Xinjiang Hualing Industry and Trade (Group) Co has acquired 90% of Georgian JSC Basisbank, becoming the first Chinese private company to buy a commercial bank overseas. The acquisition was sealed after the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the bank’s Supervisory Board Chairman Zurab Tsikhistavi agreed on the deal. The EBRD and Tsikhistavi, as the bank’s single international shareholder and the founder, will each retain 5% stake. The bank will change its name and operate in Tbilisi and Kutaisi, Georgia’s second largest city. Founded in 1993, Basisbank ranked 11th among Georgia’s 19 existing commercial banks by total assets. Its assets were valued at USD94 million at the end of March.

China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) plans to spend CNY19.3 billion to build China’s largest oil refinery in Jiangsu province to meet the country’s rising fuel demand. The company has formed a committee with the provincial government on the mega project, which will be located in the coastal city of Lianyungang and will integrate oil refining and petrochemical production. The project would have an annual refining capacity of 32 million tons and construction could start as early next year under an agreement signed between Sinopec and the provincial government. The first phase of development involves 12 million tons of annual oil refining capacity and facilities capable of churning out one million tons of paraxylene, a chemical used to make polyester. The second phase includes 20 million tons of oil refining capacity and facilities to make one million tons of base chemical ethylene a year. The agreement also includes the construction of a wharf large enough to accommodate oil tankers with a storage capacity of 300,000 tons of fuel. The mega project still needs approval from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Sinopec Deputy Chairman Wang Tianpu said the company plans to form a joint venture with a large international petrochemical firm to co-invest in the project. Sinopec was operating 34 refineries at the end of last year, with a total annual processing capacity of 247 million tons, according to its annual filing to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States, where its shares are traded. If completed, the 32-million-ton-a-year refinery will be much larger than Sinopec’s largest operating refinery in Zhenhai, Zhejiang province, which has an annual capacity of 23 million tons. China’s petrol output grew 7.3% in the first five months of this year to 35.7 million tons, and diesel output rose 2.7% to 71.55 million tons.

Home prices in China rose for the first time in 10 months in June amid steadily recovering sales in major cities. Prices edged up 0.05% from May to CNY8,688 per square meter in 100 major cities across the country, ending a losing streak since September 2011, according to the China Index Academy. Prices dropped in 45 cities, compared with 73 in May, with 12 seeing falls of more than 1%, 5% fewer. Gains were posted in the other 55 cities, with 11 recording increases of more than 1%, up 3% from May. Year on year, however, home prices in the 100 cities have fallen 1.9% on average. Sixty-seven cities saw a loss in value, compared with 60 cities in May, the Academy said. “New home purchases continued to rebound in major cities since March and a recently fine-tuned monetary policy further helped trigger buyers’ sentiment,” the Academy said in a statement. “Some real estate developers recently stopped offering discounts or even raised their prices amid robust sales, leading to the slight price increase in June.” The average cost of homes in the 10 largest cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing, climbed 0.75% from May to CNY15,429 per sq m, with Beijing registering the biggest increase of 2.3%. Tianjin and Hangzhou were the only two cities among the 10 that reported monthly drops, shedding 0.6% and 0.1%, respectively. New home sales fell 13.5% year on year to 255.52 million sq m across the country between January and May, recovering from a 14.9%  annual drop recorded during the first four months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said last month. In Shanghai, new home purchases soared to their highest level in 17 months in June, according to the latest market research.

The number of major real estate deals in Shanghai dropped more than one third in the first half of this year, with office buildings being the most preferred investment. Property acquisitions worth more than USD10 million each fell to CNY12.7 billion in the city between January and June, down 37% from the same period a year earlier, according to DTZ. Last year, about CNY40 billion worth of en bloc property deals were done in Shanghai, the highest since 2006, DTZ data showed. The office segment accounted for 73% of the total real estate investment in the city in the first half, up from 67% in the same period in 2011. Next came hotels with 13% and retail properties with 11%, according to DTZ. “Notably, no investment deals in residential properties were sealed during the six-month period amid the government’s restraint policies aimed at curbing speculation while high-quality offices continued to be the most sought-after real estate type,” Jim Yip of DTZ China Investment, said. He added that domestic buyers dominated as they sealed 78% of the total deals in the period while overseas players were more cautious. Owner-occupiers made up 57% of buyers in the first six months, beating pure investors for the first time, DTZ said. In 2011 their share came to 16%. New home sales in Shanghai in the first half of the year were little changed from a year ago. The sales of new homes, excluding government subsidized affordable housing, dipped 1.2% annually to 3.85 million sq m between January and June, but gained 12% from the second half of 2011, Soufun data showed. “March, May and June saw a strong rebound in transactions of new residential properties in the city, sparked by price discounts offered by real estate developers,” said Tang Zhengwei, a Soufun Analyst.

Chinese land sales were mixed in the first half of the year depending on the type of market: tier-one locations reported declines in revenues during the period, while second-tier cities saw land sales go up. Total land sales revenues for 300 cities surveyed amounted to CNY652.98 billion in the first six months of this year, representing a drop of 38% compared with the first half of 2011, according to a report by China Index Academy, one of the China’s largest property research institutes. Beijing and Shanghai saw the biggest declines in land sale revenues during the period. Shanghai’s revenue fell 62.77% to CNY18.42 billion. The decline sees Shanghai’s ranking slip from top place last year to the ninth in terms of total land sales revenues this year. Analysts said the decline in major cities was partly due to too few sites being offered for sale. On the other hand, land sales were active in second-tier cities. Chongqing topped that list with total sales up 20% to CNY37.94 billion in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period in 2011. It was followed by Wuhan, which had land sales revenues of CNY31.7 billion. According to China Index Academy, the total number of government sites launched for sale dropped 19% in the first half of 2012, while residential sites dropped 32% between January and June.