China Vanke Co. (萬科) rebounded from record lows in credit markets, as people familiar with the matter said the distressed developer had previously told some creditors it had enough cash prepared to repay a local note, the Taipei Times reported. The firm told some creditors prior to turbulence in its bonds and shares yesterday that it had prepared enough cash to repay a 3 billion yuan (US$409.3 million) bond due on Jan. 27.
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Longi Green Energy Technology said the Chinese solar panel giant expects to have swung into the red last year with a net loss of as much as CNY8.8 billion (USD1.2 billion) mainly due to intensifying competition, Yicai Global reported. Net loss was likely between CNY8.2 billion and CNY8.8 billion last year, compared with a net profit of CNY10.8 billion (USD1.5 billion) in 2023, the Xi'an-based company said yesterday. Investment losses from a stake in a silicon material producer contributed to the temporary operational loss, it noted.
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The economic scars of China’s real estate crash are evident at the country’s many street markets for construction materials. Proprietors of once-bustling shops that sell everything from lighting fixtures and doors to toilet bowls are aching for customers, the New York Times reported. At the same time, China’s exports have climbed sharply. Companies are shipping cars, smartphones and many other products to foreign markets that they can no longer sell at home. Private-sector companies are investing heavily in new factories and equipment to expand production for export.
Defaulted Chinese builder Sino-Ocean Group Holding Ltd. is entering a London court Wednesday for a three-day hearing, looking to exercise a legal mechanism allowing a debtor to potentially complete restructuring without creditors’ full approval, Bloomberg News reported. Company representatives will press for a court sign-off on its restructuring proposal, centered on turning about $5.6 billion of debt into new debt and other types of securities paid to creditors. Many bondholders oppose the terms, and a group of them will tout their proposals that they consider to be more favorable payouts.
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China Vanke Co.’s top executive was taken away by police and the Chinese property giant may be assumed by state authorities, the Economic Observer reported, Bloomberg News reported. A task force sent by the local government of Shenzhen, where the state-backed developer is based, has stepped in to run the company, according to the report. Vanke may be taken over or restructured, the report added. The Observer reported separately that Vanke Chief Executive Officer Zhu Jiusheng was taken by police. Zhu didn’t respond to calls seeking comment about the report.
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Donald Trump kicked off a new era of Western economic rivalry with Beijing when he took office in 2017. As he prepares for his second term, China’s dominance of global manufacturing is greater than ever, the Wall Street Journal reported. China just posted a trade surplus with the rest of the world of almost $1 trillion for 2024, according to official data released this week.
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China’s central bank injected a near record-high amount of liquidity into the banking system to help meet demand for cash even as it looks to support the yuan, the Wall Street Journal reported. The People’s Bank of China on Wednesday pumped 959.5 billion yuan, or about $130.9 billion, worth of liquidity via seven-day reverse repurchase agreements. It was the second-largest such capital injection via the mechanism on record, according to data from the Wind, a local data provider.
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping is bringing the country’s financial sector to heel, one banker at a time, the Wall Street Journal reported. For decades, China sought to learn from Western finance. Now it’s purging many of the internationally experienced financiers who helped steer the country’s economic rise, while ushering in a new generation of loyal functionaries willing to carry out Communist Party edicts and disavow capitalist excess.
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A major Chinese builder, which was a harbinger of the property crisis, may scrap a creditor-approved debt plan and end up in court to solve its lingering debt problems, highlighting challenges for distressed developers as the downturn enters its fifth year, Bloomberg News reported. China Fortune Land Development Co, which defaulted in early 2021, is considering a new restructuring under the supervision of a Chinese court that would replace an earlier debt plan approved by creditors.
Country Garden, once China's top property developer by sales, posted on Tuesday a net loss of 12.84 billion yuan ($1.75 billion) for the first half of 2024, as conditions deteriorated amid a prolonged sector-wide slump, Reuters reported. The loss followed a full-year net loss of 178.40 billion yuan for 2023, the company said in a separate statement. Country Garden, which defaulted on $11 billion in offshore bonds in late 2023, had delayed the publication of its 2023 full-year and 2024 interim results.
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