雅虎香港財經 Kaisa Avoids Liquidation for Now But Restructuring Plan Needed
(Bloomberg) -- A Hong Kong court has given Chinese developer Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. seven more weeks to work on its debt restructuring plan in order to avoid being liquidated, but also warned this might be the company’s last chance.
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The amount of debt being restructured amounts to nearly $13 billion, the home builder’s legal representative said at Monday’s hearing. While Kaisa and a key creditor group agreed on a four-week adjournment, Judge Peter Ng decided to give the cash-strapped developer more time, adjourning the winding-up case until Aug. 12.
“So you really have no excuse if there is no progress,” Ng said. “If there’s no progress between now and then, I’m not sure if the company judge is going to grant any further adjournment.”
Kaisa, once a symbol of the boom years in China’s credit markets, has more than $11 billion of dollar securities outstanding, one of the largest debt loads in the industry. The Shenzhen-based builder has been fighting against the wind-up petition for almost a year. It’s yet to publicly present a restructuring plan more than two years after defaulting on its offshore bonds.
Kaisa’s default in late 2021 was among the first signs of spreading woes in China’s property sector woes amid the pandemic, after nationwide steps to curb developer borrowing and speculation by home-buyers led to a string of debt failures. Kaisa had earlier defaulted on its dollar bonds in 2015, the first ever for any Chinese builder, before recovering.
The current winding-up case was first filed by a Singapore-based hedge fund and was later taken over by a key creditor group who held or controlled more than 35% of Kaisa’s $12.3 billion of offshore borrowings, according to an exchange statement from the company dated October.
The two sides had made some progress toward reaching an in-principle agreement, the creditor group’s lawyer had said in an April hearing. Still, no restructuring terms were disclosed in Monday’s court session.
“It’s unlikely” that the creditors will take over majority ownership of the Hong Kong-listed developer, said Tam Lai Ning, who used to serve as Kaisa’s vice chairman and has been involved in the debt discussions.
“Our business is in urban renewal and you need expertise for that,” Tam told Bloomberg outside the court. There are only a few things that both parties need to patch up, he said.
Lawsuits against Chinese defaulted developers have been building up in Hong Kong courts as their debt situation has worsened, despite efforts from the authorities to boost the industry. A liquidation petition against Chinese developer DaFa Properties Group Ltd. also got adjourned Monday morning. Earlier this month, a judge ordered the winding-up of Dexin China Holdings Co.
--With assistance from Yuling Yang.
(Updates to add comment from company representative in eight and ninth paragraphs)
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