Country Garden wins bond extension in relief for China's property sector
By Xie Yu, Kevin Huang and Li Gu
HONG KONG/BEJING (Reuters) -Country Garden has won approval from its creditors to extend payments for an onshore private bond, according to sources and a document seen by Reuters, in a major relief for the embattled Chinese developer as well as the crisis-hit property sector.
Country Garden was seeking approval from its creditors to extend the maturity on a 3.9 billion yuan ($540 million) onshore private bond in a vote that ended on Friday night.
An unprecedented liquidity crisis in China's vast property sector is a major risk to a sputtering post-COVID recovery in the world's second-biggest economy, which has rattled global markets.
Country Garden debt payment extension buys time for China's largest private developer to avoid default, and is good news for financial markets and the Chinese government, which has announced a raft of measures to support the property sector.
The extension means the developer can repay the debt in instalments over three years, instead of meeting its obligations by Saturday. The bond is not publicly traded.
In Friday's vote, 56.08% of participating Country Garden onshore creditors approved the extension, 43.64% opposed and 0.28% abstained, an official document shared with bondholders showed.
Country Garden did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The sources, who have direct knowledge of the matter, asked not to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
China's property sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the economy, has lurched from one crisis to another since 2021 after the authorities cracked down on developers' debt-fuelled building boom.
As Country Garden's financial woes spiralled over the past month, Beijing
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