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SCMP Reporter

CHINA Resources Enterprise is making a cash call for $2.1 billion to finance the acquisition of a residential project on Tsing Yi Island.

  The property and cold store operator, which is 51 per cent owned by China Resources Holdings, yesterday placed 640 million new shares with its parent, Cheung Kong (Holdings), Sun Hung Kai Properties and other institutional investors.

   The placement, which follows Tung Wing Steel Holdings' rights issue by Shougang Holdings, is the company's first cash call since its revamp in October last year.

   The property, to be injected from China Resources Holdings into its listed flagship, is an oil depot in Nga Ying Chau at the northeastern tip of Tsing Yi.

  The site will be developed in phases into a large commercial and residential complex.

   Cheung Kong and Sun Hung Kai Properties each now holds about 20 per cent interest in the large project.

   The new shares are priced at $3.30 each, representing an 8.3 per cent discount to Thursday's closing price of $3.60. The company suspended trading yesterday.

  China Resources Enterprise said its mainland parent would take up about 326 million new shares and maintain its present shareholding level in the company.

   A spokesman at Sun Hung Kai Properties declined to disclose the percentage taken and only said that it was ''just a small amount''.

  Cheung Kong chairman Li Ka-shing said recently the company had about seven per cent interest in the company and would be pleased to buy any new shares to maintain the same holding.

  Anglo-Chinese Securities was the financial adviser and underwriter for the new issue, with Smith New Court and W.I. Carr as placing agents.

  Meanwhile, with China Resources Enterprise's issued capital at 432 million shares, analysts feared the share placement of 640 million shares would lead to very significant earnings dilution.

  In addition, investors will have to consider that the property project will not be able to provide earnings for the next three years.

  Anglo-Chinese director K.C. Wong also realised that it was a very long-term project and the first phase was not expected to be completed until 1998.

   However, he believed that whether the residential site being injected was a quality property project should be a more important yardstick in judging the deal.

   ''Earnings dilution does not necessarily mean it is a bad deal, while investors should take a long-term view of the company's growth potential,'' he said.

  Sun Hung Kai Securities research director Edward Chan Hung-kee expected there would be a lot more fund-raising exercises in the near future in addition to the Hongkong listings of those mainland state-owned enterprises.

  China Resources Holdings had a minor stake in China Resources Enterprise (formerly Winland Investment) for many years.

   The company repossessed a factory building previously occupied by a liquidated textile company and then raised $104 million to redevelop it into a modern industrial property.

  The stock became more active in June 1990 when the capital base was increased significantly through a one-for-three rights issue.



China firm seeks $2.1b for project on Tsing Yi