Agile Property Holdings cuts rights issue to HK$1.65b
Troubled developer reduces size of cash call from HK$2.8 billion as 'missing' director of Yunnan project adds to gloom over company
Agile Property Holdings yesterday announced a reduced rights issue to raise funds from a wary market amid signs that the Communist Party's top anti-corruption agency is now investigating the beleaguered company.
The developer said it had "lost contact" with an executive director who was overseeing a project in Yunnan province that was now being investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Agile has been embroiled in controversy since reports that it allegedly assisted in money laundering, and that former security tsar Zhou Yongkang had a close relationship with Chan Cheuk-yin, one of Agile's directors and chairman Chen Zhuolin's youngest brother. Agile denied the report.
Shares in the developer, suspended since October 3, plunged 17.2 per cent on resumption of trading on Monday after it was confirmed that Chen had been detained on the mainland.
The news deepened investors' concerns over the cash-strapped developer's ability to repay a US$475 million offshore loan maturing in December.
After calling off a rights issue to raise HK$2.8 billion last Friday amid a ratings downgrade over refinancing risks, Agile said it now aimed to raise HK$1.65 billion by issuing 435.23 million rights shares at HK$3.80 each.
The rights issue is being underwritten by the trustee of the Chen family trust.