China’s largest private developer has confirmed what investors had been dreading. Country Garden is headed towards a default and has hired legal advisers to help it deal with the consequences. Now, it is not just China’s household wealth and jobs that are at stake. Shockwaves from the Chinese real estate crisis will ripple through Asian markets.
Country Garden is unable to pay $60mn that is coming due. Grace periods for the payments run out in the coming weeks. The developer has about $200bn in liabilities. About $10bn is dollar-denominated debt.
As a result, any restructuring would be of a historic size. There is little hope this would make much difference for creditors. Country Garden’s dollar bonds trade at about 5 cents on the dollar. That is in line with what creditors of other defaulted peers are expected to receive in the case of liquidation.