Country Garden bondholders approve delays on yuan bond payments

COUNTRY Garden Holdings has won bondholders’ approval to push back payments on its nine yuan bonds by six months, according to people familiar with the matter, giving the developer more time to map out an onshore debt overhaul.

Bondholders approved a payment extension on Country Garden’s 4.5 per cent note due 2026 late on Wednesday (Sep 26) after its main onshore unit delayed the voting deadline multiple times. Payment delays on eight other bonds were granted earlier this month, the people said, citing private conversations.

Country Garden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The payment delays offer Country Garden some breathing room as its seeks to draw up a fresh holistic restructuring plan. But onshore bondholders will now have to wait longer to recoup part of their losses from the defaulted developer.

Country Garden sought the six-month extensions after failing to secure enough cash to repay principal and interest on the yuan notes.

Three of the bonds that were granted delays had already gotten extensions twice before, including a 4.8 per cent note, a 6.3 per cent note and another 4.8 per cent bond.

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Once China’s biggest developer by sales, Country Garden has seen a sharper slowdown than its peers during the nation’s housing slump, due to its focus on projects in smaller cities. Its contracted sales plunged 78 per cent in the first eight months of the year, more than double the slide seen at the nation’s 100 biggest property firms.

Offshore, Country Garden won a six-month respite for separate restructuring talks in July, when a liquidation hearing in Hong Kong was adjourned until late January. The company said at the time that it expected key creditor groups to agree on a debt term sheet by the end of September. Country Garden defaulted on its US dollar debt in October last year. BLOOMBERG