China

Chinese creditors have sued China Evergrande Group for more than $13 billion in allegedly overdue payments, according to a report. A Chinese court assigned to handle civil lawsuits against Evergrande accepted 367 cases, with claims totaling 84 billion yuan ($13.2 billion), the Financial Times reported, citing official records.

Chinese property stocks sank to a nearly five-year low after a deal between two units of Shimao Group Holdings Ltd. heightened corporate governance concerns in an industry already grappling with a liquidity crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Shares of Shimao Group and its property-services unit both tumbled by the most ever on Tuesday, while a Bloomberg index of property stocks dropped 4.3% to the lowest level since February 2017.

China should lower interest rates and boost infrastructure investment to ensure the economy will grow by at least 5% next year, according to an influential Chinese think tank, Bloomberg News reported. Authorities need to boost domestic demand, including consumption and investment, to counter the property slump and any slowdown in exports, Zhang Bin and Zhu He, research fellows at China Finance 40 Forum, wrote in an article Monday.

A wave of selling swept through Chinese developers’ bonds and shares after the sudden plunge in a major property firm’s notes renewed concern over the health of the sector, Bloomberg News reported. Shimao Group Holdings Ltd.’s dollar notes dropped as much as 12 cents on the dollar, with the selloff spreading to other company bonds including Sunac China Holdings Ltd. and KWG Group Holdings Ltd. Trading was halted in six of Shimao’s yuan bonds after they plunged, with one falling more than 50%.

Economists predict China will start adding fiscal stimulus in early 2022 after the country’s top officials said their key goals for the coming year include counteracting growth pressures and stabilizing the economy, Bloomberg News reported. Curbs on the property industry are expected to remain, while there could be fewer regulatory surprises compared with sudden moves in 2021 to rein in sectors from technology to education and entertainment, the economists said.

The defaults and slow-moving crises of companies in China’s property sector isn’t just hurting bond-holders and people waiting for their apartments - thousands of small suppliers of everything from tiles to cleaning services are waiting to get paid by the likes of China Evergrande Group, Bloomberg News reported. Feng Guoxun’s company is one such supplier. The 36-year-old says his advertising company is owed $200,000 by property developers including Evergrande, with those unpaid debts pushing him to the brink of bankruptcy.

For weeks, global markets have been watching the struggles of China Evergrande, a teetering real estate giant weighed down by $300 billion or more in obligations that just barely seemed able to make its required payments to global investors. On Thursday, three days after a deadline passed leaving bondholders with nothing but silence from the company, a major credit ratings firm declared that Evergrande was in default, the New York Times reported. Instead of resolving questions about the fate of the Chinese behemoth, the announcement only deepened them.

China’s central bank is trying to restrain the rise of the yuan after the currency hit a 2 1/2-year high against the dollar, the Associated Press reported. Commercial banks were ordered Thursday to increase the amount of their foreign currency deposits that are held as reserves for the second time this year. That reduces the amount available for trading, making it easier for Beijing to manage the exchange rate. The People’s Bank of China is trying to make the yuan’s state-set exchange rate more flexible and market-oriented but has intervened over the past year to restrain its rise.

A group of Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. bondholders is close to signing non-disclosure agreements with the developer in a move that would pave the way for discussions around a potential financing deal for the beleaguered firm, Bloomberg News reported. The creditor group is being advised by Lazard Ltd. An announcement about the agreements could come as early as Thursday morning in Hong Kong, one of the people said. Lazard is seeking more bondholders to join the group. The signing of NDAs is a crucial step as it would allow creditors to access data and information they haven’t yet seen.

HNA Group Co. has officially handed over control of its core airline operations to Liaoning Fangda Group Industrial Co., marking the end of an era for the Chinese conglomerate as it continues to restructure one of the country’s biggest piles of corporate debt, Bloomberg News reported. Gu Gang, head of a government taskforce in charge of HNA’s restructuring, will no longer serve as the group’s leading secretary for the Communist Party after the key handover of Hainan Airlines Holding Co., the company said in a statement on social media Wednesday.