Evergrande avoids default, shares rise 4.3% on HK exchange
Shanghai, China, Oct 22 (EFE).- Shares in the indebted Chinese property giant Evergrande rose 4.3% on the Hong Kong stock exchange Friday following reports that the company had paid off interests on offshore bonds a day before the deadline.
Share value rose 12% compared to trading Thursday, when it was re-listed after a two-week suspension following a failed bid to sell its property management subsidiary Evergrande Property Services to Hopson Development.
Chinese financial newspaper the Securities Times on Friday said Evergrande had managed to pay off $83.5 million in offshore bond interest.
Evergrande was due to pay off the interest on 23 September, after which a 30-day extension was triggered before the company would be officially considered to have defaulted.
Since that date Evergrande has entered into extensions on four other packages of offshore bonds with an overall price tag of approximately $193 million.
One of those, worth $47.5 million, expires next week.
It also has a coupon payment worth $235 million on Sunday.
In the case of onshore bonds, that is, those priced in yuan through Chinese markets such as the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Evergrande has made at least one interest payment and has reached an agreement to pay the amounts owed for another batch.
According to company data, Evergrande has liabilities totaling $300 billion, some $37 billion corresponding to loans due by June 2022. EFE
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