Country Garden Shares Jump as Trading Resumes Amid Debt Plan

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(Bloomberg) -- Country Garden Holdings Co.’s shares jumped as they resumed trading in Hong Kong Tuesday following a nine-month suspension, after the Chinese property giant pledged to clinch a deal with creditors on a debt restructuring plan.

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The stock gained as much as 30% in morning trading after the embattled real estate firm said in an exchange filing that it has fulfilled the requirements under the resumption guidance. It’s still near a historical low, trading at around 60 Hong Kong cents.

The stock was halted last April, having lost about 97% of its market value from its peak in 2018. A Bloomberg Intelligence gauge of developers has risen about 24% since the suspension.

“Even if the share price reaction turns out to be positive, we believe this might only be driven by opportunistic speculation by short-term investors, and we would sell upon strength,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts including Karl Chan wrote in a note last week.

Country Garden said Monday that it expects to reach an agreement with creditors on its debt plan by the end of February, as a Hong Kong court delayed a hearing on a liquidation petition.

The developer said it fulfilled the requirements for share trading after it published delayed financial results last week. It reported a record loss of 178.4 billion yuan ($25 billion) in 2023, underscoring how much China’s once-biggest builder by sales has struggled during a housing crisis that’s rocked Asia’s largest economy for more than three years.

Country Garden received a disclaimer of opinion by its auditor over its 2023 earnings, related to its ability to continue as a going concern. But the developer said it has formulated various plans and measures to alleviate the liquidity pressure and improve its financial condition.

Earlier, the builder blamed the 2023 loss on a “huge impairment provision” on properties under development and completed homes held for sale. It said its full-year loss for 2024 should narrow “substantially” from 2023, but it couldn’t predict when it would be profitable again.

--With assistance from John Cheng.

(Updates shares and adds analyst comment in the fourth paragraph)

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