants to ensure that it has a robust screening regime in place to handle a growing influx of factory investment.
The effort is aimed at helping Mexico develop a screening body similar to the Treasury-run Committee on Foreign Investment the U.S. (CFIUS), which reviews purchases of American companies by foreign-owned entities and other inbound investments.
“Like our own investment screening regime, CFIUS, increased engagement with Mexico will help maintain an open investment climate while monitoring and addressing security risks, making both our countries safer,” Yellen said in announcing the memorandum of intent with Mexican Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O.
FENTANYL VS WEAPONS
Yellen’s trip focused on enhancing economic ties and boosting cooperation to stem the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl to the United States via Mexico, where precursor chemicals from China are often mixed.
Ramirez asked for help in fighting the flow of weapons from the United States into the hands of Mexican criminal gangs that he said often outgun police departments and Mexico’s military.
“On this side of the border we’re doing everything we can to detect and prevent” the shipping of fentanyl to the U.S., he said. “So we have also asked for the same level of cooperation from the U.S. with these (arms) shipments.”
“NEAR-SHORING” BOOM
Mexico is attracting a major influx of manufacturing investments to supply the U.S. market, raising concerns that China or other countries could use it as a back door to get around restrictions on U.S. export controls for sensitive technologies such as semiconductors.
The near-shoring boom brought Mexico $32.2 billion in foreign direct investment in the first three quarters of 2023, close to the full-year 2022 total of $36 billion.
High-profile projects include an estimated $5 billion Tesla (TSLA.O) electric vehicle factory in northern Mexico that has prompted Chinese suppliers to announce plans to invest over $1 billion nearby.
While CFIUS’ increased scrutiny in recent years has sharply reduced Chinese investment in the United States, Yellen said the investment screening talks with Mexico were “not just China-focused.” She said China was welcome to make investments in Mexico to supply the U.S. as long as these could pass national security screenings and meet new tax credit content rules limiting EV battery value chains to 25%.
“If Chinese involvement triggered those rules, which are meant to avoid undue dependence on China, then that’s a no,” Yellen said earlier.
Ramirez, asked whether Mexico was worried increased cooperation with the U.S. would strain its relationship with China, Ramirez said Mexico’s trading relationship with its northern neighbor was “overwhelmingly dominant” and a higher priority than with other countries.
The Treasury and other members of CFIUS, which include the U.S. departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, and Commerce, regularly work with governments to improve their investment screening, including recently in Europe, Yellen said. More than 20 countries have implemented or enhanced their regimes over the past decade.
PAYMENTS COOPERATION
Yellen said that Treasury and Mexican Finance Ministry officials on Thursday also discussed cross-border payment systems, including possibly integrating them more deeply, which could enhance trade and investment benefits.
Possible deeper integration of the payment systems between the two countries was “not about China,” Yellen said.
Financial cooperation with the U.S. enabled Mexico to look at issues of interest to the country “in particular digital payments and reducing costs to send remittances,” Ramirez said.
Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Richard Chang
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BERLIN, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Volkswagen must regularly check its operations in China to ensure its supply chains are safe and comply with human rights laws, two of the carmaker’s investors said, after an audit of its jointly owned Xinjiang site found no sign of forced labour.
The demands made by Union Investment and Deka Investment on Wednesday reflect ongoing concerns over Volkswagen’s engagement in the Xinjiang region, where rights groups have documented abuses including forced labour in detention camps.
Beijing denies any such abuses.
The result of the Volkswagen-commissioned audit comes as Germany is carefully recalibrating its relationship with China, its biggest trading partner, to reduce its exposure to a market that is also a systemic rival.
Volkswagen said on Tuesday that the much-anticipated audit, which was carried out by Germany’s Loening Human Rights & Responsible Business GmbH and two Chinese lawyers from a firm in Shenzhen, had found no evidence of forced labour.
Loening, however, noted that the audit had been limited to the site, a joint venture with SAIC Motor (600104.SS), adding the situation in Xinjiang and the challenges in collecting data for audits were well known.
