China Vanke has no plans to extend bonds amid market slump, REDD reports
4:29 am Thursday, January 16th, 2025
(Reuters) -Property developer China Vanke told some investors on Wednesday that it had no plans to extend the maturity dates of its bonds amid a market sell-off, financial news outlet REDD reported, citing two persons briefed by the company on the matter.
Vanke’s onshore bond prices have been volatile in the past few weeks over concerns about its ability to make maturity payments this year following a prolonged property market slump. Its January 2028 yuan bond was temporarily suspended from trading on Thursday after plunging 21%.
The state-backed developer has a total of $3.4 billion worth of public bonds, which are mostly onshore debt except one dollar bond – maturing this year. Its next onshore repayment deadline is Jan. 27.
REDD reported on Thursday that China Vanke briefed investors on the matter after online rumours that it was considering bond extensions.
The property developer, however, did not clarify whether it had prepared funds to repay debt maturing this quarter, REDD reported.
China Vanke said in a statement it will “go all out” to raise funds through operations and financing for the public bond obligations due in 2025. It said it would also continue to accelerate asset sales and exit its non-core businesses for the repayments.
China Vanke highlighted its reliance on operating cash flow and asset sales for funding, with proceeds from several transactions signed last year beginning to materialise, the report said.
Funds from the asset sales will be used to support debt repayments, the report said.
Many highly indebted Chinese developers have kept extending deadlines on onshore repayments to bondholders without formal restructurings, to avoid technical defaults.
(Reporting by John Biju in Bengaluru and Clare Jim in Hong Kong; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Saad Sayeed)
