A Comac C919, China’s first large passenger jet, flies away on its first commercial flight from the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai, China May 28, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
BEIJING, Sept 28 (Reuters) – China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS) said on Thursday it will buy another 100 C919 airplanes in a deal worth $10 billion at list prices, in what would be the largest ever order for the jet made by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
The state-owned carrier said it had received a “substantial discount” for the deal and that the planes will be delivered in batches from 2024 to 2031. The list price for the C919 is $99 million but aircraft can be sold at discounts of up to 50%, especially for new models.
The deal comes five months after the Chinese passenger plane, developed by state-owned COMAC to rival Airbus SE’s (AIR.PA) A320neo and Boeing Co’s (BA.N) 737 MAX single-aisle jet families, took its first flight in May with China Eastern.
The Shanghai-headquartered, state-owned carrier is the first user of the C919 and has bought five of the jets, of which three have been delivered. The other two are expected to be delivered later this year.
Boeing is still waiting to resume deliveries of its bestselling 737 MAX to Chinese airlines more than four years after they were halted following two deadly crashes. The company has been all but shut out of new orders from Chinese carriers since 2017 amid rising political and trade tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Li Hanming, an independent aviation industry analyst, said the deal stemmed from a previous order of intent.
“It is announced at the one year anniversary of C919’s receiving its type certificate,” Li said.
“COMAC has made a good start in the delivery of C919 so far. Next, the plane manufacturer will cooperate with China Eastern more closely, to show other potential users the reliability and performance of C919.”
China Eastern said that the additional planes would add to its fleet at a time when air travel is seeing a strong recovery following three years of COVID curbs, and as the airline needs to retire a large number of its narrow-body aircraft due to their age.
The airline said it would pay for the purchase in installments via its own funds, bank loans and bond issuance.
China Eastern will get delivery of five aircraft in 2024, while ten are to be delivered each year from 2025 to 2027. From 2028 to 2030, 15 C919s will be delivered each year, and the last 20 jets will be delivered in 2031.
Last week, GallopAir, a new Brunei-based airline, said it had signed a letter of intent to purchase 30 aircraft from China, worth $2 billion in total. The deal includes 15 orders of COMAC’s ARJ21 aircraft and 15 of the C919.
($1 = 7.3035 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Sophie Yu, Brenda Goh
Editing by Neil Fullick and Peter Graff and Miral Fahmy
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A person walks past the headquarters of Dalian Wanda Group, in Beijing’s Central Business District (CBD), China August 8, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang Acquire Licensing Rights
Sept 28 (Reuters) – China’s Dalian Wanda Group has started negotiations on a proposal to avoid repaying about 30 billion yuan ($4.11 billion) to investors in its commercial property management business if it fails to complete its initial public offering (IPO) this year, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The Chinese conglomerate recently told investors that an IPO of the unit, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group Co, will likely take place next year, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Dalian Wanda, China’s largest commercial property developer, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Wanda raised nearly $6 billion for the commercial property business in 2021 from investors including Hong Kong-based private equity firm PAG, developer Country Garden, private equity firm CITIC Capital and tech giants Tencent Holdings and billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group, Reuters reported.
In June, China’s securities watchdog asked Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group for more details on its corporate governance as part of its application for an IPO in Hong Kong.
Uncertainty over the timing of Zhuhai Wanda’s IPO has led to investor concerns over the liquidity of parent Wanda Commercial, a unit of Dalian Wanda Group.
In July, Fitch Ratings downgraded the long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group to “B” from “BB-“.
Fitch cut the ratings after a further weakening in the consolidated profile of Wanda Group, which holds 44% of Wanda Commercial, because of heightened liquidity risk at Wanda Commercial’s sister company, Wanda Properties Group, as disputes with stakeholders arose.($1 = 7.3067 yuan)
Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; additional reporting by Roxanne Liu in Beijing; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Christian Schmollinger
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
[1/2]The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Staff/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
LONDON/HONG KONG, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Global stocks inched higher on Wednesday as investors found a footing after a sharp sell-off the previous day, while U.S. Treasury yields dipped after hitting their highest level since 2007.
Stocks and bonds have dropped in recent weeks as investors come to terms with the idea that central banks will hold interest rates “higher for longer” than previously expected, as officials try to squeeze inflation out of economies.
The Europe-wide STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) was up 0.2% on Wednesday, after falling 0.6% in the previous session in its fourth straight daily drop.
