HONG KONG (Reuters) – Sunac China did not make an interest payment on a $742 million offshore bond by the time a grace period expired and expects it will not make payments on other bonds coming due, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
It had been due to pay $29.5 million in interest on the October 2023 bond that was required to be repaid last month.
Sunac said it had also not made interest payments on three other offshore bonds which are also currently in a grace period of 30 days.
Sunac said the outstanding amount on the October 2023 bond was now $742 million.
“The Group’s contracted sales have continued to decline significantly, while access to new financing has become increasingly difficult with more liquidity issues occurring among certain property developers,” it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
“The Company does not expect that it will make payments under the abovementioned notes and other senior notes issued by it when they become due or within the relevant grace periods,” it said.
The company has hired Houlihan Lokey as financial advisor and Sidley Austin as a legal adviser, it said in the statement.
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christian Schmollinger)
