Country Garden’s debt deal soothes investors

Country Garden has soothed investor concerns about its finances after striking a deal with its lenders. Country Garden’s shares leapt by as much as 19% in Hong Kong on the first day of trading after the company agreed with creditors to move a looming repayment deadline. So far this year, Country Garden’s share price has fallen by more than 60%, leading to its removal from Hong Kong’s premier Hang Seng stock index this month. The developer faces 108.7bn yuan (£12bn) of debt repayments over the next year. The deal reached late on Friday allowed the company to stretch out the period in which it could repay the $536m owed to a creditor group, which was due to be repaid in full on Saturday under the original terms. The Times (£)The FT (£)