(Yicai Global) Dec. 1 -- A unit of cash-strapped Chinese property developer Sunac China Holdings has sold 90 percent of its interest in a Shanghai residential project. How much it raised from the sale is not yet publicly known, but a person familiar with the matter told Yicai Global today that Sunac would get CNY12 billion (USD1.69 billion) in cash.

Sunac Real Estate Group slashed its stake in Oceanwide Construction Holdings, which owns the Dongjiadu project, to 10.3 percent from 100 percent on Nov. 28, according to corporate information platform Qichacha. Investment manager Citic Trust now has almost 64.7 percent and a limited partnership owned by China Huarong Asset Management has the rest.

Sunac Real Estate bought Oceanwide Construction from Wuhan CBD for CNY14.9 billion (USD2.1 billion) in January 2019 after Oceanwide unit China Oceanwide Holdings Group hit a cash crunch. Oceanwide Construction also owns the Beijing Oceanwide International Project Land Lot 1.

Tianjin-based Sunac acquired Oceanwide Construction because the two projects it owned are in Beijing and Shanghai, two first-tier cities, it said at the time, adding that the deal would help cement its position in the two cities.

Sunac built luxury homes on the Dongjiadu plot and opened sales twice in 2019 at a cost of CNY121,000 (USD17,127) per square meter. The firm sold most of its interest in the land because of its liquidity crisis.

Since October last year, Sunac had raised about CNY30 billion via equity placement, asset disposals, borrowing from major shareholders, and other channels, The Paper reported on Jan. 20. 

Sunac’s stock was suspended from trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 1 after it failed to submit its 2021 annual results on time. The once-leading developer, which has defaulted on debt, will hold a board meeting on Dec. 8 to approve the audited results and publish them by Dec. 31, it said on Nov. 28. 

Sunac expects last year’s profit to have shrunk about 207 percent from CNY35.6 billion in 2020, the firm said in a filing on Nov. 29. It had contracted sales of about CNY153.1 billion (USD21.4 billion) as of October.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Martin Kadiev