Chinese brokerage Haitong cites liquidity risk as it scraps buyback

[HONG KONG] Haitong Securities Co, one of China's biggest brokerages, scrapped a share buyback that it announced during the nation's stock-market crisis in July, citing potential risks to its operations, liquidity and credit ratings.

Some of the company's bond holders had asked for additional guarantees if Haitong went ahead with the buyback, the brokerage told Shanghai's stock exchange on Tuesday.

In July, Haitong said that it planned a 21.6 billion yuan (S$4.6 billion) buyback of its stock on the mainland and in Hong Kong. That announcement came just as the Chinese government was rolling out a series of measures to stabilize a plummeting stock market.

In the statement, Haitong cited the scale of its outstanding domestic bonds - 66 billion yuan - and said that the company had overseas debt, too.

BLOOMBERG