Regulators discuss developers' health

Four Chinese regulators including the central bank yesterday met several private and state-owned developers to learn about their financial health and cash-flow needs, mainland media reported.

The builders included Vanke (2202), Poly Property (0119), China Resouces Land (1109), Longfor (0960) and Gemdale Corporation.

The meeting was jointly held by People's Bank of China, National Administration of Financial Regulation, China Securities Regulatory Commission and Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Fundraising by Chinese developers via bonds and stocks plunged 46.2 percent yearly to 27.64 billion yuan (HK$29.67 billion) in October, despite a series of signals from the government to support their financing needs.

Total borrowing for the first 10 months fell 8.9 percent yearly to 587.51 billion yuan, with the fall widening by 3.2 basis points from the first nine months.

Meanwhile, some embattled developers are striving to continue operations.

Country Garden Services (6098) said it plans to increase its stake in a local property agent Hopefluent (0733) from 25 percent to 38.1 percent with an offer of HK$1.61 per share, 73.12 percent higher than the previous close, totalling HK$158.4 million.

Hopefluent's shares jumped 49.5 percent on the news, while Country Garden lost 3.65 percent.

Kaisa (1638) said it delivered 31,000 homes in the first 10 months of this year and promised to accelerate construction and focus on project delivery.