HONG KONG, May 27 Reuters Cashstrapped China Vanke has sold a Shenzhen land plot via auction for 2.24 billion yuan 309.18 million, a filing on Monday showed, more than 27 below the price it paid for the same 19,000 squaremetre block nearly seven years ago.

Vanke is working to raise funds after saying last month it is facing shortterm liquidity pressure, one of many companies to have been caught up in a broadbased cash crunch in China39;s crisishit real estate sector.

Its largest shareholder, stateowned Shenzhen Metro, and Shenzhenbased company Baishuoyinghai jointly bought the plot at Vanke39;s reserve price, according to an online filing uploaded to a trading center in Shenzhen on Monday.

Theirs was the only bid for the asset, the same filing, made after mainland stock market was closed, showed.

Vanke bought the land in late 2017 for 3.1 billion yuan, according to previous documents.

In a statement to Reuters, Vanke said the deal reflects that its largest shareholder is supporting the company with marketbased, legitimate measures and real money. It said the deal will help the firm free up capital from noncore business assets.

Vanke has said it aims to boost cashflow this year with bank financing and more asset disposals worth more than 30 billion yuan.

Last week Vanke said it had received a 20 billion yuan syndicated loan facility from a group of banks led by stateowned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and would push forward other financing to boost its…