Beijing has been struggling to restore confidence in the country’s ailing real estate industry and appears to be working flat out to prevent China Vanke going the way of Evergrande and Country Garden, which both defaulted on their debts and are at risk of being liquidated.
It was the first listed property company in mainland China, boasting a high-profile IPO in 1991 on the still-nascent Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In 2017, in order to fend off a hostile takeover bid by a Chinese activist investor, the company let the Shenzhen government step in as its top shareholder. Currently, 33.4% of Vanke is owned by Shenzhen Metro, which is controlled by the city, according to Refinitiv Eikon.