(Bloomberg) -- Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd. and Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. are among the first private Chinese developers being lined up to receive offshore loans that could help their debt repayment, in the latest sign of support for the stricken property sector. 

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. plans to provide $300 million in offshore loans to Country Garden backed by a domestic guarantee, Chinese media outlet Cailian reported Monday, citing unidentified people. The exact amount isn’t final, according to the report. 

Representatives of Country Garden and ICBC’s Hong Kong entity didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg requests for comment.

The news followed a separate announcement by Bank of China Ltd. last Friday that its Hong Kong branch will offer an offshore loan of an unspecified amount to Longfor. The credit will be backed by a guarantee provided by Bank of China’s Chongqing branch. Longfor took out the loan on Friday to meet its liquidity requirements, the statement said. 

Big Chinese banks led by ICBC have pledged at least $179 billion of funding to property developers to ease turmoil in the real estate market. That came alongside other measures including allowing some developers to sell onshore debt with guarantees, giving them more access to home presale funds, and ending a ban on onshore equity raising. 

Reuters reported in early December that China told its four state-owned banks to provide developers offshore loans to pay back foreign debt. 

There’s also been a flurry of share sales by cash-strapped developers, including a planned divestment of a unit of Country Garden by its billionaire controlling shareholder to raise about $650 million. Dollar bonds of companies planning share placements rose on the news Monday. 

--With assistance from Denise Wee.

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