Chinese property developer Country Garden will likely restructure its onshore debt to ease liquidity pressure and has hired CICC as its financial advisor, according to Chinese news outlet Caixin.
A separate report by Chinese media Yicai said that Country Garden has started the preparation for a debt restructuring and hired CICC to arrange the issue.
The developer said on Tuesday that it has missed two dollar bond coupon payments due on Aug. 6 totalling $22.5 million, slipping into repayment troubles, adding that it’s still within a 30-day grace period.
Country Garden will see a maturity wall in September and it won’t have sufficient cash for the repayment, so the company will likely first seek extension of onshore bonds to ease liquidity pressure and ensure property delivery, the report said, citing people close to Country Garden.
The developer’s outstanding debt stood at about 25.6 billion yuan as of August 9, of which 12.6 billion yuan of debt will mature or become puttable before the end of this year.
The company has formed a preliminary plan for onshore debt restructuring, which could be announced soon, the report said.
Since 2021, five Chinese developers including R&F Properties, Sunac China, Shimao Group, TImes China and Logan Group have completed restructuring of onshore debt worth a total of 77.65 billion yuan, mostly extending debt by 3 – 4 years.