(Yicai Global) Feb. 12 -- Inner Mongolia Xibei Restaurant Group has received offers of support from more than 30 domestic banks this month after the Chinese restaurant chain announced that it only had enough cash to see out the next three months due to the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak.

The group has already penned a CNY430 million (USD61.6 million) credit agreement with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, National Business Daily reported yesterday, citing an executive at the borrower's public relations team. The firm has set aside CNY120 million of that to pay salaries.

Xibei, founded in 1999 and a specialist in flavors from northwestern China, has 367 stores in 59 Chinese cities, but most of them have been shut down by the coronavirus epidemic that has claimed over 1,100 lives to date.

The company, which generated CNY5.6 billion (USD804 million) in revenue in 2018, is still running a takeout business but this is not bringing in enough to support its normal operations, a company insider. It hopes to receive government support in the form of tax and fee reductions and other subsidies.

Editor: James Boynton