Germany’s Association of Critical Shareholders (DKA), which represents small investors on environmental, social and governance issues, said the audit was raising more questions than it answers.
“If even a single audit … is so difficult, and can only happen without freedom of expression and labour union rights … further audits can hardly be considered an effective measure,” DKA co-managing director Tilman Massa said.
NO ‘ONE-OFF EXERCISE’
A Volkswagen logo is seen on a Volkswagen ID.5 electric car on display at a showroom of a car dealer in Reze near Nantes, France, November 13, 2023. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe Acquire Licensing Rights
While calling the audit a step in the right direction, Henrik Pontzen, who heads sustainability and ESG at Union Investment, said Volkswagen had not yet reached its goal.
“There is still a lot to do: In China, audits must not remain a one-off exercise. A functioning complaints management system must also be established,” he said.
He also said that Volkswagen’s corporate governance, which has drawn criticism from some of its smaller shareholders, remained the Achilles heel of Europe’s top automaker.
Ingo Speich of Deka Investment, which according to LSEG data owns $99 million worth of Volkswagen’s preferred stock, welcomed the results of the audit but demanded more transparency in Volkswagen’s supply chain.
“Investor pressure has worked. VW has followed the example set by BASF (BASFn.DE), which already started audits in China at a very early stage,” he said.
Shares in Volkswagen were up 3.4% to 112.26 euros at 1144 GMT, lifting them to the top of the gainers on Germany’s blue-chip index, with traders pointing to relief after index provider MSCI (MSCI.N) gave it a ‘red flag’ in its social issue category in 2022, prompting some investors to drop the stock.
Volkswagen’s stock market value has halved to 57.6 billion euros in the past two years. Its shares are down 26% year-to-date, underperforming a 37% rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Auto index .
The automaker’s shares trade at just 3 times forward earnings over the next 12 months, down from 8.8 two years ago, which was the highest among its European competitors.
The price-to-earnings ratio, widely used in financial markets to gauge the relative value of stocks, is now below the 5 for the European car sector.
Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Additional reporting by Josephine Mason; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Alexander Smith and Mark Potter
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The company logo is seen on the headquarters of China Evergrande Group in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China September 26, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
HONG KONG, Nov 30 (Reuters) – China Evergrande Group (3333.HK), the world’s most indebted property developer, is seeking to avert a potentially imminent liquidation with a last-minute debt restructuring proposal, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The defaulted company has until a Hong Kong court hearing on Monday to present a “concrete” revised debt restructuring proposal for offshore creditors, a judge said last month after its original plan had lapsed.
But the sources, who declined to be named as the talks are private, told Reuters that creditors were unlikely to accept Evergrande’s new proposal given low recovery prospects and growing concerns about the developer’s future.
With more than $300 billion in liabilities, Evergrande exemplifies a crisis in China’s property sector, which makes up one-quarter of the world’s second-biggest economy. The authorities have scrambled to support the sector as the troubles of embattled developers roiled global markets.
Guangzhou-based Evergrande, which defaulted on its offshore debt in late 2021, did not respond to a request for comment.
Ahead of the hearing when the Hong Kong High Court will rule on a liquidation petition, Evergrande this week offered to swap some debt held by offshore creditors into equity in the company and two Hong Kong-listed units, and repay the rest with non-tradeable “certificates” backed by offshore assets, two sources said.
The offshore assets include the developer’s minority stakes in other companies and its receivables, one of the two sources said, and the certificates would be redeemed by Evergrande when it successfully disposes of the assets. The plan is not expected to require regulatory approval, as Chinese regulators have banned the developer from issuing new bonds, he added.
The new proposal also offers creditors a 17.8% stake in Evergrande, in addition to an October offer, previously reported by Reuters, of 30% stakes in each of its two Hong Kong units – Evergrande Property Services Group (6666.HK) and Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group (0708.HK) – the person said.
Many creditors were dissatisfied with the October terms as they implied a major haircut on investments, sources have said, forcing Evergrande to scramble to sweeten the deal in what could be its final attempt to avoid liquidation.
