Two of China’s largest property developers, Country Garden Holdings Limited (OTC: CTRYF) (OTC: CTRYY) and China Evergrande Group (OTC: EVGRF) are fighting for their survival as one missed a bond payment Wednesday and the other faces a courtroom next week.
According to local reports, Country Garden, which is China’s largest property firm by number of developments, missed its first-ever bond payment on $15.4 million offshore interest payments Wednesday morning. Country Garden has $186 billion of liabilities, making it one of the most indebted property developers in the world.
JP Morgan & Chase Co (NYSE: JPM) analyst Karl Chan said that the missed payment would speak a series of defaults on all of its $10 billion in offshore bonds.
Country Garden won agreement among its creditors last month to extend credit terms on eight of its onshore bonds worth 10.8 billion RMB ($1.5 billion), delaying repayments by a further three years.
Country Garden’s junk bonds are trading at around 4 cents on the dollar now, about 20% below what they were last month when ...