Speculation over Country Garden’s future has been swirling since the company defaulted on a dollar bond last month.
People with knowledge of the matter earlier told Bloomberg News that Ping An had offloaded its Country Garden stake last quarter and has no takeover plans. Ping An held 4.9% of Country Garden as of August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. As a non-state company, Ping An lacks ready access to government funding of the sort that would likely be required to restore market confidence in Country Garden without putting the insurer’s own financial health in doubt.
Country Garden and another defaulted property giant, China Evergrande Group, have played an outsized role underpinning the livelihoods of tens of thousands of employees and construction workers. They sold homes to buyers who are still waiting for them to be built.