BEIJING – Some Chinese state-owned companies have told regulators to consider adjusting lending restrictions to property developers for borrowing related to mergers and acquisitions, Chinese media outlet Cailianshe said on Wednesday.
The companies said that if they took on new debt in the process of acquisitions, they might breach the so-called three red lines – financial requirements introduced by the central bank last year that developers must meet to get new bank loans.
Cailianshe, which cited unidentified sources, did not give details on the state-owned firms.
China’s property woes have rattled global markets in recent months after the debt-laden developers including Evergrande Group and peer Kaisa Group suffered a liquidity squeeze, leaving investors worrying about unfolding economic uncertainties.
Some local governments have been prodding government-owned firms and state-backed property developers to purchase some of Evergrande’s assets to try to control the situation, Reuters reported, but lending curbs have been limiting them from more such deals.
The central bank said in October that the spillover effect from Evergrande’s debt woes was controllable, adding that authorities would provide financing support for the resumption of troubled developers’ projects.
Some banks have also sped up the disbursement of home loans in some cities recently, but no wave of new credit is being unleashed just yet amid a heavy regulatory push to deleverage the sector, Reuters reported.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Louise Heavens, Robert Birsel)
