China’s Country Garden Sells Stock to Pay Debts

By John Mercury August 31, 2023

As of 2022, Country Garden had roughly $190 billion in liabilities. Over the last few years, several dozen Chinese property developers, including some of the sector’s biggest names, have defaulted under the weight of debt built up over years of excessive borrowing.

Country Garden had managed to avoid that fate, but a sharp downturn in sales starting a few months ago exacerbated its financial problems. In addition to the missed interest payments, the company is negotiating with creditors to delay repayment of a Chinese bond, due later this week, until 2026.

It said it still owed the Kingboard Holdings subsidiary around $200 million, to be paid in installments, with the final payment due in December. The new shares in Country Garden represent 1.27 percent of the company’s existing shares.

Later on Wednesday, the company is expected to post results for the first six months of 2023. It warned earlier this month that it expected to post a loss of between $6.2 billion and $7.5 billion for those months, citing an “unprecedented difficult period” for China’s property industry.

Shares in the company have fallen 67 percent this year.

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