Shares of Soho China, a real estate company run by a major power couple, fell by a third on Monday after Blackstone Group pulled out of the deal. determined to buy.
Soho China said in a joint filing late Friday that Blackstone would not fulfill its $3 billion bid for a controlling stake in the company without giving any reason. Wall Street investment giants Blackstone and Soho China declined to comment further on Monday.
The company is controlled by Zhang Xin and Pan Xia, a married couple who share the title of Executive Director. Mr. Pan, who is the chairman, was one of the first Chinese entrepreneurs to use social media for public relations and has millions of followers online. Ms. Zhang Part. famous in for his role In a 2013 deal to buy a stake in the General Motors Building in Manhattan.
This news came as soon as China’s most successful business tycoon came under scrutiny And rising pressure To get the most out of your money. The deal, which would have been the biggest in the real estate sector, was announced in June, pending a regulatory review. This was seen as a move by the husband-and-wife team to reduce their exposure to China.
A deal for Soho China could also boost confidence in the country’s real estate sector, which, after years of significant growth, is coming under more regulatory scrutiny as Beijing tries to pause For corporate binge lending. Developers have been forced to start paying rising bills under new central bank rules known as the “three red lines”.
EvergreenChina’s biggest developer has scared investors, home buyers and experts who are predicting bankruptcy in the near future.
In recent weeks, Real estate prices and demand in some of China’s largest cities It’s starting to weaken. A major Beijing think tank said last week that the region “showed signs of a turning point.”
The real estate crisis, as well as reports of greater regulatory tightening in mainland China, contributed to a nearly 2 percent drop in Hong Kong shares on Monday.
More than 500,000 student borrowers – with nearly $10 billion in student loan debt – had their loans wiped out this year, Stacy Cowley reports for The New York Times.
President Biden has so far defied calls for such blanket debt cancellation that a Top priority of many progressive parliamentarians, but a parade of relatively modest eligibility and relief enhancements adds up to a significant influx of support for distressed borrowers. There may be more: The Education Department said it was planning regulatory changes to programs aimed at helping government employees and those Income Driven Repayment Plans.
There are plenty of incentives for the federal government — the primary lender for Americans who borrow for college, with $1.4 trillion in debt on 43 million borrowers — to fix faltering relief programs soon. Since the pandemic took hold in March 2020, virtually all those loans are at an interest-free standstill, which is Expires 31 Jan. And each loan repaid to the agency is one less.
The department’s actions so far have generated little controversy – some oppose granting military personnel, disabled borrowers and fraudulent students the relief they are legally entitled to – but more broadly, student loan cancellation. Lightning rod idea. Republicans dislike the idea of spending taxpayer money, and critics on the left see it as a subsidy for those with expensive professional degrees.
“Our overall goal is sustainable change,” said Education Department spokeswoman Kelly Lyons. “We are building a student loan system that works for borrowers and provides them with Congress-authorized relief that has proved elusive for far too long.”
Advocates say the widespread pressure to cancel loans has fueled calls to address administrative problems that need to be addressed urgently. Read article →
Fannie Mae, the federally-backed organization that buys mortgages from banks, plans to keep records of regular rent payments in many people’s bank accounts — with their permission — to help assess eligibility for mortgages.
Its data showed that only 17 percent of people who didn’t own a home in the past three years and who previously didn’t qualify for a mortgage can now do so. But those 17 percent are drawn from a group that is disproportionately people of color, many of whom have limited credit histories and come from marginalized groups on the wrong side for decades. wealth gap.
Fannie Mae effectively sets several standards for who is eligible and what data matters, and so far, rent has not been calculated, despite it being the largest payment most renters make each month. . We do. For many years, consumer advocates and industry insiders alike have agreed that this should not be the case.
The complex, multi-step process that Fannie is using will mean that not many people will initially benefit from it. New York Times Your Money columnist Ron Lieber takes a look