China Evergrande‘s bondholders have dismissed a plan to delay payment for a 4.5 billion yuan ($671 million) bond, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Evergrande said it is in negotiations with bondholders to reach a deal as soon as possible, its statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange showed.
The troubled real estate developer had last week said it is checking to see if offshore creditors will back its plan to fight a lawsuit in Hong Kong aimed at liquidating the group.
Evergrande, which has been working on a debt restructuring plan, wants creditors, who are owed nearly $23 billion in offshore debt, to help it fight a petition to wind up the company when the lawsuit goes to court on August 31, according to a source.
The world’s most indebted developer has in the past proposed paying foreign creditors owed about $19bn staggered cash instalments or equity in its services unit or its EV unit.
Evergrande is reeling under more than $300 billion in liabilities and has become the poster child of the country’s property sector crisis as it lurched from one missed payment deadline to another.
Last week, Top Shine Global Ltd, an investor in Evergrande unit Fangchebao, said it had filed a winding-up petition against the developer as it had not honoured a pact to repurchase shares from Top Shine in Fangchebao.
The developer has said it would “vigorously” oppose the petition, and that the lawsuit would not impact its offshore debt restructuring plan, expected to land by end of this month.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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