China Evergrande Seeks Backing for Planned Rejig by March

Lawyers for China Evergrande said on Monday the debt-laden developer wants support from its creditors for its restructuring proposals by the end of February.

Evergrande, which was once China’s top developer, is now at the centre of China’s prolonged property sector crisis.

Its $22.7 billion worth of offshore debt, including loans and private bonds, is deemed to be in default after missed payments late last year.

With few fresh funding options and slowing property sales, Evergrande, which had $300 billion in total liabilities, began one of China’s biggest debt-restructuring processes this year.

Evergrande expects to firm up debt restructuring proposals by end-February or early-March, lawyers for the developer told a Hong Kong court, which adjourned a winding-up lawsuit against the developer to March 20, 2023.

Reports earlier this month said that Evergrande would sign non-disclosure pacts with bondholders in November to prepare for talks in December, with terms to be finalised early next year, a source revealed.

An investor in online real estate and automobile marketplace Fangchebao (FCB), an Evergrande unit, filed the winding-up petition in Hong Kong in June because the developer had not honoured a pact to repurchase the shares the investor bought in FCB.

Evergrande and its major offshore credit group have opposed to the winding-up petition, saying the developer was actively pushing forward with the offshore debt restructuring work in the interest of all creditors.