China

China’s superrich are nervously watching as the Chinese currency weakens against the dollar, The Wall Street Journal reported. Because of the extreme concentration of money at the apex of Chinese society, national stability rests to an extraordinary extent in the hands of just two million or so families. They are the top 1% of urban households, and already, their confidence in China’s future under President Xi Jinping is shaky.

Chinese provincial governments have unveiled ambitious investment plans in recent weeks in a bid to shore up flagging growth, even as the central government in Beijing pledges to reduce the country’s heavy reliance on fixed investment, the Financial Times reported. Economists have warned that excessive and wasteful investment is leading to diminishing financial returns in China as well as rising debt and environmental degradation.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. is seeking to expedite a debt restructuring as the troubled developer said it faces as much as 35.5 billion yuan ($5.7 billion) of repayments to creditors this year, Bloomberg News reported. An initial meeting with onshore lenders has been scheduled for today, Kaisa, which is being acquired by Sunac China Holdings Ltd., said in a Hong Kong exchange filing on Monday. Kaisa said it’s aiming to reach an agreement with its offshore creditors by the end of March and expects to complete the restructuring the following month.

Offshore bond investors of Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. are becoming increasingly concerned about the risk the troubled Chinese developer embroiled in an anti-graft investigation could miss coupon payments next month, Bloomberg News reported. Kaisa must pay $16.1 million of interest March 18 on its $250 million of bonds due 2017, and $35.5 million March 19 on its $800 million securities due 2018, Bloomberg-compiled data show. It avoided a default last Friday by making an interest payment of $23 million on its 2020 notes before the grace period deadline.

The idea that China can borrow indefinitely in order to prop up growth simply doesn't wash, Bloomberg View reported in an analysis. In a new report on the world's growing debt glut, McKinsey highlights three huge risks: unsustainably high government borrowing, households in over their heads and China. The mainland earns its singular position because of another trio of concerns: too much debt concentrated in real estate; the scale and complexity of its shadow-banking entities; and rampant off-balance sheet borrowing by local governments.

China’s tax officials plan to step up efforts to collect taxes from multinational corporation in the latest of a series of moves in the last year, mostly against Western companies. The activities have included police raids on the headquarters of companies’ China operations and heavy fines under antimonopoly law, the International New York Times reported. The State Administration of Taxation said that it would be looking in detail at how companies move money and allocate costs among their Chinese operations and their overseas businesses.

Beijing may have decided the slowing economy doesn’t require a nationwide stimulus campaign as yet, but that doesn’t mean individual provinces aren’t trying anyway, The Wall Street Journal China Real Time Report blog reported. According to data published by the People’s Bank of China on Tuesday, total social financing – the central bank’s broad measure of total outstanding credit in the economy – in chilly northeastern Heilongjiang province rose by 110.9 billion yuan ($18.1 billion) between the end of September and the end of the December.

The property developer Kaisa Group said on Monday that its chief executive had resigned — another blow to the embattled company that may become the first Chinese home developer to default on foreign bonds, the International New York Times reported. The company said its chief, Jin Zhigang, had stepped down “to devote more time to his personal career development” and would continue as executive director. It added that there had been no disagreement with the board.

Embattled Chinese property developer Kaisa Group, which sold some of its Shanghai assets at the weekend, said on Monday its chief executive officer has resigned, Reuters reported. The company said in a stock exchange notice that Jin Zhigang had quit "to devote more time to his personal career development" and would continue as executive director. It added that there had been no disagreement with the board.

Bonds of troubled China property developer Kaisa Group jumped by as much as four points after rival Sunac China Holdings, which has been named in media reports as a potential buyer of its assets, announced a trading suspension, Reuters reported. Kaisa is struggling after a string of senior executives left unexpectedly, authorities blocked sales at some of its projects in Shenzhen late last year and it missed a coupon payment on one of its bonds. Since these troubles began last month, Kaisa's bonds have lost as much as two-thirds of their value.