Chinese real estate developer CIFI Holdings (Group) Co. is set to issue an additional 8.875% coupon US dollar senior notes due January 2019 originally issued in January 2014. The principal amount of the additional issue is US$200 million, with an issue price at 102% of the principal value of the additional notes. The effective interest rate of the additional issue is about 8.3%.

Net proceeds from the additional issue will be used for refinancing the group's existing indebtedness, the acquisition of new projects or land for development and general corporate purposes. The additional issue is expected to be completed on or before January 9 2015.

Lin Zhong, chairman and executive director of CIFI, said, "The issue price was reasonable and will further reduce our cost of funding and optimize our debt structure. This year, Fitch Ratings and Moody's upgraded our corporate credit rating to ' BB- ' and ' Ba3 ' respectively, while Standard and Poor's revised our issuer's credit rating outlook to ' positive ' and affirmed our ' B+ ' corporate credit rating. The rating upgrades reflected that the global financial community endorses the group's business strategy. We will continue our prudent financial management and will focus on further lowering our financing costs to enhance profit margins of our property development business and generate better returns to our shareholders."