Evergrande no longer tops the list of concerns for investors in Chinese real estate. Kaisa Group’s shares were suspended on Friday, after an affiliate of the Shenzhen-based developer missed an interest payment. This provides another signal of the rapidly worsening local property debt crisis.
The developer’s missed payments should worry the market more than the defaults last month by smaller peers including Fantasia, Sinic and Modern Land. Kaisa has more offshore debt than any local developer other than Evergrande. Of Kaisa’s roughly $11bn in dollar bonds, about a third come due in the next 12 months.
It helps that Kaisa’s assets sit mostly in prime locations such as Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Its reported plans to sell off real estate projects and its property management unit Kaisa Prosperity would help it cover the most urgent debt repayments, including the $400m due next month.