China Evergrande Shares Tumble for Second Day after Unit Misses Bond Payment

Reuters

14:11 JST, September 26, 2023

HONG KONG, Sept 26 (Reuters) – China Evergrande Group shares slid for a second consecutive session on Tuesday, dropping as much as 8% after a unit of the embattled property developer missed an onshore bond repayment.

Evergrande’s main domestic unit, Hengda Real Estate Group, said in a Shenzhen stock exchange filing late on Monday it had failed to pay the principal and interest for a 4 billion yuan ($547 million) bond that was due by Sept. 25.

The news comes after Evergrande said on the weekend that it was unable to issue new debt due to an ongoing investigation into Hengda, sending Evergrande’s share price plunging 22% on Monday.

Hengda said it will actively negotiate with bondholders in a bid to reach a solution as soon as possible while working to resolve the debt risks and to safeguard creditors’ rights and interests.

The missed payment is the latest setback to hit Evergrande, which has lurched from one crisis to another since its financial woes became public in 2021 and it defaulted on its offshore debt obligations later that year.

Evergrande has been seeking creditors’ approval for its proposals to restructure offshore debt worth $31.7 billion that includes bonds, collateral, and repurchase obligations.

Under the plan unveiled in March this year, Evergrande proposed various options to offshore creditors, including swapping some of their debt holdings into new notes with maturities of 10 to 12 years.

($1 = 7.3102 yuan)