China Vanke says first half loss may widen to US$1.67 billion
Vanke reported a preliminary net loss for the period of 10 billion yuan to 12 billion yuan, according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday (Jul 14). The estimated loss widened from 9.9 billion yuan for the same period last year. Sales revenue was 69.1 billion yuan.
The loss partly stemmed from a significant decline in the scale of its real estate project settlements, while gross profit margins remained at a low level, Vanke said. The developer also cited additional provisions for asset impairment.
'The company deeply apologises for the performance loss and will continue to make every effort to promote business improvement,' Vanke said.
China's property sector is mired in a protracted slump. Over the past four years, a number of major developers have defaulted on their debt as government crackdowns and faltering home-buyer sentiment have weighed on their businesses.
Officials have taken a number of steps to revive the sector, but these have so far had only modest success. Home sales extended their slump in June, spurring calls for fresh stimulus.
Vanke, known across the country for building homes in China's largest cities, had been struggling financially with debt repayments as home sales tanked. In early 2025, the local government of Shenzhen stepped in to take management control of Vanke and vowed to 'proactively support' its operations. Its state-backed shareholder, Shenzhen Metro Group, has been providing financing since February to support the troubled builder.
Excluding shareholders' loans, Vanke had secured 24.9 billion yuan in new financing and refinancing during the first half of 2025, and had successfully completed the repayment of 16.5 billion yuan in public debt. No offshore public debt is due before 2027, it said. BLOOMBERG
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
20 minutes ago
- Business Times
Citi to boost Japan investment banking headcount up to 15%, executive says
[HONG KONG] Citigroup plans to raise its investment banking headcount in Japan by 10 to 15 per cent over the next year and make new hires in Australia, as part of its strategy to bolster growth in the Asia Pacific, its top regional banker said. Rising interest in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Japan has resulted in Citi seeing a 140 per cent rise in its investment banking fees in the country to US$92 million as at Jul 10, compared to the same period last year, Dealogic data shows. 'We are hiring and strengthening our regional investment banking team in a very meaningful way,' Jan Metzger, Citi's Asia-Pacific head of investment banking, said. 'We are going to be in the market that's growing phenomenally and we are going to be growing faster than the market,' Metzger said. The US-headquartered bank did not disclose specific staff numbers for each market. Japan's investment banking business, in particular, will 'meaningfully grow' due to a shift in corporate governance, a regulatory nudge to corporates to improve market value, and strong supply of advanced hardware technologies, Metzger said. In Japan, Citi exclusively advised Nippon Steel on its US$14.9 billion acquisition of US Steel last month. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'I think off the back of the Nippon Steel deal, our phones are really ringing off the hook with clients that have complicated geopolitical deals to do, both from Japan and elsewhere,' Metzger said. Citi has beefed up its investment banking team in Asia this year by recruiting senior bankers from rivals, including senior managing director Akira Kiyota from Nomura in Japan and former Goldman Sachs veteran Philippe Perzi in Australia. On Tuesday, Citi reported a 13 per cent rise in global investment banking fees in the second quarter. Driving up deals Dealmaking in the US and some markets stalled shortly after Trump unleashed hefty tariff hikes earlier this year, which weighed on economic growth. However, Metzger said he is seeing greater uncertainty driving up supply chain deals. Japan is leading Asia's M&A rebound in 2025 with a record US$232 billion worth of deals in the first half, and bankers expect the trend to sustain fuelled by take-private arrangements, outbound investments and private equity activity. Meanwhile, as volume and number of international deals climb in Australia, global banks now have an edge over local boutiques in a highly competitive market, according to Metzger. Having a 'full banking offering' in the market helps Citi better compete with its advisory-focused competitors in Australia, he said. Besides deals advisory, another regional focus for the bank is convertible bond issuances, which have leapt over the past year. The bank helped Alibaba raise HK$12 billion (S$2 billion) via an exchangeable bond offering earlier this month. Investors have flocked to convertible bonds from Chinese tech companies, viewing them as undervalued assets offering downside protection through the bond component to hedge geopolitical risks, Metzger said. REUTERS
Business Times
43 minutes ago
- Business Times
ASML orders beat expectations after AI spending fuels demand
[LONDON] ASML Holding's orders in the second quarter beat estimates after the artificial intelligence (AI) boom drove demand for its sophisticated chip-making machines, even as chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet struck a cautious note for 2026. The Dutch company reported order bookings of 5.5 billion euros (S$8.2 billion) in the period, it said in a statement on Wednesday (Jul 16). That compares with an average estimate of 4.8 billion euros by analysts in data compiled by Bloomberg. 'Looking at 2026, we see that our AI customers' fundamentals remain strong,' Fouquet said in the statement. 'At the same time, we continue to see increasing uncertainty driven by macroeconomic and geopolitical developments. Therefore, while we still prepare for growth in 2026, we cannot confirm it at this stage.' ASML, which counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Intel among its customers, is poised to benefit from hundreds of billions of US dollars of investment pouring into AI data centres because it is the only company that makes extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines. That technology is needed to produce Nvidia's most cutting-edge chips, which are the backbone of much of the planned AI infrastructure. Signs of a thaw between the Trump administration and Beijing could bode well for ASML. On Tuesday, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices said they would restart sales of some chips to China that had previously been blocked, after gaining assurances from Washington that the shipments would be approved. ASML faces a number of limits on its sales to China, which was the company's second-biggest market in the first quarter. It has never been able to sell its most advanced EUV machines to China because of US-led restrictions. Last year, the Dutch government also blocked immersion deep ultraviolet lithography systems to the country after pressure from the US. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up ASML forecasts third-quarter net sales between 7.4 billion euros and 7.9 billion euros, and 15 per cent growth in net sales for the year. Belt tightening further along the supply chain has hit ASML, too. Intel is slashing expenses in a restructuring that includes delays to planned factories in Germany and Poland. Samsung reported its first fall in profit since 2023 last week as it lost market share in the AI market, although some analysts expect the company to hit bottom this summer. ASML's shares rose 2.7 per cent to 706.10 euros in Amsterdam on Tuesday. They have fallen 28 per cent in the last year. BLOOMBERG
Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
Huawei tops China smartphone market for first time in years
[SINGAPORE] Huawei Technologies took the top spot in China's smartphone market for the first time in more than four years, a comeback fuelled by new designs and software that appealed to users in a slowing market. The hardware giant held on to a roughly 18 per cent share of the market in the June quarter, while other leading competitors such as Vivo and Oppo slumped, according to IDC data. The Shenzhen device maker showed greater resilience than rivals as overall shipments in China fell 4 per cent to 69 million units. Huawei's recovery follows years of US export restrictions, which spurred the company to develop its own hardware and technologies, including artificial intelligence chips. In 2024, Huawei launched several smartphones powered by domestically designed and manufactured semiconductors, including the world's first commercially available device with two folds. It's also added smartphones with its own operating system, transitioning away from Google's Android. IDC researchers saw the first decline in China shipments after six consecutive quarters of growth, attributing that to diminishing help from government subsidies. 'Despite the recent US-China trade truce, the broader economic environment presents ongoing challenges, with consumer confidence remaining subdued,' said Arthur Guo, senior research analyst at IDC China. 'A significant uplift in smartphone demand is unlikely in the immediate term.' BLOOMBERG
