Chinese developer Country Garden says it can't meet debt payment deadlines

abcnews.go.com:

Chinese property developer Country Garden has warned it cannot meet deadlines to repay its loans as the company struggles to restructure its debts

HONG KONG — Chinese property developer Country Garden warned Tuesday that it cannot repay on time a 470 million Hong Kong dollar ($60 million) loan in the latest sign of distress after Beijing clamped down on mounting debts in the industry.

The company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it “expects that it will not be able to meet all of its offshore payment obligations when due or within the relevant grace periods,” including U.S. dollar notes the firm has issued.

The company said its sales were under “remarkable pressure.”

Country Garden earlier had been hailed as a model real estate company by Chinese authorities. It had avoided defaults on debt even as rivals such as China Evergrande, the world's most heavily indebted property firm, defaulted in 2021 after the Chinese government began restricting borrowing by developers.

The company’s Hong Kong-traded shares sank 10.7% on Tuesday.

Its liquidity crisis suggests developers remain under pressure even after regulators lifted some controls on housing purchases to alleviate troubles in the industry. That has raised worries that the industry's troubles could shake financial markets or spill into the wider economy. But the crisis has played out very gradually. On Tuesday, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.8%. Evergrande's shares lost 3.6%.

Country Garden recently has received loans from some banks, such as a $50 million loan from China Minsheng Banking Corporation earlier this year, on top of a separate $280 million loan from the Hong Kong unit of the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China in December 2022.