Property developer Sunac China warns of wider loss for 2024

(Reuters) -Property developer Sunac China said on Monday it expects to report a wider loss for the year ended December 2024.

Beijing-based Sunac, once among China's largest real estate developers, attributed the higher net loss forecast to the absence of gains that it had logged last year after the completion of its offshore debt restructuring.

In late 2023, Sunac completed a comprehensive overhaul of its $9 billion offshore debt, exchanging its existing debt for a combination of notes, among others.

The company has borne the brunt of a struggling property sector in the world's second-largest economy, which has led to decreased real-estate project deliveries, and as a result, lower earnings for developers, while they battle to revive their businesses.

Over the last three years, several top property developers such as Country Garden and China Evergrande have defaulted on debt repayment obligations, triggering a destabilising crisis in the economically-crucial property sector and forcing Beijing to announce support measures.

In January this year, a liquidation petition was filed against Sunac with the hearing scheduled for March 19, but soon after, the company emerged as the first embattled Chinese property developer to successfully cut down its onshore debt.

Sunac expects to post a loss attributable between 25.5 billion yuan ($3.52 billion) and 26 billion yuan for 2024, compared with last year's 7.97 billion yuan.

The company expects to publish its fiscal 2024 results on March 28, it said.

Shares of Sunac China ended flat at HK$1.88 on Monday. The stock has lost about 19% this year.

Last week, Country Garden Services, the property services arm of Country Garden forecast a higher full-year profit, due to lower impairment charges.

($1 = 7.2357 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)