LIQUIDATION CHALLENGES
The spectre of a messy collapse of Evergrande has been a major concern for global investors as the Chinese economy sputters, with property sales slowing and hundreds of thousands of unfinished homes across the country.
Chinese authorities have announced a string of measures to revive the sector destabilised by the debt woes of giants like Evergrande and Country Garden (2007.HK).
Evergrande’s debt revamp hopes were derailed in late September when the company said billionaire founder Hui Ka Yan was under investigation for unspecified “illegal crimes”.
The developer was banned from issuing dollar bonds, a key part of the restructuring plan, and its flagship mainland unit was put under investigation by regulators.
If the Hong Kong court orders Evergrande’s liquidation, a provisional liquidator and then an official liquidator would be appointed to take control and arrange to sell the company’s assets to repay its debts.
In addition to shares of its two Hong Kong-listed units, this would include selling its onshore assets, which could face significant challenges, restructuring experts say.
A lawyer for an ad hoc group of key offshore bondholders told the Hong Kong court last month that the restructuring plan could have a higher recovery rate for creditors than liquidation, in which they would get back less than 3%.
Still, the group has nominated consultancy Alvarez & Marsal as its preferred liquidator, two other sources said, as creditors anticipate a potential liquidation of Evergrande, whose liabilities and assets are largely in mainland China.
Alvarez & Marsal did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Top Shine, an investor in Evergrande unit Fangchebao, filed the liquidation petition in June 2022 after it said the developer failed to honour an agreement to repurchase shares the investor had bought in the subsidiary.
Reporting by Clare Jim and Xie Yu in Hong Kong, Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and William Mallard
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Yaskawa Electric robots are pictured at a trade show in Tokyo, Japan, November 29, 2023. REUTERS/Sam Nussey Acquire Licensing Rights
TOKYO, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Japanese robot maker Yaskawa Electric (6506.T) is considering investing around $200 million in the United States, its president said, with an eye to making its industrial robots there for the first time.
The investment would follow other manufacturers from allied nations moving to build capacity in the U.S. as Washington tries to boost high-end manufacturing and strengthen its control over supply chains amid trade tension with China.
While Japanese rival Fanuc (6954.T) is a leading maker of factory robots for the automotive industry in the U.S., Yaskawa hopes to ride a wave of automation in other sectors.
Manufacturing locally “gives our customers a sense of security and reliability,” President Masahiro Ogawa said in an interview.
The more than 100-year-old company has previously said it is looking to invest more in the U.S. The potential scope of the expansion is reported here for the first time.
Yaskawa is the world’s top maker of servo motors, a type of high-precision motor that is widely used in chipmaking tools.
The company, which already makes components in Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio, is considering expanding U.S. production to modules which incorporate its motors, Ogawa said.
The U.S. views securing access to cutting-edge semiconductors as a priority, with its leading chip equipment makers including Applied Materials (AMAT.O) and Lam Research (LRCX.O).
Foreign manufacturers building out capacity in the U.S. include automaker Toyota Motor (7203.T) and chipmakers TSMC (2330.TW) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS).
Yaskawa, whose shares have risen by about a third year-to-date giving it a market capitalisation of around $10 billion, is looking at possible subsidies to fund some of the cost of the expansion, Ogawa said.
Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Christopher Cushing
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Nov 27 (Reuters) – Activist investor Elliott Investment Management on Monday said it was ready to nominate directors at Crown Castle International and push for the ouster of the wireless tower owner’s executives and board members, whom it blames for years of underperformance.
The hedge fund in a letter released on Monday said the company needs “comprehensive leadership change.” It said it was ready to appeal to other shareholders to make changes to the 12-member board, signaling a possible proxy fight next year.
It also wants the company to review its fiber strategy, including considering a possible sale of the business.
It is the second time the U.S. hedge fund is publicly pressuring the company after it urged management to rethink its fiber infrastructure strategy and criticized the company’s returns in 2020.
Elliott, which said it now owns a $2 billion stake in the real estate investment trust, said operational underperformance and flawed capital allocation contributed to a sagging share price.
