By Clare Jim
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese property developer Country Garden, which missed two dollar interest payments last month, faces another deadline on Monday with two coupons totalling $66.8 million coming due.
The coupons due on Monday are tied to Country Garden’s 6.5% April 2024 and 7.25% April 2026 bonds.
The payments have a 30-day grace period, but the developer faces a big test later this month, when its entire offshore debt could be deemed in default if it fails to pay a $15 million September coupon by Oct. 17.
China’s largest private developer has $10.96 billion offshore bonds and 42.4 billion yuan ($5.81 billion) worth of loans not denominated in yuan. If it defaults, these debt will need to be restructured, and the company or its assets also risk liquidation by creditors.
China’s property sector has been hit by a debt crisis since 2021. Companies accounting for 40% of Chinese home sales – mostly private property developers – have defaulted on debt obligations, leaving many homes unfinished.
More than two years on, the crisis has deepened as confidence in both housing and capital markets dried up, further squeezing developers’ liquidity.
Beijing has rolled out a range of support measures in recent months to revive the sector, which makes up about a quarter of the world’s second-largest economy.
Some analysts, however, say more measures are needed.
In a research note on Friday, UBS said property sales growth in major cities likely stayed weak in September, suggesting a limited rebound of sales despite more supportive measures to ease the property crisis.
The market is closely watching whether Country Garden, which owns projects across the country, can manage to dodge default again by making payments at the last minute.
In September, Country Garden won approval from its onshore creditors to extend yuan bond payments, and in the same month made coupon payments on the offshore markets in the last hours of end of a grace period.
But the developer has not yet paid a $15 million coupon due Sept 17 and another $40 million coupon due on Sept 27, both of which have 30-day grace periods.
($1 = 7.2951 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
