Developer Kaisa faces winding up lawsuit

A Singapore hedge fund has filed a petition in Hong Kong to wind up defaulted developer Kaisa, marking one of the first cases dealing with a Chinese developer’s mainland debt following a property sector meltdown in the country, reports the Financial Times. The court filing by hedge fund Broad Peak Investment Advisers in Hong Kong comes during a liquidity crunch for Chinese property developers. The sector’s collapse has dragged on China’s economy, which is teetering on the brink of deflation.

A number of Hong Kong-listed Chinese developers including Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, are battling winding-up petitions in Hong Kong. But while most other petitions involve offshore dollar-denominated debt, Broad Peak’s petition concerns the non-payment of RMB 170 million ($24 million) in onshore bonds.

“It’s definitely interesting,” said Nicholas Chen, an analyst at CreditSights in Singapore. “[It shows] the kind of impatience and frustration that even onshore creditors are having with some of these developers’ restructuring or lack thereof.”