Hong Kong’s billionaire Cheng family is offering to buy the NWS Holdings Ltd. shares it doesn’t own in a HK$35.5 billion ($4.5 billion) deal that would help lower debt at its property conglomerate.
The transaction would in effect shift cash from the family’s investment holding company to its builder New World Development Co., which owns a majority stake in NWS and stands to receive about HK$21.8 billion from the disposal.
New World, founded by the late billionaire Cheng Yu-Tung, is one of the most indebted Hong Kong developers among its larger peers, with a net debt-to-shareholder-equity ratio of about 47%. The company’s net gearing would decrease to around 42% after the deal.
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