Little-known Fujian developer Thaihot snapping up prime tracts of Beijing land
Fearless acquisition strategy by company’s chairman Huang Qisen has sparked both fear and admiration among industry peers. But its shares have rallied 53pc in the past month despite heightened concern over its debt ratio and cash flow
Shares in Chinese developer Thaihot Group rallied to their daily upper limit again on Thursday, after it took full control of a prime plot of land in Beijing – taking many of its industry peers by surprise at a time when most continue to be increasingly cautious in what’s continues to be a distinctly cool market in the city.
The Fujian province-based firm, headed by chairman Huang Qisen, has now bought Overseas Chinese Town (OCT) Enterprises’ 51 per cent share in a project company – created to develop the site originally by three companies – for 10.86 billion yuan (US$1.67), giving its full ownership. That is a 30 per cent premium over the original price.
It bought a 49 per cent share in the project – in southwest Beijing’s Fengtai district – last August for 1.5 billion yuan, besides lending 9.36 billion yuan to the project as part of the deal.
The firm appears to have emerged from nowhere with funds to spend, targeted especially at the land in the capital, and is now regarded as one of the country’s most acquisitive developers.
Huang vowed in a late December to double its property sales in 2018 to 200 billion yuan, and the company reveals in its filing on the purchase that it has 36 projects planned, on a land bank which now sits at some 7.93 million square metres.
