China developers Country Garden, Midea secure $3.3 bln M&A funding

Midea Real Estate Holding

04/03/2022 02:49

HONG KONG, March 4 (Reuters) - Chinese property developers
Country Garden  2007.HK  and Midea Real Estate  3990.HK  secured
separate mergers and acquisition (M&A) financing facilities
worth 21 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) in total, sending their
shares sharply higher in Hong Kong.
    The financing accords, both with state-backed China
Merchants Bank  600036.SS , comes as Beijing steps up efforts to
stabilise and tighten control over the property sector,
accounting for a quarter of its economy, which has been roiled
by the debt crisis at heavyweight developer Evergrande
 3333.HK .
    In separate statements late on Thursday, Country Garden said
it had signed a deal for 15 billion yuan ($2.37 billion) in M&A
facilities with China Merchants, while Midea said it had agreed
a deal with the same lender for 6 billion yuan in M&A funds.
    Shares of Country Garden jumped 8% on Friday morning, while
Midea climbed as much as 5.6%, versus a 2.3% fall in the
benchmark Hang Seng Index  .HSI .
    Under Beijing's close watch, large and state-owned property
firms are expected to acquire more assets from cash-strapped
private developers.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2U5069
    Country Garden, the nation's top developer by sales, said in
its official WeChat social media account late on Thursday the
facility will help it better seize merger and acquisition
opportunities. 
    Midea, a smaller rival also based in the southern Guangdong
province, said it also secured a 6 billion yuan facility from
the bank for personal mortgage loans for its clients.
    Separately, Country Garden said in a filing on Thursday it
has further repurchased a total of $6 million of 4.75% dollar
bond due Jan 2023.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2V61SC
    It also said earlier this week its registration to issue 5
billion yuan onshore medium-term notes have been accepted by
regulator.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2V40W0

($1 = 6.3207 Chinese yuan renminbi)
    

 (Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
 ((clare.jim@thomsonreuters.com;))