Fosun's debt 'only 100b yuan'

Fosun International (0656) yesterday said its actual debt was 100 billion yuan (HK$112 billion), far less than the 650 billion yuan liabilities that the market was concerned about.

The Shanghai-headquartered conglomerate stressed that the liability attributable to the parent amounted to only 100 billion yuan, after excluding the liabilities of subsidiaries including insurers and banks from the consolidated 651.3 billion yuan debt.

And the company said it could burden the debt as its net asset value per share should be around 20 yuan with a total asset of 270 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Fosun sold 26.16 billion shares of New China Life Insurance (1336) for 448 million yuan at 17.12 yuan per share.

After the offloading, Fosun's stake in the insurer dropped from 5.84 percent to 4.99 percent. According to the market regulator, companies are required to disclose their interests in other firms if they own 5 percent or more.

In other news, Shanghai-based developer CIFI (0884) will raise up to 1.2 billion yuan through its wholly owned subsidiary issuing the second phase of a three-year note tomorrow. CIFI said the issue has been fully guaranteed by the state-run China Bond Insurance Corporation.

Its board of directors including chairman Lin Zhong announced it will buy 500,000 shares for about HK$825,000 from the open market, increasing its stake in the company to 51.55 percent.