“We are prepared and intend to make our case directly to shareholders with a majority slate of alternative directors at the company’s 2024 annual meeting,” Elliott managing partner Jesse Cohn and senior portfolio manager Jason Genrich said in the letter.
Shares of Crown Castle climbed more than 6% in premarket trading.
“Crown Castle suffers from a profound lack of oversight by the Board, which has contributed to its irresponsible stewardship and flawed financial policy,” Elliott said.
The hedge fund criticized Crown Castle for having “disregarded our data-driven analysis” and said “our recommended changes were neither made nor taken seriously.”
“The company’s strategy, led by CEO Jay Brown since 2016, has been a failure, as demonstrated by the breathtaking magnitude of its underperformance,” the letter said.
Crown Castle did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Providence and Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Mark Porter
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Apartments are illuminated inside residential buildings at the bank of Berlin-Spandauer-Schifffahrtskanal in Berlin, Germany, November 10, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
BENGALURU, Nov 24 (Reuters) – German home prices will fall more than previously thought this year and next as high interest rates sap demand, according to analysts in a Reuters poll who expect the supply of affordable homes to worsen and ownership to decline in years ahead.
Once-booming property prices in Europe’s largest economy have declined over 10% since they peaked last year as the European Central Bank hiked interest rates by 450 basis points in just 15 months, ending an about decade-long era of rock-bottom borrowing costs.
Those high interest rates and elevated living costs through soaring inflation in recent years have not only forced many households to choose renting over owning a home, it has also led to the worst crisis in the German property sector in decades.
With some German property developers filing for insolvency, construction activity has dropped over a third from a year ago.
The median view from the Nov. 15-23 Reuters poll of 14 property experts forecast average home prices to drop 8.0% this year and 2.8% next, steeper than the predicted 5.6% fall in 2023 and no growth in 2024 in an August survey.
“Higher interest rates forced about half of all potential buyers out of the housing market … and therefore will lead to price reductions in the German housing market in this and the next few years,” said Sebastian Schnejdar, senior real estate analyst at BayernLB.
“Moreover, there was a significant rise in the overheads for heating, electricity and communal fees, which have also increased the costs of housing for homeowners.”
That bleak outlook was despite the government recently announcing a 45 billion euro ($47 billion) support package for the property sector and measures to encourage house building, including tax incentives.
With overall economic activity expected to remain weak over the coming quarters, it could take a while for the property sector to recover.
The euro zone’s commercial property sector could also struggle for years, posing a threat to the banks and investors who financed it, the ECB said recently.
LAND OF TENANTS
Although 11 of 14 analysts who replied to an extra question said purchasing affordability for first-time homebuyers would improve over the coming year, 10 of 14 contributors said the supply of affordable homes would worsen over the coming 2-3 years.
Meanwhile, more are moving into rented homes, putting pressure on the market and rents are rising faster than salaries.
In the capital, Berlin, where cheap apartments were abundant as recently as a decade ago, the vacancy rate is less than 1%.
The median view of 12 property experts forecast average home rental prices to rise 4.0% or more until 2026.
Still, the proportion of home ownership to renters will decrease over the coming five years, according to 11 of 14 analysts. Three said it would increase.
“In the era of low interest rates, home ownership in Germany had become more popular but even if compared with most other European countries, Germany remains the land of tenants,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.
“Looking ahead, the new (higher) interest rate environment will make it impossible for more people to buy property. As a result, the trend of the last decade from tenants to landlords is over. Moreover, immigration should push up the demand for rental properties.”
(For other stories from the Reuters quarterly housing market polls
Reporting by Indradip Ghosh; Polling by Purujit Arun, Rahul Trivedi and Sarupya Ganguly; Editing by Ross Finley and David Evans
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FILE PHOTO: The logo of SBB is seen at company’s headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, September 14, 2023. REUTERS/Marie Mannes/File Photo/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
COPENHAGEN, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Fitch on Wednesday downgraded Swedish property company SBB’s (SBBb.ST) long-term issuer default rating to CCC+ from B-, and its senior unsecured debt rating to B from B+, driving the group’s bonds deeper into speculative or ‘junk’ territory.
