(Yicai Global) Nov. 16 -- Country Garden and Agile Group Holdings, two of China’s big non-state property developers, revealed plans this week for third-party share placements to raise funds to repay debt and for general corporate purposes.

Country Garden, the country’s biggest homebuilder, aims to raise about HKD3.9 billion (USD495 million), while Agile plans to bank about HKD783 million (USD100 million), the pair announced yesterday. The new shares are priced at HKD2.68 (34 US cents) each, an almost 18 percent discount on their stock prices, they said.

Developers are working hard to raise funds to maintain their credit, hoping to smooth the way ahead when seeking more support from regulatory authorities in the future, industry sources told Yicai Global.

The National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors announced on Nov. 8 that it would provide more support for bond financing by non-state builders. The NAFMII will have about CNY250 billion (USD35.3 billion) in funds from the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, for that support and will have more in the future depending on the circumstances.

Shares of Chinese developers received a shot in the arm after the PBOC and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued a document on Nov. 14, specifying 16 measures to boost the property market’s development.

The measures represent the most wide-ranging support for developers this year and are set to play a relatively positive role in steadying the market, Ming Ming, chief economist at Citic Securities, told Yicai Global earlier.

On the same day, the NAFMII accepted Midea Real Estate Group’s application to issue CNY15 billion of medium-term notes. And as of yesterday, Longfor Group Holdings had finished registering its application to sell CNY20 billion of MTNs.

But firms planning to sell bonds must provide high-quality assets or other credit entities as guarantees. Private developers have few such high-quality assets to offer, industry insiders noted, and it is also difficult for them to have other credit entities or local state-owned companies to serve as guarantors.

According to Guotai Junan Securities, there is a high probability that real estate firms will issue mortgage-backed bonds in the future, based on applications. Only business assets can serve as mortgage, which is harder for companies that only develop residential property.

Editors: Shi Yi, Peter Thomas