HONG KONG, Feb. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- CIFI Holdings (Group) Co. Ltd. ("CIFI", or the "Group", HKEX Code: 884), one of the "Top 100 Real Estate Developers in China" is pleased to announce that Standard and Poor's Ratings Services ("S&P"), an international ratings organization, has upgraded the Group's corporate credit rating to "BB-" and the issue rating to "B+" with a "stable outlook".
According to S&P, the upgrade reflected CIFI's solid sales performance, increasing operating scale and steady profitability. CIFI has achieved high levels of cash collection ratio and sell-through rate in the past two years. Its sell-through rate was approximately 70% in 2013, which is considered high when compared with the peers' 50% to 60%. On the other hand, S&P's ratings reflect CIFI's adequate financial liquidity and good relationships with banks. In 2014 and early 2015, the Group successfully issued a number of offshore notes, and onshore and offshore syndicated notes to raise sufficient fund for the Group's future development.
Mr. Lin Zhong, Chairman and Executive Director of CIFI, said, "We are delighted with our upgraded ratings by S&P, which demonstrated the Group's strong sales performance and healthy finance management. In September 2014, Fitch upgraded our issuer's credit rating and senior unsecured rating to "BB-"; in November, Moody's upgraded issuer's credit rating to "Ba3". The ratings upgraded by the three ratings organizations reflected the recognitions of our business strategies by the finance market. In the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, a few of China's real estate developers were reported to be under investigation of corruption cases in the country, thereby resulting in excessive volatility in offshore funding costs for the country's property developers. Such incidents have made the international capital markets very cautious about lending to the real estate sector. However, the Group has not been significantly affected by such tightening in the offshore funding market. Since the end of 2014, the Group successfully captured the market opportunity by taking the above-mentioned initiatives to secure low-cost funding for the upcoming phase of its business development."
About CIFI Holdings (Group) Co. Ltd.
CIFI is headquartered in Shanghai and is amongst China's Top 30 Real Estate Developers. CIFI principally focus on developing high quality and end-users driven properties in first- and second-tier cities in China. CIFI's development projects cover various properties types including residential, office and commercial complexes. To learn more about the Company, please visit CIFI's website at: http://www.cifi.com.cn
