China

China Aoyuan Group Ltd. was downgraded to restricted default by Fitch Ratings two days after the Chinese developer flagged its intention to renege on debt obligations, Bloomberg News reported. Aoyuan hasn’t provided further information to the rating agency beyond its announcement that it won’t make payments on four dollar bonds, which would trigger defaults on all other offshore debt, Fitch said in a statement Friday. Earlier in the day, Moody’s also withdrew its ratings on the builder citing insufficient information.

Country Garden Holdings Co. is raising HK$3.9 billion ($500 million) from the sale of convertible bonds, a show of strength by the embattled property giant after a report last week that it was struggling to issue debt, Bloomberg News reported. The fundraising announcement from China’s largest developer by sales helped boost its dollar bonds on Friday, extending a massive rally that saw its 2024 note rise to 94 cents on the dollar from Monday’s record closing low of 70 cents, according to Bloomberg-compiled prices.

An ad hoc offshore creditors group of China Evergrande said on Thursday that it has had no substantive engagement with the firm over its restructuring plans despite the firm's repeated assurances, Reuters reported. The group, represented by law firm Kirkland & Ellis and investment bank Moelis & Company, said in a statement it has no option but to seriously consider enforcement actions and it is prepared to take all necessary actions to defend its legal rights.

China Aoyuan Group Ltd. won’t make payments on four dollar bonds and said that will trigger defaults on all other offshore debt, becoming the latest Chinese developer to succumb to the industry’s liquidity crisis, Bloomberg News reported. The company won’t pay off a dollar note that matures Thursday or a separate bond due Sunday, it said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing late Wednesday. The notes have a combined $688 million of principal outstanding, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

China is drafting nationwide rules to make it easier for property developers to access funds from sales still held in escrow accounts in its latest move to ease a severe cash crunch in the sector, Reuters reported. Regulatory curbs on borrowing have driven the sector into crisis, highlighted by China Evergrande Group, which was once China's top-selling developer but is now the world's most indebted property firm with liabilities of $300 billion.

China’s economy slowed markedly in the final months of last year as government measures to limit real estate speculation hurt other sectors as well, the New York Times reported. Lockdowns and travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus also dented consumer spending. Stringent regulations on everything from internet businesses to after-school tutoring companies have set off a wave of layoffs. China’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday that economic output from October through December was only 4 percent higher than during the same period a year earlier.

China’s central bank pledged to use more monetary policy tools to spur the economy and ease credit stress as signs of a property market slump worsens, Bloomberg News reported. The People’s Bank of China will “open monetary policy tool box wider, maintain stable overall money supply and avoid a collapse in credit,” Deputy Governor Liu Guoqiang said Tuesday at a briefing in Beijing. The central bank will roll out more policies to stabilize economic growth, front-load actions and make preemptive moves, he said.

China Cinda Asset Management Co., a state-owned financial institution, is pulling out of a planned large investment in the consumer-finance arm of Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co., dealing a setback to the fintech giant’s lending-business revamp, the Wall Street Journal reported. Beijing-based Cinda, which is one of the country’s four big bad-debt managers, said Thursday that its board of directors made the decision to back out “after further prudent commercial consideration and negotiation” with the recently established Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co. It didn’t provide more details.

If last week's developments at China's most indebted property developer are anything to go by, 2022 might see Beijing soften its attempts to purge the sector and make more allowances for economic stability, Reuters reported. China Evergrande Group, whose rocky financial situation has roiled Chinese property firms and global financial markets over the past year, got a reprieve this week after investors agreed to extend a payment date on a yuan bond.

China Evergrande Group on Thursday secured a crucial approval from onshore bondholders to delay payments on one of its bonds, as other cash-strapped developers also scrambled to negotiate new terms with creditors to avoid defaults, Reuters reported. Struggling with more than $300 billion in liabilities, sector giant Evergrande was seeking more time for bond coupon and redemption payments to avoid a technical default that would have complicated its politically sensitive restructuring.