China Vanke granted $2.8 billion onshore syndicated loan facility

FILE PHOTO: A Vanke sign is seen above workers working at the construction site of a residential building in Dalian, Liaoning province, China September 16, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Cash-strapped major property developer China Vanke said on Thursday it had received a 20 billion yuan ($2.76 billion) syndicated loan facility and it would continue to push forward other financing to boost its liquidity.

The facility came after regulators in March asked financial firms and creditors to step up financing support for the Shenzhen state-backed developer in a rare intervention, wary about a further deepening of the debt crisis in the sector, Reuters has reported.

Lenders include a group of banks, led by state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which was in early talks to lend as much as 80 billion yuan, sources have said.

It was unclear whether this new syndicated loan facility, led by China Merchants Bank according to Vanke in a statement on Thursday, is part of the 80 billion yuan target or separate from it.

Half of the 20 billion yuan facility - the largest to the real estate sector since 2020 - has been transferred to Vanke, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, and the loan was pledged to shares in VX Logistics, a integrated logistics service provider under Vanke.

Vanke has shared a list of mainly commercial projects such as shopping malls and their revenue streams with potential lenders to access fresh credit, sources have said, leaving lenders scrambling to review the higher-value assets.

The developer has said it was aiming asset disposals worth more than 30 billion yuan this year to raise fund. ($1 = 7.2447 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Alex Richardson)