MSCI’s index of global stocks (.MIWD00000PUS) was little changed after falling 1.2% the previous day. The index has fallen 4.5% since the start of September.
Germany’s Dax index (.GDAXI) was up 0.05% while Britain’s FTSE 100 (.FTSE) was flat. In Asia overnight, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index (.N225) rose 0.18%.
At the root of the recent equity sell-off, said Jan von Gerich, chief analyst at Nordea, has been a sharp rise in bond yields as traders have cut their bets that central banks will lower interest rates any time soon.
“The latest catalyst has been the increase in bond yields, so if that stabilises then maybe the equity market stabilises as well,” he said.
“The big picture outlook is that we’re probably close to the peak (in bond yields) but the near-term momentum is still upwards.”
On Wednesday, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down 5 basis points to 4.507%, after touching its highest level since October 2007 on Tuesday at 4.566%. A bond’s yield rises as its price falls, and vice versa.
Also on investors’ minds is a looming U.S. government shutdown; further signs of an economic slump in China; and a recent rise in oil prices.
U.S. equity futures picked up as bond yields fell, with contracts for the benchmark S&P 500 stock index 0.43% higher. Dow Jones futures were 0.35% higher while Nasdaq futures were up 0.46%.
The Dow posted its biggest one-day percentage drop since March on Tuesday, while all three major averages ended at their lowest closing levels in well over three months.
In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was 0.12% higher. The index is down 3.7% so far this month.
Chinese corporate health was a focal point. Profits at China’s industrial firms fell 11.7% in the first eight months of the year, albeit a smaller decline than the 15.5% drop for the first seven months.
“The stabilising industrial profits are simply not significant enough to override concerns about risks, especially in real estate,” said Gary Ng, Asia Pacific senior economist at Natixis.
As stress spreads in the Chinese property sector, Bloomberg reported that the chairman of beleaguered Chinese property group Evergrande has been placed under police surveillance.
The dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, was roughly flat at 106.2. It climbed to 106.32 earlier in the session, its highest since Nov. 30.
U.S. crude oil was 1.14% higher to $91.42 a barrel. Brent crude rose 0.85% to $94.76 per barrel.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday took a step forward on a bipartisan bill meant to stop the government from shutting down in just five days, but the House remains hamstrung by divisions between Republican members.
Meanwhile, investors were also on the lookout for government intervention in the Japanese yen after it fell past the 149 per dollar mark on Tuesday for the first time in just under a year.
Reporting by Harry Robertson in London and Julie Zhu in Hong Kong; Editing by Jamie Freed, Edwina Gibbs and Anil D’Silva
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A Swedish flag flutters in front of residential houses in Stockholm, Sweden, September 14, 2023. REUTERS/Marie Mannes/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Sept 26 (Reuters) – Swedish real estate group SBB’s (SBBb.ST) decision to secure fresh cash by cutting its stake in a subsidiary was a welcome move, although the company still needs more funds in the time ahead to meet obligations, ratings agency S&P said on Tuesday.
The planned cash injection, announced late on Sunday, will help the landlord repay short-term debt maturities and reduces “potential shortfall” in the next 12 months, S&P said in a statement.
SBB on Sunday said it had agreed to sell a 1.16% stake in its education unit to Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO) for 242 million Swedish crowns ($22 million) and would also receive repayment of a 7.8 billion crowns loan.
“We … continue to believe that SBB remains dependent on disposing real estate assets or selling equity stakes and on raising new financing,” S&P said.
SBB on Monday told Reuters it was exploring a sale of a controlling stake in its residential real estate arm as part of a sweeping overhaul of operations.
SBB in a statement on Tuesday said it had agreed to sell two properties in Norway to a hospital tenant for 2.82 billion Norwegian crowns ($261 million), approximately 10% below the book value as of June 30.
($1 = 10.9968 Swedish crowns)
($1 = 10.7980 Norwegian crowns)
Reporting by Greta Rosen Fondahn, editing by Terje Solsvik
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets by Mike Dolan
A renewed surge in long-term Treasury yields is stifling world markets yet again as Federal Reserve officials hang tough on one more rate rise, some $134 billion of new government debt sales hit this week and a government shutdown looms.
The yield spike has supercharged the U.S. dollar worldwide – both a reflection and aggravator of mounting financial stress far and wide.
