Defaults loom as China stares at 3.7t yuan bond maturities

Hong Kong

CHINESE debt investors are turning bearish at just the wrong time for the nation's corporate borrowers, which face a record 3.7 trillion yuan (S$773 billion) of local bond maturities through year-end.

With this year's biggest note payments concentrated in some of the country's most-cash-strapped industries, China needs buoyant markets to help its companies refinance. Instead, yields in April rose at the fastest pace in more than a year and issuance tumbled 43 per cent as borrowers cancelled 143 billion yuan of planned debt sales.