Country Garden Plans $1 Billion Convertible Bond Sale

(Bloomberg) -- Country Garden Holdings Co., China’s biggest developer by sales, is planning to raise at least $1 billion in a convertible bond sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Foshan-based company aims to sell the securities as soon as this year, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Proceeds will be used to help refinance convertible notes that mature in January 2019, the people said.

Shares of Country Garden have fallen 35 percent in Hong Kong trading this year through Thursday. The decline makes it the worst-performing member of the Hang Seng Properties Index, which has dropped 10.4 percent over the period.

Deliberations about the financing are ongoing, and there’s no certainty they will lead to a transaction, said the people. A representative for Country Garden said the company “has been looking at different financing plans all along,” declining to comment further.

Chinese developers sold a record $5.3 billion of convertible bonds in January when many of their shares were trading close to all-time highs. Country Garden raised HK$23.5 billion ($3 billion) in a share placement and a convertible bond sale that month.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Crystal Tse in Hong Kong at ctse44@bloomberg.net;Emma Dong in Shanghai at edong10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, ;Katrina Nicholas at knicholas2@bloomberg.net, Timothy Sifert

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With assistance from Editorial Board