Evergrande avoids default with last minute payment
Evergrande has paid a missed interest payment just days ahead of a deadline that would have forced a formal default.
The developer reportedly made the $83.5m payment on a dollar bond yesterday, ensuring that the funds will be with its investors before the 30-day grace period expires this weekend.
Evergrande’s failure to pay the coupon by the 23 September deadline sparked volatility across international markets and a reckoning over the health of China’s slowing real estate sector, which is under government pressure to reduce leverage.
Evergrande has paid a missed interest payment just days ahead of a deadline that would have forced a formal default.
The developer reportedly made the $83.5m payment on a dollar bond yesterday, ensuring that the funds will be with its investors before the 30-day grace period expires this weekend.
Evergrande’s failure to pay the coupon by the 23 September deadline sparked volatility across international markets and a reckoning over the health of China’s slowing real estate sector, which is under government pressure to reduce leverage.
The group, which faces more than $300bn in total liabilities, has missed four other offshore interest payments, totalling $193m, over recent weeks.
Some of Evergrande’s peers, including luxury developer Fantasia Group and Sinic Holdings, have defaulted on smaller bonds, while yields on riskier Chinese borrowers on international markets have soared to their highest levels since 2009.
Kaisa, another developer, has a bond interest payment due on Friday that is being closely watched.
The FT (£)
The Guardian
