By Wayne Ma
China South City Holdings Ltd. (1668.HK), the builder of
so-called wholesale malls in China, said Wednesday that it signed a
two-year HK$600 million (US$77.4 million) unsecured loan agreement
with HSBC Holdings PLC.
The company said in a statement that the loan has an interest
rate comprising the Hong Kong interbank offered rate, or HIBOR,
plus 2.65 percentage points a year.
"This reflects HSBC's full confidence in the group's business
outlook and financial position," China South City said in the
statement.
The loan comes as China South City embarks on an expansion of
its wholesale malls, known as integrated logistics and trade
centers, that bring wholesalers from different industries together
under one roof.
The company's chief financial officer, Stephen Fung, has said
that China South City wants to build as many as two new malls a
year to take advantage of cheap land and government incentives that
have encouraged wholesale vendors to move out of major urban
areas.
Write to Wayne Ma at wayne.ma@wsj.com
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