Despite wariness of Bank of Japan intervention, the dollar/yen exchange rate hit its highest for the year on Tuesday – as did the dollar’s DXY (.DXY) index and the dollar’s rate against the South Korea’s won . Sterling hit a 6-month low.
Treasury tremors continue to reverberate from last week’s upgraded Fed forecasts, its insistence on signalling one more rate rise in the current tightening cycle and an uncompromising ‘higher-for-longer’ mantra.
Short term Fed futures haven’t moved much. All the action is in longer-dated U.S. Treasuries, which may now be repricing the economy’s resilience over multiple years and more persistent inflation pressures.
Ten-year Treasury yields , which have added a whopping 25 basis points in just a week, hit another 16-year high at 4.5660% early on Tuesday. As Deutsche Bank notes, this is historically significant territory as the average of the 10-year yield going back to 1799 is around 4.50%.
Thirty-year bond yields , meantime, have jumped over 30bp in a week to a 12-year high of 4.6840%.
And as an indication of how the long-term sustainable interest rate structure as whole is being re-thought, the 10-year real, inflation-adjusted yield has also leaped 26bp to 2.20% – its highest since 2009.
Significantly, this is shifting the deeply-inverted 2-to-10 year yield gap – which has for more than a year indicated recession ahead but which now looks to be closing that negative spread to its smallest since May.
The latest wobble – which has seen exchange-traded funds in U.S. Treasuries deepen year-to-date losses to more than 6% and losses over three years to more than 20% – comes as another heavy supply of new paper goes up for auction this week.
The Treasury sells $48 billion in two-year notes on Tuesday, $49 billion in five-year paper on Wednesday and $37 billion in seven-year notes on Thursday.
A government shutdown from this weekend is still looming with no budget deal in Congress yet to avert it and Moody’s warning of sovereign credit rating implications.
The Fed seems in no mood to calm the horses.
Minneapolis Fed Bank President Neel Kashkari said on Monday the Fed probably needs to raise borrowing rates further.
“If the economy is fundamentally much stronger than we realized, on the margin, that would tell me rates probably have to go a little bit higher, and then be held higher for longer to cool things off,” Said Kashkari.
Even a typically more dovish Chicago Fed boss Austan Goolsbee sounded hawkish. “The risk of inflation staying higher than where we want it is the bigger risk,” he said, adding the Fed would now have to “play by ear” in conducting policy.
Private sector bankers are starting to brace for the worst, with JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon reported overnight as warning: “I am not sure if the world is prepared for 7% (Fed rates).”
Even though the European Central Bank seems shier of even higher rates, the higher-for-longer message there too is clear. ECB chief Christine Lagarde said on Monday the central bank can meet its 2% inflation target if record high rates are maintained for “a sufficiently long duration.”
In a thin data diary on Monday, the Dallas Fed’s September manufacturing survey showed a deterioration of activity there this month. The Chicago Fed’s national business poll for August also fell.
And a retreat in energy prices would have soothed some inflation worries, with U.S. crude falling back to $88 per barrel for the first time in almost two weeks,
Nationwide consumer confidence tops the slate on Tuesday.
Despite a late rally in Wall St stocks on Monday, futures are back about 0.5% in the red – as were bourses in Asia and Europe as the end of the third quarter hoves into view on Friday.
China Evergrande (3333.HK) shares slid for a second day, dropping as much as 8% after a unit of the embattled property developer missed an onshore bond repayment.
There was no sign of a breakthrough in the widening U.S. autoworkers labor dispute, seen as inflationary by some due to potential supply outages.
Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Tuesday:
* US Sept consumer confidence, US Aug new home sales, July house prices, Richmond Fed Sept business survey, Dallas Fed Sept service sector survey, Philadelphia Fed Sept services survey
* Federal Reserve Board Governor Michelle Bowman gives pre-recorded remarks to Washington conference
* U.S. Treasury auctions $48 billion of 2-year notes
* U.S. corporate earnings: Costco, Cintas
Reporting by Mike Dolan; Editing by Christina Fincher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
A Swedish flag flutters in front of residential houses in Stockholm, Sweden, September 14, 2023. REUTERS/Marie Mannes/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
FRANKFURT/OSLO, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Troubled Swedish landlord SBB is exploring the sale of a controlling stake in its residential arm, which owns 23,000 apartments, as it overhauls its business to meet debt deadlines next year, its chief executive told Reuters.
