Evergrande holds off default with last-minute payment

Evergrande has again averted a default with a last-minute bond payment. The latest payments were in fact made after a 30-day grace period that ended on Wednesday, and were the third time in a month that the company has paid up so close to a deadline. The bonds had a total of more than $148m due. The developer has been stumbling from deadline to deadline in recent weeks as it grapples with more than $300bn in liabilities, $19bn of which are dollar bonds. Evergrande now has to come up with the cash to make coupon payments of more than $255m, due on 28 December. Other cash-strapped developers also have offshore payments due in the short term, including Kaisa Group. Kaisa has the most offshore debt of any Chinese developer after Evergrande and it asked for help from creditors this week. It has coupon payments of more than $59m due yesterday and today, with 30-day grace periods for both. Meanwhile, Evergrande faces a new threat as officials near the end of an investigation into the developer’s links to a Chinese regional bank. And a bout of selling this week in junk bonds issued by riskier Chinese property developers has sent their borrowing costs soaring to the highest level in a decade. The Times (£) The FT (£) and The FT (£)