Evergrande ជៀសវាងការខកខានជាមួយនឹងការទូទាត់ការប្រាក់យឺតយ៉ាវ

Chinese developer still under pressure as next deadline looms on Oct. 29

Embattled China Evergrande Group is set to avert its first bond default after remitting $83.5 million to settle a coupon payment it missed last month.

The company, the world's most indebted real estate developer, could have been declared in default on Saturday, the end of a 30-day grace period for the missed coupon payment.

However, on Thursday it managed to send the funds due Citibank, the bond's trustee, according to a report on Friday by the state-owned Securities Times, part of the People's Daily Group, citing "relevant channels."

A bondholder told Nikkei Asia on Friday evening that Citi had notified him it was processing his coupon payment.

Evergrande, which has debts of more than $300 billion, is hardly out of the woods. The grace period on a missed $45.2 million coupon is set to expire Oct. 29 and another $14.25 million coupon payment is due the next day.

The developer failed to pay $148.1 million in coupons on three bonds on Oct. 11, starting another 30-day countdown.

The company has a further $573 million of coupon payments due this year and faces $7.7 billion in bond maturities next year

Evergrande did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

The company, which is fast running out of cash, had hoped to get past the latest crisis by selling assets, attracting investors and boosting sales.

It has so far failed on all three counts and has missed payments to banks, retail creditors, contractors and suppliers, which has led to the suspension of more than half its 800 ongoing development projects, though it has kept current on payments due on bonds issued by its main domestic operating unit, Hengda Real Estate.

Its bonds are trading at about 20 cents on the dollar and the company's shares have lost four-fifths of their value this year. Evergrande shares rose 4.3% to HK$2.69 on Friday.

The company on Wednesday revealed that plans had collapsed to sell a majority stake in its property management unit for $2.6 billion to rival Hopson Development.

Hopson, however, has contested Evergrande's account of the talks. In a statement Thursday, it said it considered the two companies' sale agreement remains binding based on legal advice it received, insisting that the main reason the deal had not moved forward was Evergrande's attempt to redirect payment directly to its accounts, contrary to what had been earlier agreed.

Other asset sales, including the sale of Evergrande's Hong Kong offices, have also failed to come to fruition.

Contracted sales, a key source of liquidity, plunged to 3.65 billion yuan ($571 million) in the Sept. 1-Oct. 20 period, the company said Wednesday. That compared with over 142 billion yuan in sales in the same period last year.

Chinese authorities have refused to bail out the developer, proclaiming instead that spillover risks can be contained.

Vice Premier Liu He told a Beijing forum on Wednesday that Evergrande risks are controllable and that reasonable capital demands from property companies are being met, according to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency. Last week, People's Bank of China Gov. Yi Gang expressed similar views.

Evergrande's woes, and missed payments by smaller rivals, have sparked fears of contagion across the $50 trillion Chinese financial system in recent weeks.

S&P Global Ratings last month estimated that developers it rates are due to redeem 480 billion yuan in domestic and offshore bonds over the next year, equal to almost a fourth of their free cash reserves. The first big slug of maturities is set to come in January, with some $6.2 billion in offshore bonds due for repayment, according to brokerage CGS-CIMB.

Smaller developers Sinic Holdings and Fantasia Holdings Group have already defaulted, while a few others are struggling to repay.

Nikkei Asia