CEO Leiv Synnes said the company’s sale of control in a schools property business to Canadian investor Brookfield was just the start of a sweeping overhaul of its operations, and that selling a minority or controlling stake in its residential arm could be next.
“This is the first step,” Synnes said, referring to the sale of control in EduCo that allowed the repayment of an inter-company loan, releasing 7.8 billion Swedish crowns ($706 million) of cash. “We need to take more steps.”
Synnes said he was in discussions with investors about its 39-billion-crown ($3.5 billion) residential arm as he seeks to close a financing gap. The company said it was also mulling a stock-market listing for that business.
“There are many investors that are looking to expand their business in the Nordics,” said Synnes.
SBB’s problems are unfolding as Sweden struggles to contain a wider property crisis, triggered by high debts, rising interest rates and a wilting economy.
TURNING FOCUS TO COMMUNITY ARM
Selling control of this business would focus SBB on its community arm, which owns care homes, government buildings, hospitals, police stations, fire stations and army barracks.
Long popular with investors, SBB is at the epicentre of a property crash that threatens to engulf the Nordic state’s economy.
The $13 billion group, which owns swathes of property across Sweden, racked up a pre-tax loss of 11 billion Swedish crowns ($1.09 billion) in the second quarter, while its cash dwindled.
The EduCo deal, which will make Brookfield majority owner, with the Swedish firm left with a 49.84% stake, secures extra cash, sending SBB’s (SBBb.ST) shares up by roughly a third and boosting its bonds.
“The fact that SBB is freeing up 8 billion crowns must be seen in a very positive light. In a crisis, it is almost all about having liquidity, and SBB is getting it now,” Carlsquare analyst Bertil Nilsson said.
SBB group built up vast debt by buying public property, including social housing, government offices, schools and hospitals.
It is now scrambling to salvage its finances after seeing its credit rating downgraded to junk, with some looking at the government as a potential saviour. Its shares have lost more than 90% of their value since peaking in 2021.
The Swedish real estate industry’s issues have alarmed investors and prompted the Swedish central bank to issue several warnings.
Earlier this year, it cautioned that problems in heavily indebted commercial property companies could spill over and hit the economy more widely, threatening a domino effect on banks, who have lent ever more to property companies.
($1 = 11.0415 Swedish crowns)
Reporting by Terje Solsvik, Jesus Calero and Chiara Elisei; writing by John O’Donnell; editing by Anna Ringstrom, Alexander Smith and Bernadette Baum
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
China Evergrande Group’s logo is seen on its headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, Sept. 26, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
HONG KONG, Sept 25 (Reuters) – China Evergrande Group’s latest trouble in firming up a long-pending debt restructuring plan led to a sell-off in its and peers’ shares on Monday, as worries resurfaced about the crisis-hit property sector after a brief respite.
Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, which has become the poster child of China’s property crisis, has been working to get its creditors’ approval for a debt restructuring plan after having defaulted in 2021.
Under the plan unveiled in March this year, Evergrande (3333.HK) proposed options to offshore creditors including swapping their current debt holdings into new notes with maturities of 10 to 12 years.
In an unexpected development, the embattled developer said late on Sunday it was unable to issue new debt due to an ongoing investigation into its main domestic subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate Group Co Ltd.
Hengda said last month it was being investigated by China’s securities regulator for suspected violation over the disclosure of information.
Shares in Evergrande plunged as much as 24% on Monday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng mainland property sector index (.HSMPI) was trading 3.7% lower.
“Its debt restructuring plan is now stuck and can’t go any further,” said Steven Leung, sales director at UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong. “Other options, such as converting the debt into shares of other listed units, are also seen not workable now.”
Evergrande’s offshore debt restructuring involves a total of $31.7 billion, which includes bonds, collateral and repurchase obligations, potentially making it one of the world’s biggest such exercises.
The developer’s latest woes reverse a brief respite for the Chinese property sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the economy, on the back of Beijing’s support measures and two other major developers forged debt deals with their creditors.
“Concern over the financial health (of developers) still clouds the property sector, especially those smaller property developers with high gearing but very few property projects on hand,” Leung said.
WINDING UP PETITION
A string of leading Chinese developers have defaulted on their offshore debt obligations since the property sector was hit by an unprecedented liquidity crisis in 2021 after regulators reined in a debt-fuelled building boom.
Many of the defaulted developers have been trying to get their offshore creditors’ approval for debt restructuring plans to avoid a messy collapse or being forced into liquidation proceedings.
