CHINESE developer Shimao Group on Monday (Mar 25) laid out a new restructuring proposal to repay its offshore debt, joining a slew of property firms in China to try to revamp its debt.

Under the proposal, Shimao intends to restructure all of its debt, amounting to around US$11.7 billion in offshore notes, bonds and other credit facilities.

The new proposal comes after discontent among some creditors with the terms of an earlier plan presented in December after 18 months of negotiations, sources told Reuters.

Shimao has now offered bondholders four options, including repayment through short-term notes, long-term notes, zero-coupon mandatory convertible bonds, and a fixed combination of them.

The short-term notes or loans to offshore creditors would not exceed US$3 billion in amount, Shimao said, whereas the long-term notes or loans would not exceed US$4 billion.

Chinese-Australian billionaire Hui Wing Mau, the founder and controlling shareholder of Shimao has through companies owned by him provided loans in total of HK$3,963 million (S$681.6 million) to Shimao and HK$3,839 million in loans to various units of the Shimao Group.

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Hui will exchange US$600 million of outstanding shareholder loans into new long term notes of the same amount and outstanding shareholder loans less than US$600 million into mandatory convertible bonds.

Shanghai-based Shimao is among the many Chinese developers that have defaulted on offshore bonds. In July 2022, it missed the interest and principal payment for a US$1 billion offshore bond.

After that missed payment, its entire US$11.7 billion worth of offshore debt is in default. REUTERS