Country Garden shares surge 11% in resumed trade after nine-month halt

SHARES of China’s embattled Country Garden jumped as much as 11 per cent in resumed trade on Tuesday following a more than nine-month trading suspension to give time for the developer to prepare delayed financial statements for 2023 and 2024.

On Monday, a lawyer for Country Garden, once China’s biggest developer, told a Hong Kong court the company expects to reach terms with creditors next month regarding the restructuring of US$16.4 billion in offshore debt.

The stock had been suspended from trading since April 2 pending the publication of its 2023 full-year and 2024 interim financial reports after it defaulted on US$11 billion of offshore bonds in late 2023.

That default deepened a debt crisis in an economically crucial property sector that had seen defaults by major peers including China Evergrande Group.

Guangdong province-based Country Garden has now been granted an adjournment until May 26 in a court hearing held to gauge the extent to which its debt restructuring is proceeding ahead of a decision on a liquidation petition.

Shares of Country Garden, one of the country’s top developers during the boom years, were up 11 per cent in early trade on Tuesday at HK$0.54, compared with its last trading price of HK$0.485 before the suspension in April. REUTERS