Tag: Real Estate and Housing (Residential)

China Evergrande Makes Payment to Dodge Default, Media Says

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG — China Evergrande, the troubled property giant that is teetering on the edge of collapse, appears to have bought itself a little more time. On Friday, the world’s most indebted property developer made an $83.5 million interest payment to bondholders, according to Securities Times, an official newspaper. The outlet, which is backed by People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, didn’t offer further details. The payment came with just one day left on a 30-day grace period to avoid a default. The company gripped global financial markets a…

China Evergrande Gets Soft Treatment in Chinese Media

Chin@Strategy

As China Evergrande Group teeters on the edge of collapse, videos of protesting home buyers have flooded social media. Online government message boards teem with complaints and pleas for intervention to save the huge property developer. The hashtag “What does Evergrande mean for the real estate market?” has been viewed more than 160 million times on one platform. But if trouble threatens for China’s economy, you wouldn’t know it from reading the country’s front pages. The name “Evergrande” has barely been mentioned by top state-run news outlets in recent weeks,…

China’s GDP Growth Slows as Property and Energy Take a Toll

Chin@Strategy

Volkswagen, the market leader in China, said on Friday that its production had been falling as the company faced an ever-worsening chip shortage and other supply chain issues. The company doesn’t have enough cars to fill customers’ and dealerships’ orders, creating a backlog. “Our priority is to work off our backlog,” said Stephan Wöllenstein, the chief executive of Volkswagen’s China division. Finding Strength in Exports For months, economists have made the same prediction: The fast growth of China’s exports cannot last. The economists were wrong. China’s exports kept surging through…

Another Chinese real estate developer misses a payment.

Chin@Strategy

A Chinese real estate developer missed a key payment to foreign bondholders this week, heightening the persistent fears of a coming crisis in China’s real estate sector. The developer, Fantasia Holdings Group, a company specializing in luxury properties that was founded by the niece of Zeng Qinghong, a former vice president, said on Monday night that it had failed to make a final payment of $206 million. The disclosure surprised investors already on edge after two missed payments from China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted developer. Jittery investors sold…

China Evergrande’s Shares Are Halted as Doubts Swirl

Chin@Strategy

Shares of China Evergrande were halted on Hong Kong’s stock exchange on Monday pending a deal, as doubts swirled over whether the struggling property giant would be able to meet its immense financial obligations. Evergrande said in a filing that its shares were halted ahead of an announcement about a “major transaction.” It gave no additional details. The real estate developer — once China’s most prolific — has been under close watch by foreign investors and local regulators after it missed two important interest payments on U.S. dollar bonds. The…

Evergrande’s Struggles Offer a Glimpse of China’s New Financial Future

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG — Xu Jiayin was China’s richest man, a symbol of the country’s economic rise who helped transform poverty-stricken villages into urbanized metropolises for the fledgling middle class. As his company, China Evergrande Group, became one of the country’s largest property developers, he amassed the trappings of the elite, with trips to Paris to taste rare French wines, a million-dollar yacht, private jets and access to some of the most powerful people in Beijing. “All I have and all that Evergrande Group has achieved were endowed by the party,…

What Would an Evergrande Default Look Like?

Chin@Strategy

Shares of China Evergrande, the troubled real estate giant whose fate has contributed to jitters in global markets, fell again on Tuesday amid a new prediction that it would soon default. The company’s chairman, Xu Jiayin, told employees in a letter quoted in Chinese media that Evergrande would surmount its problems, which include $300 billion in debt, plunging sales of apartments and a payment due Thursday. “I firmly believe that Evergrande will walk out of its darkest moment and resume full-speed work and production,” he said in the letter, which…

Evergrande Gave Workers a Choice: Loan Us Cash or Lose Your Bonus

Chin@Strategy

When the troubled Chinese property giant Evergrande was starved for cash earlier this year, it turned to its own employees with a strong-arm pitch: Those who wanted to keep their bonuses would have to give Evergrande a short-term loan. Some workers tapped their friends and family for money to lend to the company. Others borrowed from the bank. Then, this month, Evergrande suddenly stopped paying back the loans, which had been packaged as high-interest investments. Now, hundreds of employees have joined panicked home buyers in demanding their money back from…

China Evergrande Warns of Financial Pressure, Hires Advisers

Chin@Strategy

China Evergrande, the troubled property giant that has become a symbol of debt and excess in the world’s second-largest economy, said on Tuesday that it faced “tremendous” financial pressure and had hired restructuring experts to “explore all feasible solutions” for its future. The company’s fate, however, remains unclear, as it struggles in a country where business troubles often attract the direct attention — and the direct meddling — of Beijing. Evergrande’s admission that its finances have taken a sharp turn sent its already battered shares down by 12 percent on…

Why Evergrande’s Debt Problems Threaten China

Chin@Strategy

Every once in a while a company grows so big and messy that governments fear what would happen to the broader economy if it were to fail. In China, Evergrande, a sprawling real estate developer, is that company. Evergrande has the distinction of being the world’s most debt-saddled property developer and has been on life support for months. A steady drumbeat of bad news in the recent weeks has accelerated what many experts warn is inevitable: failure. The ratings agency Fitch said this week that default “appears probable.” Moody’s, another…