Cosco Shipping Holdings has received regulatory approvals to raise CNY 15bn ($2.2bn) via sales of notes and commercial paper for debt repayment.
According to exchange filings, China’s National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors has accepted the registration of the Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed firm for issuing CNY 10bn worth of commercial paper and CNY 5bn of notes in the next two years.
The maturity period of the commercial paper will be no more than 270 days, while that of the notes will be up to seven years.
Cosco Shipping, the container port and shipping arm of state conglomerate China Cosco Shipping, said the planned issues are for debt repayments.
Cosco Shipping has some seven-year notes worth CNY 4bn due on 29 November 2018.
The company, one of the world’s largest container carriers and port operators, saw net profits fell to CNY 862.6m in January-September from CNY 2.74bn in the same period of last year.
Cash reserves of Cosco Shipping amounted to CNY 34.3bn as of end-September.
