Some investors say they haven’t received a Country Garden Holdings Co. dollar note coupon effectively due Monday, kicking off a monthlong period for the distressed Chinese developer to pay and avoid its first public bond default.
Two holders of a note due in 2025 said they hadn’t received interest as of 3pm Hong Kong time Tuesday. The investors asked not to be named as they’re not authorized to speak publicly. There’s $15.4 million of interest due on the bond, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. The note’s prospectus says there is a 30-day grace period before a missed coupon payment can constitute a default.
Country Garden didn’t immediately offer a comment when reached Tuesday afternoon.
The company, once China’s largest developer, has been engulfed in a broader property debt crisis and warned last month it may default. Country Garden two weeks ago paid $22.5 million of dollar note interest as a separate grace period came to an end. Its nonpayment by August’s initial due date set off fresh concerns about China’s property sector and high-yield market.
Chinese developers have been leaving some investors waiting until the last minute for cash for several years. Some of the sector’s most high-profile defaulters, including China Evergrande Group, made bond payments during grace periods before eventually stopping remittances.
Onshore Extensions
Country Garden this week won bondholder approval on the last of a batch of eight local notes it sought to stretch out repayments on, after the vote was extended three times and a proposal to add a credit enhancement was made.
Two bondholders said they were briefed by an underwriter Tuesday that the proposal to extend the 492 million yuan ($67 million) note was passed. They asked not to be named discussing a private matter. The vote’s latest deadline was Monday. Country Garden didn’t immediately offer a comment when reached.
A Monday filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s private disclosure system seen by Bloomberg News said that Country Garden unit Guangdong Giant Leap Construction Co. would provide no less than 200 million yuan as a pledged guarantee for the note if the payment extension passed. The credit enhancement proposal was added on Monday, according to one person familiar with the matter. The unit issued the bond.
Country Garden last week won approval from bondholders to extend seven other onshore notes. Along with another bond extended earlier this month, the nine notes’ combined principal is 14.7 billion yuan. The extensions provide the company with breathing room as it deals with plunging contracted sales and other debt obligations.
Most of Country Garden’s dollar bonds have fallen to deeply distressed levels below 10 cents after some were near 80 cents in June.
--With assistance from Dorothy Ma.
