(Yicai Global) June 14 -- Chinese real estate developer Sino-Ocean Group Holding has sold an office building in Beijing for CNY5 billion (USD740 million) amid dropping bond prices.

The property developer has sold the 147,400-square meter building in Fengtai district to Ping An Life Insurance of China, news outlet the Paper reported today. The life insurance giant will pay CNY3.4 billion in cash to the seller while shouldering a debt of CNY1.6 billion.

The project was ready in May 2021 after construction began in 2017. Beijing-based Sino-Ocean bought the project's development rights from Shenzhen-based Ping An Life in 2015. But financial details were not disclosed at that time, per the report.

This is the second time that Sino-Ocean has sold assets in the past two months. The firm sold some of its equity in a business complex located in Beijing’s central Chaoyang district to China Life Insurance, earning around CNY3 billion.

Before this, Sino-Ocean has appeared relatively protected from the Chinese real estate sector's turmoil as the company has not yet defaulted on its debts. But this year, the firm's bond prices have slumped on several occasions. On June 9, Sino-Ocean's seven-year US dollar bond, issued in 2019, dived 30 percent.

Sino-Ocean's Hong Kong-listed shares have been looking down this year. The stock price [HKG: 3377] closed merely 0.8 percent up at HKD1.28 (16 US cents) today. The shares are still almost 30 percent down since early January.

Profitability has been narrowing. Last year, Sino-Ocean reported a 5 percent decline in net profit to CNY2.7 billion from 2020, according to its earnings report. Revenue climbed by 14 percent to CNY64.2 billion (USD9.5 billion).

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi