Country Garden's offshore bondholders pick Kirkland for debt revamp talks - source

Houlihan Lokey

22/01/2024 09:07

HONG KONG, Jan 22 (Reuters)PROPERTY/DEBT-COUNTRYGARDEN -
A major group of Country Garden  2007.HK  offshore creditors has
appointed Kirkland & Ellis LLP as the legal adviser, a source
familiar with the matter said, in a move towards discussing debt
repayment options with the defaulted Chinese developer.
Country Garden has been working on a plan to restructure its $11
billion offshore bonds after it missed a coupon repayment in
October, becoming one of the biggest Chinese developers that
have defaulted on its offshore debt.
The developer's offshore bondholders group, which has hired
Kirkland, had appointed PJT Partners  PJT.N  as a financial
adviser to discuss repayment plans with the company last year,
Reuters reported in October.
    The source declined to be named as the talks were private.
Country Garden and Kirkland did not immediately respond to a
Reuters request for comment.
     Bloomberg reported the appointment of Kirkland earlier on
Monday. The report also said that Country Garden's financial
advisers, Houlihan Lokey Inc and China International Capital
Corp, were no longer working for the developer.
Country Garden last Tuesday said that it had appointed KPMG
Advisory (China) Ltd as its principal financial adviser for its
offshore debt restructuring. The source said Houlihan Lokey had
been replaced by KPMG.
    Houlihan Lokey, CICC and PJT also did not immediately
respond to Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Xie Yu, Editing by Louise Heavens)
((mailto:Yu.Xie@thomsonreuters.com;))