A mid-sized Chinese real estate developer has failed to make a $282 million payment due to bondholders, adding to the industry's financial strain as one of China's biggest developers tries to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars of debt.
Fantasia Holdings Group announced it missed the payment in a statement issued through the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
It gave no explanation but said it had asked for trading of Fantasia shares to be suspended.
Some Chinese developers are struggling to repay debt after regulators tightened limits last year on their use of borrowed money.
That is fuelling fears about possible defaults and turmoil in financial markets.
Investors await news on Evergrande
The news comes as investors worry that Evergrande Group might collapse with roughly $400 billion of debt.
Evergrande is one of China's largest property developers, claiming to own more than 1,300 projects in more than 280 cities across China.
In recent weeks, some commentators have pondered whether the collapse of the world's most indebted company will doom the global economy.
Some have even speculated that Evergrande's downfall could be the world's next "Lehman Brothers moment".
On Monday it suspended trading of its shares, pending an announcement in relation to a "major transaction".
The trading suspension came after the company missed two deadlines to pay over $180 million worth of interest to foreign investors in the space of one week.
Investors are still waiting on official news, but reports from China's Cailian Press suggested Hong Kong-listed property developer, Hopson Development, could take a majority stake in Evergrande Property Services.
Economists say Beijing can prevent a broader credit crunch if Evergrande defaults but wants to avoid bailing out the company or its creditors as a warning to other borrowers and lenders to be more disciplined.
Fantasia, valued by the stock market at $570 million, reported a 153 million yuan ($32 million) profit for the first half of 2021 and said revenue rose 18.5 per cent over a year earlier to 10.9 billion yuan ($2.3 billion).
"Fantasia's missed payment highlights its strained liquidity, despite its reported sufficient cash on hand," S&P Global Ratings said in a statement.
Fantasia said it had 27.1 billion yuan ($5.7 billion) in cash as of June 30, according to S&P.
"Asset disposals have been slower than we expected, failing to bring in liquidity sources in time."
The failure to pay is likely to trigger cross defaults on other Fantasia bonds, accelerating repayment on other debt, S&P said.
Hundreds of smaller Chinese developers have gone bankrupt since regulators began tightening control over the industry's financing in 2017 amid concern about rising debt and the possible risk of a financial crisis.
In March, another developer, Fortune Land Development Co said it missed interest and debt payments totaling 5.3 billion yuan ($1.1 billion).
AP/ABC
