Deadline looms for Evergrande payment amid contagion fears

The uncertainty ahead of Wednesday’s deadline for cash-strapped China Evergrande Group to make an offshore bond coupon payment is set to add to concerns about a deepening liquidity crisis in the Chinese property sector.

Evergrande, the world’s most indebted developer, has been stumbling from deadline to deadline in recent weeks as it grapples with more than $300bn in liabilities, $19bn of which are international market bonds.

Another overdue $148m bond payment must be made on Wednesday, and it has coupon payments totalling more than $255m on its June 2023 and 2025 bonds on December 28.

Beijing has been prodding government-owned firms and state-backed property developers to buy some of Evergrande’s assets to try to control the fall.

Worries over the potential fallout from Evergrande roiled China’s property sector on Tuesday, slamming the bonds of real estate companies amid worries that the crisis could spread to other markets.

The slides in bond prices came just hours after the United States Federal Reserve warned that China’s troubled property sector could pose global risks.

China’s property woes rattled global markets in September and October. There was a brief lull in mid-October after Beijing tried to reassure markets the crisis would not be allowed to spiral out of control, but concerns have resurfaced.