Chinese developer halts high-risk bond sale

Chinese developer CIFI Holdings (0884.HKG) shelved a plan to sell high-yield bonds on Friday, a sign of investors’ growing discomfort with riskier investment instruments, The Wall Street Journal reported. The small Chinese developer intended to raise roughly US$300 million through a five-year Reg S US dollar-denominated bond sale, setting its yield level at 11-15% on Thursday. But the firm decided to halt the sale on Friday given weakness in debt markets. Generally, investors in Asia prefer investments with high margins, although they appear to be moving away from some high-yield bonds following a plummet in the value of perpetual bonds.