Distressed Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co. has gotten approval from creditors to extend repayment on six yuan bonds by three years, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The country’s former largest builder had been asking to stretch principal payments of eight yuan notes by three years, just days after it dodged a default on dollar securities at the last minute. The yuan bondholders started voting Sept. 7 and were due to finish by 10:00pm Beijing-time Monday Sept. 11. The outstanding principal of the securities totals 10.8 billion yuan .
The voting deadline for those two securities was delayed to Tuesday night from Monday, according to holders of the bonds. The securities were a note originally due in October and issued by unit Giant Leap, and a bond issued by Country Garden Real Estate that’s puttable in November.One key focus has been a 1.435 billion yuan note with a put option Sept. 14. Country Garden had to win approval to extend it, or risk the chance that holders could demand early repayment Thursday.
The firm has so far avoided defaulting but recently warned it still could, after posting a record first-half loss of almost $7 billion. Credit traders are treating that risk seriously, indicating the developer’s dollar bonds at deeply distressed levels of 9 to 14 cents. And it’s navigated other recent deadlines beyond the interest on the dollar bonds. It gained approval in a separate creditor vote that ended earlier this month to extend payments into 2026 on a local bond with 3.9 billion yuan of outstanding principal. The builder also wired a 2.85 million ringgit coupon coming due on a bond in the Malaysian currency.