The clock is ticking for Country Garden Holdings Co. to avert its first-ever public dollar bond default, as the distressed Chinese developer faces the imminent end to a deadline for interest payment.
The builder, which has become a symbol of China’s broader property debt crisis, missed the original deadline for the $15.4 million coupon on the note last month. The bond carries a so-called 30-day grace period that ends Oct. 17-18, before a default can be called.
Country Garden has until now managed to dodge its first major public bond payment failure and succeeded in rescheduling local debt in recent months. It said in a stock exchange filing last week that it has not made a due payment totaling HK$470 million “under certain of its indebtedness”, without specifying.