Singapore-based Seatown Private Credit Master Fund has filed a winding-up petition against a unit of Guangzhou R&F Properties over unpaid principal and interest of about US$614 million, according to a filing by the embattled developer.
A hearing for the petition against Trillion Glory is scheduled before the Hong Kong High Court on September 25, R&F said in its disclosure to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday.
Seatown is one of the lenders of the loan in question, holding 18 per cent of the outstanding principal, R&F said.
The private equity fund is owned by Seviora Holdings, the asset-management group of Temasek Holdings, an investment company owned by the Singapore government.
R&F said Trillion Glory is seeking legal advice about the petition.
“The board of directors of [R&F] is of the view that the petition does not represent the interests of other stakeholders of the subsidiary and the company,” it said.
“The loan is sufficiently collateralised by, among others, a pledge over the equity interest of a wholly owned subsidiary of the company holding indirectly 68 hotels and one office building” in mainland China, R&F added.
The company has a portfolio of 90 hotels with 27,716 rooms, managed by the likes of Marriott International, InterContinental Hotels Group, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels, Accor Hotels and Wanda Hotels and Resorts, according to its latest financial report.
The suit is the latest in a series of troubles for R&F, which had total liabilities of about 288.5 billion yuan (US$39.6 billion) as of 2023, 4 per cent lower than its liabilities in 2022, according to the report. Total assets were down 9 per cent to about 335 billion yuan.
R&F’s revenue in 2023 rose 3 per cent to 36.2 billion yuan, but its losses widened by 28 per cent to 20.1 billion yuan.
In February, R&F disclosed that it had agreed to sell Nine Elms, a mixed-use residential and commercial project in London, for a token sum of HK$1 plus debt. The £1.34 billion (US$1.7 billion) development included two towers offering 437 private residential units and 57 affordable housing units, along with a hotel in one of the towers.
Under the agreement, buyer London One, which is solely owned by Hong Kong tycoon Cheung Chung Kiu, will assume at least US$800 million of the loan related to the transaction.
The asset sale came weeks after China Evergrande was ordered to liquidate in the biggest corporate failure in Hong Kong. Other developers on the receiving end of a wave of winding-up petitions include Country Garden Holdings, Times China, and Shimao Group Holdings.
Founded in 1994, R&F is among several major Chinese developers that have ventured beyond the mainland. It rolled out a global strategy in 2013 and said it has developed more than 450 projects in around 145 cities and regions, including Australia, Cambodia, Malaysia and South Korea.
