地产商恒大获得中国银行业巨额资金支持

HONG KONG — Chinese banks have extended $16 billion in credit lines to shore up one of the country’s largest and most heavily indebted home builders, as pressure mounts on developers short of cash in a slumping property market.

香港——由于房产市场下滑，资金短缺的开发商面临着越来越大的压力。为了支持本国最庞大、负债最严重的房产建筑商，中国的银行把信贷额度扩大了160亿美元。

The move by a group of mainly state-run banks to bolster the builder, Evergrande Real Estate Group, which is controlled by the colorful billionaire Hui Ka Yan, is the latest sign of tumult in China’s sprawling housing sector.

一批主要由国有银行组成的银行采取措施，对建筑商恒大地产集团给予支持，这是中国庞大的房产行业经历动荡的最新迹象。控制该集团的是有着复杂人生经历的亿万富翁许家印。

Developers are rushing to secure financial support as sales volumes and housing prices plunge, weighed down by a growing overhang of unsold homes. Kaisa Group, once a favorite of foreign investors, nearly defaulted on its offshore debt this year before being rescued by another developer.

由于待售房屋越来越多，销量和房价发生暴跌，开发商正在争相获取财政支持。今年，一度最受外国投资者亲睐的开发商佳兆业集团(Kaisa Group)差一点发生离岸债务违约，后来幸得另一家开发商出手相救。

Evergrande said on Tuesday that since February, it had secured new credit lines totaling 100 billion renminbi, or $16.2 billion. Those included a new, 30 billion renminbi commitment on Monday from the Bank of China, which regards the developer as “its most important bank-wide long-term partner,” Evergrande said in a news release.

恒大地产周二表示，自2月以来，它已获得了总价值1000亿元人民币的信贷额度。其中包括中国银行周一提供的300亿元授信。恒大在其新闻稿中表示，中国银行把恒大视作“其银行方面最重要的长期合作伙伴”。

Evergrande is one of China’s biggest developers, with sales last year of more than 130 billion renminbi. But it is also one of the most indebted, borrowing heavily from foreign investors in the United States dollar offshore market — debts that become more expensive to repay as the renminbi weakens.

恒大是中国最大的开发商之一，去年的销售额超过了1300亿元人民币。不过，它也是负债最严重的企业之一，在美元离岸市场向外国投资者大举借债——随着人民币贬值，偿还这些债务也变得更加困难。

Analysts said the support from the banks — which also include the Agricultural Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China and the privately controlled China Minsheng Bank — would provide temporary relief but would fall short of addressing the company’s deeper problems.

分析人士表示，银行的支持——其中包括中国农业银行、中国邮政储蓄银行，以及私人控制的中国民生银行——将提供暂时的缓解措施，但是还无法解决公司更深层次的问题。

Mounting debts and slumping sales “are fundamental challenges that can’t be resolved short-term by government’s bailing them out on ‘too big to fail’ pretense,” said Junheng Li, the head of research at JL Warren Capital in New York.

纽约沃伦资本公司(JL Warren Capital)研究负责人李君蘅表示，不断增加的债务和下跌的销量“是根本性的挑战，政府以‘大到不能倒’为由进行的救助，无法在短期内解决这个问题”。

“The company has been under financial distress for a long time,” she added.

她还表示，“公司陷入财务困境已久。”

A spokesman for Evergrande did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment on Tuesday.

周二，恒大发言人没有回复请求置评的电话和邮件。

The Chinese leadership is concerned about the health of the country’s property market because it is so deeply interconnected with other parts of the economy. Real estate is an important driver of steel consumption, loan growth and jobs for sales agents and migrant construction workers. A drop in home prices hurts ordinary Chinese because they tend to invest a disproportionate amount of their savings in real estate.

鉴于中国房地产市场与其他经济部门的关系十分密切，中国领导层很担心它的健康状况。房地产是钢材消耗、贷款增长以及为销售代理和外来建筑工人创造就业机会的重要驱动力。房价下跌也会损害普通中国人的利益，因为他们往往会把过多的储蓄用在购置房产上。

On Wednesday, China is set to publish a monthly survey of residential property price trends in 70 major cities that is expected to reflect the slump. In January, prices had fallen in 64 cities when compared with December. Data released last week showed that new housing starts, measured by floor space, fell 20 percent in the first two months of the year compared with a year earlier, while new land purchases by developers fell 32 percent.

