By Scott Murdoch and Clare Jim
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Shares of debt-laden Chinese property giant Country Garden fell on Tuesday after it scrapped a share placement to raise $300 million, citing “internal considerations” though bookrunners said the sale was fully covered.
Shares and bonds in Country Garden have come under pressure recently due to liquidity concerns, and investors were worried about further contagion in a sector that has already seen many firms default.
The firm cancelled the fundraising plan in early Tuesday hours, even though the book was fully covered on Monday night two hours after it was launched, a person with direct knowledge said.
A book message was sent to investors on Tuesday, citing ‘various internal considerations the company decided not to proceed’, the person added.
Country Garden did not immediately respond to a request for comment. JP Morgan, sole bookrunner of the deal, declined to comment.
A message was sent to investors on Tuesday who had participated in the deal informing them that while the “books covered” for the placement the company decided against proceeding with the transaction.
At 0220 GMT, shares of Country Garden were down 3.8% to HK$1.52, narrowing losses from 10.8% in early trading. It compared to a 0.3% gain in the Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index.
The developer had planned to sell 1.8 billion shares at HK$1.30 per share, representing a 17.7% discount to Monday’s closing price, a term sheet seen by Reuters showed on Monday.
Country Garden had nearly $4.9 billion of bond payments to make over the next 6 months, JP Morgan analysts said in a report last week.
The homebuilder warned on Monday that it would post a net loss in the first half compared with a net profit of 1,910 million yuan ($267.31 million) a year earlier.
(Reporting by Clare Jim, Scott Murdoch and Summer Zhen; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Kim Coghill and Simon Cameron-Moore)
