Developers meet to focus on finances

Developers on the mainland are to have a meeting with financial institutions to address the industry's liquidity issues next month.

The conference will be in Hangzhou on July 26 and 27, with the China Real Estate Association saying that key discussions will be on financing programs for embattled developers. There will also be a special session for enterprises interested in mergers and acquisitions as well as strategic cooperation.

State-owned asset management firm China Cinda Asset Management (1359) is said to be among the invitees.

The need for discussions and initiatives was seen as Fitch Ratings downgraded the long-term foreign-currency issuer default ratings on Guangzhou R&F Properties (2777) and subsidiary R&F Properties (HK) to C from CC.

The downgrade followed Guangzhou R&F's announcement that it was seeking consent from bondholders to amend the terms of its US dollar notes and to seek waivers in the event of a default.

Also yesterday, rating agency S&P Global downgraded Greenland to "selective default" after the state-backed property developer extended the maturity of its US$500-million (HK$3.89 billion) bonds by one year.

Shanghai-based Greenland is the first state-backed developer to extend a dollar-bond payment since the country's property sector plunged into a debt crisis last year.