Country Garden, one of the largest real estate groups in China, in a precarious financial situation, obtained a new reprieve from its creditors in rescheduling a payment, the financial agency Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The developer, which has long been considered financially sound, has been caught in recent months by the real estate crisis in China, which now threatens the survival of many of its competitors.
Now it is trying to avoid a default whose consequences would be catastrophic for the Chinese real estate sector.
According to two creditors cited anonymously by Bloomberg, the group’s proposal to reschedule a payment of 492 million yuan (63 million euros) was accepted.
The deadline for voting on this proposal had been postponed three times and the last deadline expired on Monday at 10:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. Brussels time).
With this new green light obtained, Country Garden will have managed to reschedule nine bond issues this month for a total amount of 14.7 billion yuan (1.9 billion euros), according to Bloomberg calculations.
Country Garden remained China’s largest property developer last year. Any unpaid debt would send a shock wave through the markets and plunge a real estate sector already affected by the health crisis and the economic slowdown in China even further into stagnation.
Country Garden had a considerable debt estimated at 1,430 billion yuan (180 billion euros) at the end of 2022. At the end of June it had 147.9 billion yuan (18.6 billion euros), a sum intended mainly to complete the homes already paid by the owners even before its construction.
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