China state council’s think-tank met with property developers, banks -source

SHANGHAI/BEIJING — The think-tank of China’s state council held a meeting with real estate developers and banks in the southern city of Shenzhen, a source with direct knowledge of the meeting told Reuters, amid intensifying worries over a liquidity crisis in the country’s property sector.

Participants at the meeting, which took place on Monday, included China Vanke, Kaisa Group, Ping An Bank, China Citic Bank, China Construction Bank and CR Trust, according to the source.

Investors are concerned about liquidity woes spreading in China’s property sector, with a string of offshore debt defaults, credit rating downgrades and sell-offs in some developers’ shares and bonds in recent weeks.

Stricken property giant China Evergrande Group has rattled global markets as it grapples with debt liabilities of more than $300 billion that investors fear could pose systemic risks to China’s financial system.

Shenzhen-based Kaisa urged state companies at the meeting to help private firms improve liquidity through project acquisitions and strategic buys, the source said.

Vanke declined to comment. Kaisa and the banks who participated in the meeting did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a statement on its official WeChat account late on Monday, Kaisa said it was taking measures to solve its liquidity issues and was consulting investors in wealth management products about better payment solutions.

Last week, Kaisa and three of its units had their shares suspended from trading, a day after an affiliate missed a payment to onshore investors, as China’s snowballing property debt crisis jolts other developers. (Reporting By Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Kim Coghill and Muralikumar Anantharaman)