Vanke vows to resolve liquidity problem
HONG KONG: China Vanke Co shares rose the most in more than a month after the state-backed builder said it has made plans to resolve liquidity pressure.
The developer climbed as much as 2.8% in Shenzhen yesterday, while its shares in Hong Kong rose as much as 2.3%, following a deep selloff last week. Its dollar bond due in June gained 0.5 cents to 92 cents. Another note due in 2027 was indicated 0.2 cent higher at 38.6 cents, after dropping to a record low Friday.
The builder told investors on Sunday that it has made a comprehensive plan to stabilise operations and reduce debt and that it would prioritise using its own resources to fix its debt issues.
Vanke will “make full use of all existing financing facilities” and is receiving understanding and support from financial institutions, Chairman Yu Liang and President Zhu Jiusheng told a meeting with brokerages, including Citigroup Inc, UBS Group AG, Morgan Stanley and China International Capital Corp, according to a filing with the Shenzhen stock exchange.
Vanke, the country’s second-largest developer by sales last year, has been struggling to bolster investor confidence amid sliding sales and deepening liquidity pressure. S&P Global Ratings became the third major ratings company to cut the developer to junk territory last week, following similar moves by Moody’s and Fitch.
Vanke’s stock and bond price could stabilise a bit, “but investors may still be worried about its liquidity problem in the long-term,” said Ravi Wong, executive director at China Vered Securities, noting the problem of continuing weak home sales.
“Vanke’s outlook is unclear with the large financing pressure after it was downgraded by Moody’s, Fitch and S&P,” he added.
The developer faces a maturity wall in 2025, when 36.2 billion yuan ($5 billion) of onshore and offshore bonds come due, according to S&P Global. As of end-2023, the company had accessible cash of 36.3 billion yuan, S&P estimated.
JPMorgan Chase & Co lowered its recommendation on the developer’s shares to underweight in early April, saying Vanke faces a “challenging” period of deleveraging and relying on the support of banks and stateowned enterprises.
“Vanke needs to show progress on more substantive measures such as asset disposal and refinancing,” said Yao Yu, founder of Shenzhenbased credit research company Ratingdog.