Building default fears pummel Chinese property firms (updated)

Greenland Hong Kong Holdings

08/10/2021 14:33

(Adds details on Evergrande bondholder call, Fantasia
restructuring plans, R&F downgrade by S&P)
    By Marc Jones
    LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Chinese property firms watched
their bonds take another beating on Friday as the prospect of a
wave of defaults in the sector in the wake of China Evergrande's
troubles continued to scare off investors.
    Among a frenzy of developments, advisers for Evergrande
 3333.HK  bondholders said they had still not heard from the
company following its recent missed bond payments.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2R406Z
    Smaller rival Fantasia  1777.HK  appointed advisors after it
shocked markets by also missing a payment this week, while both
R&F Properties and Xinyuan suffered credit rating downgrades,
the latter after it had asked to push back one of its own
payments.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2R31AT
    A dollar-denominated bond issued by Greenland Holdings
 0337.HK , which has built some of the world's tallest
residential towers including in Sydney, London, New York and Los
Angeles, dropped 10 cents to almost half its face value.
 XS201676843=1M 
    Kaisa Group, which was the first Chinese property developer
to default back in 2015, saw one of its bonds suffer a 9 cent
slump  XS207824798=1M , while R&F  XS212517208=1M  and Central
China Real Estate  XS203719051=1M  bonds were also widely sold. 
    Most of Evergrande and Fantasia's outstanding bonds are
already trading around just 20% of their face value.
    The bond that Fantasia failed to repay this week had
previously been changing hands close to par as the firm had said
only two weeks earlier that its cashflow was fine.
    It said on Friday it was trying to find a solution "as soon
as possible".  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2R01N3 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2QM0L3
    Fitch was the latest credit rating agency to downgrade
debt-saddled Xinyuan Real Estate  XIN.N , after it announced a
plan to swap and extend a bond payment deadline due next week.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2R31AP
    The agency said it considered the move "a distressed debt
exchange", adding the replacement bond would also give buyers
less protection if the company defaulted in the future.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFIT1qfJ4d
    S&P meanwhile cut R&F Properties' rating to a deep-into-junk
 'B-'. As well as China, it has super-sized projects under
development in global cities like London, Toronto and Melbourne.
    "R&F's capacity to handle its near-term debt maturities will
hinge on the execution of sizable asset sales, in our opinion,"
S&P said. 
    
     
($1 = 0.1552 Chinese yuan renminbi)

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Chinese property sector firms see bonds slump in wake of
Evergrande crisis    https://tmsnrt.rs/3mD4CMK
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 (Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Tom Arnold, Kirsten
Donovan)
 ((marc.jones@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)20 7513 4042; Reuters
Messaging: marc.jones.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net  Twitter
@marcjonesrtrs))