Another of China’s struggling property developers, Sunac China Holdings, has missed its first dollar bond payment after questions over the company’s financial status were raised last year, reports Bloomberg. Bondholders hadn’t received payment for a coupon initially due Monday, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak about it.
Sunac has a 30-day grace period to make payment and avoid triggering an event of default, according to the bond’s offering circular. The note on which payment hasn’t occurred fell 5.1 cents on the dollar to 26.1 cents Tuesday, on pace for the biggest drop in four weeks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Once viewed as one of the survivors of Beijing’s sweeping clampdown on the embattled real estate sector, Sunac is at a debt-payment crossroads. China’s fourth-largest developer by sales in the first quarter of this year faces $1.6 billion of other offshore and local bond payments due through June, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. That includes three more interest payments due this month on dollar notes.