Cofco Land in talks to buy malls from parent

Cofco Land Holdings is in "smooth talks" to acquire several shopping malls from its state-controlled parent company, Cofco Land chairman Zhou Zheng said.

The commercial property developer has an option to acquire six Joy City projects - two in Beijing and one each in Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang in Liaoning province and Yantai in Shandong province - from Cofco Group, the mainland's largest supplier of agricultural and food products.

"We are busy talking about it now and face no obstacles internally," Zhou said in a recent interview in Beijing, without giving a timetable.

Analysts widely expect the transfer to be completed before the end of the year.

To finance the asset injection and the building up of land reserves for development in the next three to five years, Zhou said Cofco Land would consider all possible options to raise funds overseas, including the issuance of shares or new debt.

However, he said cash flow was positive and that the company enjoyed easier and cheaper access to relatively expensive onshore bank loans than its peers.