China Developer Shimao’s Shares Slide on Debt Revamp strategize

Shares in Chinese property developer Shimao Group slumped on Friday after it issued a restructuring strategize to reduce up to $7 billion in offshore debt.

The developer, with around $11.7 billion in offshore notes, bonds and other credit facilities, has been pushing forward plans to revamp its debts over the past few months.

It has proposed to a key group of creditors to exchange some debt for new loans with maturities up to nine years, new senior secured debts and equity-linked instruments, Shimao said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late on Thursday.

Shimao plans to decrease its debt by approximately $6 billion to $7 billion “to improve the group’s financial strength and business operations”, the filing said.

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Following the filing, Shimao trading 5.08% down on Friday morning, while the broader Hong Kong index tracking Chinese developers dipped 1.7%. Shimao’s stock is 63% down for the year.

No definitive agreement on the offshore restructuring has been made with creditors, the filing said.

Chinese developers are still struggling with declining property sales, while investors remain concerned about spillover to China’s broader financial system and harm to its economic growth outlook. 

China’s property sector accounts for roughly a quarter of the world’s second-largest economy.

Shimao, the first major Chinese developer to kick off formal negotiations on restructuring terms with creditors, initially proposed a strategize last August to repay its offshore debt over a period of three to eight years.

The Shanghai-based developer, which defaulted on its first offshore payment last July, has been seeking to sell one of its hotels in Hong Kong since March to fetch at least $828 million as part of its debt recovery strategize.

• Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara

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Sean O’Meara

Sean O’Meara is an Editor at Asia Financial. He has been a newspaper man for more than 30 years, working at local, regional and national titles in the UK as a writer, sub-editor, page designer and print editor. A football, cricket and rugby fan, he has a particular interest in sports finance.