(Yicai Global) March 29 -- Chinese real estate developer Ronshine China Holdings Ltd. is selling equity in several of its properties in East China as it looks to slash debts after a spending spree in 2016.

The Fujian-based firm is selling off all or part of at least six properties in Nanjing, Jiangsu province and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, state-backed online news agency The Paper reported.

Ronshine made headlines after splurging CNY48.4 billion (USD7.7 billion) on land in 2016, ensuring it beat out offers from some of the country's biggest property firms and paying some of the highest land rates Nanjing and Hangzhou have ever seen. Its property spend that year almost doubled its contract sales.

One of the plots for sale is in Nanjing's Qixia district. Ronshire acquired the parcel after 128 rounds of bidding, with 27 developers pushing the price up to CNY5.82 billion, the threshold set by the government, at a premium of more than 79 percent. Despite the inflated price, there were 22 willing buyers, and Ronshine only secured the lot via lottery.

The remaining developments are in Hangzhou. Ronshine bought one of the plots, based in Xiaoshan district, for CNY1.4 billion in February 2016, at a premium of 54 percent. It beat out seven competing bidders, including Country Garden Holdings Co., vice chaired by China's richest woman, and Sunac China Holdings Ltd., helmed by Sun Hongbin, the LeEco investor turned chairman who tried but failed to steer the desperate conglomerate out of rough waters, resigning as chairman this month after less than a year at the top.