China property company China SCE Property Holdings on September 1 announced it is raising HK$1.456 billion (US$187 million) through a share placement to support its expansion and growth plan.

The company is placing, on a fully underwritten basis, 400 million existing shares at HK$3.64 per share. The share placement was equivalent to about 11.68% of the group’s existing issued share capital and about 10.46% of the enlarged share capital.

The price represented a 9% discount to the closing price of HK$4 per share as quoted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the date of the placement on August 31 and about 7.14% to the closing price of HK$3.92 per share on the last full trading day prior to the date of the placement on August 30.

The share placement is being undertaken to supplement the group’s long-term funding of its expansion and growth plan. The group says the exercise will provide an opportunity to raise further capital while broadening its shareholder’s and capital base.

Citi and Deutsche Bank were the joint global coordinators, bookrunners and placement agents for the transaction, while BOC International acted as the co-placing agent.

China SCE Property has established a solid presence in three of China’s key economic regions, including Yangtze River Delta, Bohai Rim and West Taiwan Strait and this, according to a BOC International research report, has laid a solid foundation for the company to make the transition from a relatively small player to a medium-sized national developer.

The company achieved a strong growth rate in contracted sales of 30.7% to over 15.52 billion yuan (US$2.36 billion) in the first half of 2017. Revenue surged 40.9% to 8.17 billion yuan, while profit for the period rose 37% to 1.21 billion yuan.

In March this year, China SCE Property tapped the US dollar bond market for US$200 million maturing in five years, paying a coupon of 5.875%. It re-opened the issue in April to raise an additional US$300 million.

Photo: sce-re.com