China developers turn to online financing

Hong Kong

INTERNET financing, a fast-growing source of funding for small companies and startups, is finding an unlikely new class of customer in China - billion-dollar real estate developers having a tough time securing loans from traditional sources.

Before China's property market hit the skids in early 2014, developers relied heavily on the multi-trillion yuan trust loan industry, part of the country's large, opaque shadow banking industry, but only 10 per cent of the money trusts have raised this year has gone into real estate, down from 30 per cent in the same period last year.

That is partly because trust firms - which pool money from rich individuals and companies to make high-interest loans - are themselves finding it harder to raise cash due to greate…