Sunac continues buying spree with 4b yuan purchase of a 17pc stake in Jinke Property

Sunac China, the country’s fifth largest private property developer, has paid 4 billion yuan to buy a 17 per cent stake in Jinke Property to become its second largest shareholder.

Jinke is listed in Shenzhen and owns the largest land bank in Chongqing of any mainland listed companies.

Sunac has bought 907 million Jinke shares at 4.41 yuan per share, a slight premium on Jinke’s average price in the past five trading days of 4.39 per share, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday.

Sunac’s shares traded in Hong Kong rose 0.33 per cent to HK$6.08 on Thursday.

“Buying a company is much more lucrative than buying public land right now, as land prices in first- and second-tier cities are too expensive, ” said David Hong, head of research at China Real Estate Information, adding valuations of mainland property companies are comparatively low.

According to Sunac’s statement, Jinke currently has around 75 real estate projects under construction, and its land reserves available for construction exceed 17 million square metres, in cities including Chongqing, Beijing and Chengdu.