Loss-making SBB is at the centre of a Swedish property crash, having racked up vast debt by buying public real estate, including social housing, government offices, schools and hospitals.
“The downgrades reflect SBB’s third quarter results and its tight liquidity, including insufficient existing liquidity to reduce refinancing risk after the end of the third quarter 2024, and unfavourable real estate and capital market conditions,” Fitch said in a statement.
“SBB continues to undertake asset disposals but execution risk remains high,” the ratings agency added.
SBB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fitch already in May cut the group to below investment grade status for the first time and again downgraded the company in August.
Fitch on Wednesday said SBB was unlikely to have capital market access to refinance its unsecured bonds, adding that without an ability to tap bond markets, the real estate company would have to sell assets to meet debt maturities.
Rival ratings agency S&P on Friday said it had placed SBB on credit watch for a potential downgrade to a selective default over the company’s offer to use proceeds from a property sale to buy back debt for up to $650 million.
If debt is bought at a substantial discount to the original value, this could be considered tantamount to default, S&P said.
($1 = 10.4988 Swedish crowns)
Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Copenhagen, Marie Mannes in Stockholm, editing by Anna Ringstrom, Terje Solsvik and Bernadette Baum
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A telecom antenna of Spain?s telecom infrastructure company Cellnex is seen in Madrid, Spain, April 27, 2022. REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Mobile phone tower operator Cellnex (CLNX.MC) will accelerate asset sales in a bid to get an investment grade credit rating by the middle of next year and is preparing for a wave of consolidation in the sector, CEO Marco Patuano told Reuters.
The Spanish company, which has grown through acquisitions since listing in 2015, changed direction last year when rising interest rates forced it to re-focus on cutting debt by selling non-core assets and simplifying the business.
Patuano said he expected cash generation at the company would accelerate drastically in two or three years, when capital expenditure (capex) commitments reduce and assets are mature enough to generate higher returns.
“Capex is (now) absorbing all the cash generating. 2024, big capex. 2025, big capex, and then there is a cliff. In 2027, you’re generating a lot of cash. You can’t imagine, a lot of cash,” Patuano said.
At that time, Cellnex envisages consolidation among the six largest European tower operators, provided market conditions are favourable.
“(In) Europe (what) will happen is that there are six tower operators today. And tomorrow, I think there will be less than six,” Patuano said.
Patuano raised the possibility of reviving his predecessor’s 2022 bid for Deutsche Telekom’s towers business – now known as GD Towers. “When the time will be mature, (it) could be a very appropriate use of resources,” he said.
CAPITAL MARKETS DAY IN MARCH
In March, Cellnex plans to announce a new strategy to take it through to 2026, incorporating longer-term capital allocation targets.
Since taking the helm in June, Patuano has conducted a review of the company’s portfolio to identify core assets and potential disposals.
“In Ireland and Austria we are considering the possibility of a full disposal,” said Patuano, who already agreed the sale of a minority stake in Cellnex Nordics operations in September.
According to a report published in October by Kepler Cheuvreux, Cellnex’s units in Ireland and Austria have enterprise values of 1.05 billion euros ($1.15 billion) and 1.41 billion euros respectively.
Cellnex aims to reduce its leverage ratio below six times its core earnings in 2024 to try to improve its credit rating.
The Spanish company is also planning to invest about 150 million euros in acquiring the land where its towers sit.
“In the next couple of years, we should improve even more the cash from operations,” said Patuano, adding land acquisition was one of the ways to achieve that.
The company is committed to increasing shareholder remuneration in coming years, through dividend payments and share buybacks.
“If you invest in infrastructure, you’re not looking for growth without yield, you’re looking at yield with a decent growth, which is better than the inflation,” Patuano said.
($1 = 0.9168 euros)
Reporting by Andres Gonzalez and Amy-Jo Crowley
Editing by Anousha Sakoui and Mark Potter
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The logo of property developer Shimao Group is seen on the facade of Shimao Tower in Shanghai, China January 13, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
HONG KONG, Nov 16 (Reuters) – A court auction to sell vast commercial land plots owned by defaulted Shimao Group (0813.HK) in Shenzhen failed for a second time on Thursday as there were no bidders, highlighting weak demand in China’s property market.