周三，中国将公布针对70座主要城市的住房价格趋势的月度调查，该调查将能够反映房产市场的衰落。1月，64座城市的房价环比出现下跌。上周公布的数据显示，根据占地面积计算的新屋开工率在今年头两个月同比下降20%，开发商的土地购置减少了32%。

“The market is still undergoing a pretty rough time, and what that means for developers is that the operating environment will remain tough,” Franco Leung, a vice president at Moody’s Investors Service in Hong Kong, said Tuesday in a phone interview.

周二，香港穆迪投资者服务公司(Moody's Investors Service)副总裁梁镇邦(Franco Leung)表示，“市场仍处于一个非常艰难的时期，对于开发商来说，这意味着运营环境仍然非常严峻。”

Mr. Leung said that Evergrande’s new credit lines would help give it another source of liquidity but that the company was already heavily indebted. “We are monitoring their level of debt buildup quite closely,” he said.

梁镇邦表示，恒大集团获得的新信用额度会在一定程度上为该公司提供另一种流动资金来源，但该公司已经负债累累。他说，“我们密切关注他们的债务累积水平。”

Evergrande had total borrowings of 151.8 billion renminbi at the end of June, the most recent figures available. But that figure did not include an additional 44.5 billion renminbi worth of perpetual bonds, so called because they have no fixed repayment date, which the company carries on its books as equity.

最新数据显示，恒大集团在去年6月底前总共拿到了1518亿元人民币的贷款。但这不包含价值445亿元的永久债券，称之为永久债券是因为它们没有固定的还款日期，该公司在其账目中将这些债券记为普通股。

Evergrande was founded in 1996 by Mr. Hui, now its chairman and majority shareholder, who also goes by Xu Jiayin. The company started as a builder of middle-class homes outside prime neighborhoods, with projects in and around its home city of Guangzhou, in southern China, before expanding nationally to more than 100 cities.

许家印于1996年创办了恒大集团，他现在已经是公司的主席和控股股东。恒大起初在公司所在地——中国南部城市广州的高档住宅区外建造中产阶级住房，后来业务扩展到全国100多个城市。

In recent years, it has branched into new businesses, including bottled mineral water and a professional soccer team. Last summer, Mr. Hui sold a 50 percent stake in the soccer club to the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, said at the time that he agreed to the nearly $200 million deal in a snap decision, after Mr. Hui got him drunk.

近些年来，该公司扩展了一些新业务，比如瓶装矿泉水和一支职业足球队。去年夏天，许家印将该足球俱乐部50%的股份出售给电商巨头阿里巴巴集团。阿里巴巴创始人马云表示，这笔将近2亿美元的交易决策是许家印把他灌醉后匆匆做出的。

Evergrande’s balance sheet has drawn criticism before. In 2012, the short-seller Citron Research published a report saying the company was insolvent, accusing Evergrande of presenting fraudulent information to investors. In a twist, Hong Kong’s securities regulator late last year accused Citron of publishing false and misleading information about Evergrande. That case is scheduled for a hearing at Hong Kong’s market misconduct tribunal on Wednesday.

恒大的资产负债表之前曾遭到批评。2012年，做空机构香椽公司(Citron Research)公布报告称，该公司没有清偿能力，指责恒大集团向投资商提供虚假信息。令人意想不到的是，香港证券监管机构在去年晚些时候指控香橼公司发布有关恒大集团的虚假及误导性信息。香港市场失当行为审裁处将于本周三就该案举行听证会。

This month, Evergrande had a run-in with the Australian government. The Australian treasurer, Joe Hockey, ordered the company to sell a $30 million mansion in Sydney called Villa del Mare that it was found to have acquired illegally.

恒大本月与澳大利亚政府产生争执。澳大利亚财政部长乔·霍基(Joe Hockey)命令该公司出售它在悉尼以3000万美元非法购买的一座名为Villa del Mare的豪宅。

Evergrande acquired the villa “via a string of shelf companies,” in Australia, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands, Mr. Hockey said. The purchase was illegal because foreign investors are required to notify the treasurer before purchasing real estate. They can build new homes but are barred from buying existing ones.

霍基表示，恒大集团通过它在澳大利亚、香港及英属维尔京群岛的“一系列空壳公司”购买了这栋别墅。这笔交易属于违法行为，因为外国投资商在购买房产前必须告知财政部长。他们可以建造新房屋，但不能购买现成的房屋。

“We welcome all foreign investment that is not contrary to our national interest,” Mr. Hockey said in a March 3 news release. Evergrande has 90 days to find a buyer for the property.

霍基在3月3日的新闻发布会上表示，“我们欢迎各种不违背我们国家利益的外国投资。”恒大集团要在90天内找到房屋的买主。