Chinese Evergrande bondholders receive overdue bond coupon payments

By Anshuman Daga and Clare Jim

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Several bondholders in China’s Evergrande Group have received coupon payments from a borrowed real estate developer, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, easing concerns about a destabilizing default.

Chinese media Cailianshe earlier reported that several bondholders had received interest payments on three bond shares worth more than $ 148 million last month, but that they had a grace period that ended on Wednesday.

He refused to name the source because he was not allowed to speak to the media. Evergrand did not respond to the request for comment.

Evergrande, the world’s luckiest developer, has stumbled in recent weeks with more than $ 300 billion in liabilities in recent weeks, including $ 19 billion in international market bonds.

Failure to pay would result in the company’s formal default and cross-default default provisions for other Evergrande dollar bonds, exacerbating the debt crisis on the world’s second-largest economy.

Shares of Evergrande listed in Hong Kong rose more than 9% in the mid-morning as the last deadline was met.

The company, which also has more than $ 255 million in coupon payments on Dec. 28, has come under pressure from a liquidity crisis that has weighed heavily on the sector and threatened hundreds of projects.

The market is also seeing rival Kaisa Group, which has coupon payments of more than $ 59 million on Thursday and Friday. Kaisa has the largest offshore debt of Chinese developers after Evergrand.

Kaisa, which lost payment for a wealth management product, was downgraded by the S&P from “CCC -” to “CCC +” on Thursday, with a negative outlook, following a similar move by Moody’s (NYSE :).

The rating agency said the liquidity of the Fund seems to have been exhausted, and expects the default situation to be unavoidable in the next six months.

China’s goods problems have shaken global markets since September, and while Beijing has made efforts to calm markets, the crisis would not be left out of control.

Regulators and government think tanks have held meetings with developers in recent weeks, and the market hopes to ease some easing in credit and housing policies to prevent the sector from landing.