Greenland Hong Kong, the Hong Kong-listed unit of the mainland’s largest developer by sales, announced it would diversify into internet finance this year, hoping to capitalise on the cyber world to offer financial services to cash-strapped mainland developers.
“Apart from selling high-quality properties, we are determined to embrace the internet because we believe it can broaden our business scope,” said chief operation officer Hou Guangjun. “Our online financial services will be distinctive from the popular P2P models.”
Greenland Hong Kong will follow in the footsteps of Dalian Wanda Group, the mainland’s commercial property giant, to formally tap the fast-growing internet finance businesses in search of a growth engine in a slowing property market.
Greenland Hong Kong, whose parent is Greenland Group, plans to create a so-called marketplace lending model under which it would raise funds via the internet while channeling the capital into property projects.
The diversification is in line with the company’s aggressive sales target of 18 billion yuan for 2015, nearly 50 per cent higher than 2014.
Presently, the mainland has about 2,000 online person-to-person (P2P) lending platforms, a major element of the burgeoning internet finance sector that serves as matchmaker for borrowers and lenders.