Not many of those plans have succeeded.
Developer China Oceanwide Holdings Ltd (0715.HK), which has failed to meet its debt obligations, said in an exchange filing on Monday that a Bermuda court has ordered the winding up of the company and has appointed joint provisional liquidators.
The latest roadblock in Evergrande’s debt restructuring plan opens a new front for the developer just a week after police detained some staff at its wealth management unit, sending its shares slumping.
Earlier this month, Evergrande said it had delayed making a decision on offshore debt restructuring from September to next month to allow holders of its debt more time to consider its proposal.
Evergrande needs approval from more than 75% of the holders of each debt class to approve the plan.
The Evergrande development comes as leading developers such as Country Garden (2007.HK) scramble to avoid a default, keeping home-buyer sentiment depressed despite Beijing’s raft of support measures to prop up the sector and spur property demand.
As of the end of August, the combined floor area of unsold homes stood at 648 million square metres (7 billion square feet), the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show.
Reporting by Donny Kwok, Writing by Anne Marie Roantree and Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Sam Holmes
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Sept 22 (Reuters) – Shares in real estate companies fell on Friday, adding to a massive sell-off the previous day, when bond yields jumped to their highest levels in 16 years after the Federal Reserve signaled that U.S. interest rates would stay high for longer.
The S&P 500 real estate index (.SPLRCR) lost 0.7% on Friday after falling 3.5% on Thursday, which was its biggest daily decline since March when the banking sector was in crisis.
The U.S. Treasury 10-year yield , fell slightly on Friday, after rising on Thursday to around 4.5%, its highest since 2007. This provided tempting returns for fixed-income assets, making the relatively high dividend payouts of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) a little less tempting.
REITs also tend to borrow heavily so the prospect of higher rates for longer puts pressure on their profit outlook. While the Fed decided not to hike interest rates after its meeting on Wednesday, it indicated that rates could stay at elevated levels for longer than investors had expected.
“Not only are REIT’s bond substitutes but they also rely on borrowing so that just makes them doubly interest-rate-sensitive,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of Cresset Capital who says that even though the sector seems cheap by some measures, he is not ready to step in right now.
The S&P 500 real estate index is the second weakest performer among the benchmark S&P 500’s 11 major sectors with a decline 6.5% so far this year, second only to utilities’ (.SPLRCU) 10.3% drop. This compares with year-to-date a gain of about 15% for the benchmark index.
But Gina Szymanksi, portfolio manager for REITs at AEW Capital Management, said she expects Treasury yields will peak around current levels, which will help REIT stocks that have “already baked in” 10-year Treasury yields in this range.
“The knee-jerk reaction is, as interest rates rise, you sell REITs. It’s not totally unrealistic. They are capital intensive businesses that require financing,” said Szymanski, adding that if 10-year yields rise sharply from here it would add pressure to REIT stocks.
But if the economy weakens, REITs often outperform.
“When the Fed tries to slow the economy, it’s usually successful. That usually results in declining earnings for companies in general and when that happens it’s the time for REITs to shine,” says Szymanksi who estimates a roughly 20% total return for real estate stocks in the next two years.
On Friday the biggest real estate loser was American Tower (AMT.N), which finished down 1.8% while the biggest gainer was Extra Space Storage (EXR.N), up 1.2%.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE.N) fell 1.6% on Friday, after losing 8% on Thursday and hitting its lowest level since 2016.
Reporting By Sinéad Carew, editing by Lance Tupper and David Gregorio
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Construction sites are photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, July 19, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Acquire Licensing Rights
BERLIN, Sept 22 (Reuters) – German housing prices fell by the most since records began in the second quarter as high interest rates and rising materials costs took their toll on the property market in Europe’s largest economy, government data showed on Friday.
Residential property prices fell by 9.9% year-on-year, the steepest decline since the start of data collection in 2000, the federal statistics office said. Prices fell by 1.5% on the quarter, with steeper declines in larger cities than in more sparsely populated areas.
In cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, apartment prices fell by 9.8% and single and two-family house prices dropped by 12.6% on the year.
For a decade, low interest rates have fuelled a property boom in Europe’s largest real estate investment market. A sharp rise in rates and increasing construction costs have put an end to the run, tipping a string of developers into insolvency as deals froze and prices fell.
Building permits for apartments in Germany declined 31.5% in July from a year earlier, the statistics office disclosed on Monday, as construction prices rose by almost 9% on the year.
