(Yicai Global) Feb. 14 -- Shimao Group Holdings has put its luxurious Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland hotel, located down an abandoned mine pit and close to the Asia Pacific region’s only Smurfs theme park, up for sale for CNY2.25 billion (USD354 million), Yicai Global learned from a realtor source.

It is one of 36 real estate projects that the Chinese developer said last month that it intends to sell as the debt-mired firm looks to raise more than CNY77.1 billion (USD12.2 billion) to reduce liabilities.

Shimao denied today that any sale has taken place and instead said that it plans to dispose of certain assets and will make announcements as deals materialize, Beijing Business Today reported.

Shimao has USD4.4 billion of domestic and overseas bonds due this year, according to a report by Swiss bank UBS. It had debts of CNY463.6 billion (USD73 billion) as of mid-2021, while its cash and cash equivalents were only about CNY74.8 billion (USD11.7 billion).

The Shanghai Wonderland hotel has a mortgage balance of nearly CNY2.1 billion, the source said. The lender is also looking for a buyer for the hotel, he added.

The hotel is one of Shimao’s flagship properties operated by British hotel group InterContinental Hotels and Resorts. Located on the site of an old quarry in Songjiang district, southwestern Shanghai, it took 12 years to build. Sixteen of its 18 stories are underground, including two that are underwater. It opened in November 2018 and had made a total revenue of CNY710 million (USD112 million) by the first half 2021.

Editor: Kim Taylor