Future still cloudy for China's first corporate bond default

No clear restructuring plan emerged from a Monday meeting of holders of China’s first corporate bond to default, Bloomberg reported, citing an investor in attendance who also said there had been difficulty in assessing the overseas assets of Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology. The company was responsible for the first onshore bond default in China when it paid just RMB4 million (US$651,000) of an RMB89.8 million coupon due in March on its 2017 bonds. Meanwhile, Financial News, an official publication of People’s Bank of China, asserted in a front-page commentary that regulators would “strengthen monitoring and supervision to solve crises in a timely manner” to prevent large-scale bond defaults.