SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Fundraising by Chinese property trust products tumbled over 40% in September from a month earlier, official Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday, as China Evergrande Group’s troubles further dampen investor appetite toward the struggling sector.
Newly-launched real estate trust products raised 16.2 billion yuan from investors in September, down 44.8% from the previous month, the newspaper said, citing data from investment advisory Usetrust. That follows a 24% decline in August, and a 25% fall in July.
Evergrande’s financial woes deepened in September, as the developer, wrestling with debts of more than $300 billion, missed payments on wealth management products, commercial bills and dollar bonds.
Chinese developers are already struggling amid government’s lending curbs and surging cost of bond issuance. A rapidly shrinking market of property trust products could further squeeze funding channels of a sector suffering from slower home sales.
In contrast, trust products that channel money into capital markets saw a jump in popularity and fundraising, the Shanghai Securities News said.
(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
