US firm seizes Evergrande's Yuen Long plot

US investment firm Oaktree Capital has taken over a 2.2 million square feet plot used as collateral by China Evergrande (3333) in Wo Shang Wai, Yuen Long, the Financial Times reported, while Chinese authorities are considering selling most of the developer's assets to repay debt.

Oaktree's move, which derails the debt-laden developer's plan of using the site to restructure its offshore debts, marks one of the biggest steps yet by overseas players in the Evergrande crisis. Evergrande earlier urged offshore bondholders not to take aggressive legal action over repayments.

After underlining a "market-oriented way" of dealing with the distressed property sector, Chinese authorities are now considering a restructuring proposal to break up Evergrande, under which most of its assets would be sold except for its separately listed property manager Evergrande Property Services (6666) and electric-vehicle unit China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group (0708).

Proceeds from the asset sales would be used to repay creditors, although it is unclear to what degree banks and bondholders would be forced to accept haircuts on their claims.

All three listed firms slumped by a range of 4.52 percent to 6.34 percent.

Meanwhile, China Aoyuan (3883), which changed its auditor ahead of a key earnings season for the industry, sold a property in Canada at C$215 million (HK$13.17 million) to repay mortgage loans for the project.

Times China (1233) announced it will raise net proceeds of HK$393.6 million through a top-up placing of 117.7 million shares at a discount of 17 percent compared to the latest closing price.