New | R&F’s Angola mine, Cambodia project snared by China’s capital controls
Many Chinese companies’ overseas acquisitions are paralysed by government’s crackdown on capital remittances.
Property developer R&F Properties is calling on the authorities in China to make a special case for its investment in Africa and Southeast Asia, as the lengthy and unpredictable approval process for moving money overseas may be jeopardising their international projects.
“We applied for US$1 billion worth of overseas investment quota to the state foreign exchange authority more than two months ago, but have not yet received approval,” Zhang Li, founder and co-chairman of Hong Kong-listed R&F Properties told the South China Morning Postin Beijing on Sunday.
The most urgent projects included the acquisition of a chromium mine in Angola, and a residential and agricultural development programme in Cambodia, Zhang said.
He said the agreements would be affected if payments could not be made on time.
“Luckily our offshore fundraising channels still have some capital in reserve,” Zhang added, without clarifying if the amount is sufficient.
The developer has a market cap of about HK$39.1 billion, and outstanding total debt of 46.6 billion yuan (US$6.7 billion), according to Bloomberg data. Zhang said his company had no plans to buy land in Hong Kong, as prices were too high.