Heavily-indebted property developer China Evergrande Group has reportedly made some payments on three of its US dollar bonds that were nearing a coupon payment deadline on Wednesday, reports Reuters. According to a Bloomberg report, customers of international clearing firm Clearstream received overdue payments on three US dollar bonds, quoting a spokesperson for Clearstream and citing bondholders of two of the bonds saying they received payments.
Shenzhen-based Evergrande has been stumbling from deadline to deadline in recent weeks as it grapples with more than $300 billion in liabilities, $19 billion of which are international market bonds.
The company has not defaulted on any of its offshore debt obligations. But a 30-day grace period on coupon payments of more than $148 million on its April 2022, 2023 and 2024 bonds ends on Wednesday. A failure to pay would result in a formal default by the company and trigger cross-default provisions for other Evergrande dollar bonds, exacerbating a debt crisis looming over the world’s second-largest economy.