Germany aims to build 400,000 apartments a year, but has struggled to meet the goal.
German housing industry association GdW on Friday sounded the alarm over the situation calling for government support for construction companies.
“The construction crisis in Germany is getting worse day by day and is increasingly reaching the middle of society,” GdW, which represents around 3,000 housing companies nationwide, said in a statement.
GdW called for a cut in value added tax (VAT) to 7% from the current level of 19% for affordable rentals and government funding loans with a 1% interest rate to support companies.
The government is scheduled to hold a summit with the industry on Monday to discuss the situation.
GdW and the Haus&Grund owner’s association said they were boycotting the summit as they had too little influence on its agenda.
The German cabinet plans to present an aid package for the industry by the end of month after announcing plans to promote the construction sector, including reducing regulatory and bureaucratic requirements.
Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Klaus Lauer, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Sharon Singleton
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
[1/2]People on a property tour visit a show flat of a real estate property developed by Sunac China Holdings in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, June 22, 2019. Picture taken June 22, 2019. REUTERS/Lusha Zhang/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
HONG KONG, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Chinese developers Sunac (1918.HK) and Country Garden (2007.HK) brought some relief to the crisis-hit property sector by forging debt deals with creditors, but the outlook remained clouded by uncertainty about a recovery in home sales.
Shares in Sunac China Holdings surged as much as 14% in early trade on Tuesday after creditors approved its $9 billion offshore debt restructuring plan, the first green light of such a debt overhaul by a major Chinese developer.
The stock, however, gave all its gains later and dropped more than 7% in the afternoon trade after reports, citing court documents, showed Sunac has filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection under Chapter 15.
Under the U.S. bankruptcy code, the move shields non-U.S. companies that are undergoing restructurings from creditors that hope to sue them or tie up assets in the United States. The step is seen as procedural in large offshore debt revamp processes.
China Evergrande Group (3333.HK), which is seeking to restructure a total of $31.7 billion in one of the largest such exercises in the world, also sought protection under Chapter 15 last month.
TROUBLED SECTOR
Separately, cash-starved Country Garden won approval from creditors to extend repayment on another onshore bond, the last in the batch of eight bonds it has been seeking extensions for, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The developments come as Beijing steps up efforts to revive the property sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the world’s second-largest economy, with a raft of support measures unveiled over the last few weeks.
Sunac said late on Monday that creditors holding 98.3% of the total value of the bonds who attended the vote had approved the restructuring plan proposed and agreed to by some creditors in March.
The developer will seek approval of the plan by a Hong Kong court at a hearing scheduled for Oct. 5.
As part of the restructuring terms, a portion of its debt would be exchanged into convertible bonds backed by its Hong Kong-listed shares along with new notes with maturities of between two and nine years.
“I will treat it as a positive … We haven’t seen much progress on the offshore market, so this shows at least some Chinese developers are trying to reach an agreement,” said Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank.
If the plan could be implemented well, and depending on whether the recovery of China’s property market could generate sufficient cash flows, investors would be able to get something back, he added.
PROPERTY SECTOR OUTLOOK
While Sunac is among a string of Chinese developers that have defaulted on their offshore debt obligations since an unprecedented liquidity crisis hit the property sector in 2021, Country Garden has not missed any offshore payments yet.
The latest debt agreements with creditors will give some breathing room to Chinese developers and help them avoid default or a messy liquidation process, but the success of the agreements will depend on a recovery in the property sector.
Some offshore bondholders say they don’t have many options apart from agreeing to debt restructuring proposals, given their returns will likely be very low if they choose to liquidate a cash-strapped developer.
Even as Beijing implements measures to prop up the sector, house prices have continued to decline – latest data show new home prices fell at their fastest pace in 10 months in August, while falls in real estate investment and sales deepened.
ANZ Senior China Economist Betty Wang said the support measures could spur some “genuine demand” especially ahead of the traditional sale season during late September/early October in top-tier cities.
“However, the pace and the extent of such a turnaround will be much smaller than in previous cycles,” she said in a report published on Tuesday.
“It’s also questionable whether it will kick off a sustainable rebound especially considering the uncertain job outlook, deteriorating income inflows, a shift in expectations, and potential increase in housing supply in the long-term.”
Reporting by Donny Kwok and Xie Yu in Hong Kong, Steven Bian in Shanghai, and Kevin Huang in Beijing; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree and Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Lincoln Feast
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.