Twelve land plots totalling 243,602 square metres, together with some uncompleted buildings on them, have asked for 10.4 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), 20% lower than the 13 billion yuan starting price in the first auction in July, according to e-commerce company JD.com’s (9618.HK) online auction platform.
China’s property sector, which has seen many company defaults since it slipped into a debt crisis in mid-2021, is struggling to stabilise due to a bleak economic outlook.
The Shenzhen plots were part of the land parcel bought by Shanghai-based Shimao in 2017, which planned to build a new landmark complex in China’s tech hub with the city’s tallest skyscraper.
Many of the assets of Shimao, which defaulted its $11.8 billion of offshore debt last July, were being sold to raise funds or were seized by creditors.
Media reports said the land plots, valued at 16.3 billion yuan, were the most valuable assets being auctioned by Chinese courts in seven years.
China’s government land sales revenue and property sales both fell at a faster pace in October, down 25.4% and 20.33% respectively from a year earlier, official data showed this week, suggesting the crisis-hit sector is yet to emerge from its decline despite Beijing’s support efforts.
Authorities have been ramping up measures to support real estate, including relaxing home purchase restrictions and lowering borrowing costs.
($1 = 7.2594 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Stephen Coates
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An old house is seen in front of new apartment buildings in Guangfuli neighbourhood, in Shanghai, China, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
HONG KONG, Nov 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Xi Jinping is stuck between debt-ridden developers and risk-shy bankers. The Chinese president’s latest attempt to boost housing through cheap loans is an enlarged version of a 2022 scheme. That didn’t work because lenders balked at increasing their exposure to over-leveraged real estate groups. Xi needs to articulate a broader plan to restore banks’ confidence in the troubled property sector.
The People’s Bank of China plans to provide at least 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) of low-cost financing to shore up an ailing property market that at its peak accounted for more than 20% of the Chinese economy. Authorities will inject the fund in phases into urban renewal projects and public housing programs through state-directed policy banks, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. They hope that, eventually, the money will trickle down to homebuyers.
Beijing’s problem is that the cash it doles out may not reach the intended targets because banks are reluctant to pass it on to property developers. The PBOC began providing interest-free loans to state banks in November last year after homebuyers staged nationwide protests and refused to make mortgage payments on unfinished homes. But banks have so far taken up less than 1% of the 200 billion yuan offered by the central bank, according to the Financial Times, due to high risks associated with distressed projects.
Authorities have stepped up efforts to put a floor under a market downturn in which nearly all major private-sector property firms have defaulted. The sour mood stemming from falling house prices is also weighing on consumer confidence and the broader economy.
Xi was grappling with a similar vicious cycle in 2013 when he first came into office. Things only started to change two years later when his administration intensely pushed a policy directive aimed at “destocking” the property sector, or helping developers reduce their inventory of unsold homes. Chinese banks heeded the strong signal coming from Beijing. They started to finance local governments to pay off displaced residents of shantytown redevelopments, who used the money to buy new homes.
That helped to shore up property prices and avert a crash. Paradoxically, that “destocking” led to a quick “restocking” as major developers quickly took on more debt, causing the real estate bubble that Beijing is fighting right now.
Still, simply throwing money at reluctant banks won’t help heal the current real estate wounds. Xi may need to take a page out of his own playbook and come up with an all-encompassing policy to deal with the problem once and for all.
CONTEXT NEWS
The People’s Bank of China plans to inject at least 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) of low-cost financing into the real estate sector, as authorities step up efforts to shore up the struggling property market, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 15.
In November 2022, Beijing set up a similar scheme to provide 200 billion yuan in interest-free loans through state banks to finance stalled housing projects across the country. Less than 1% of the funds have been tapped, the Financial Times reported on Sept. 14, as Chinese banks are reluctant to bear the risks of lending to distressed projects.
Editing by Francesco Guerrera and Thomas Shum
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