Dow Jones Newswires: China Evergrande reaches debt-restructuring deal with bondholders

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China Evergrande Group has reached an agreement with its offshore debt holders under which the property developer will issue new bonds and equity-linked products.

Binding agreements have been entered into with bondholders, including for $19.15 billion of notes the company had previously issued, Evergrande said late Wednesday.

“The proposed restructuring will alleviate the company’s pressure of offshore indebtedness and facilitate the company’s efforts to resume operations and resolve issues onshore,” it said.

The Guangzhou-based developer, the most indebted property company in the world, had defaulted on debt payments. China’s crackdown on leverage in the property sector in 2021 hurt many real-estate developers, which suffered severe drops in home sales and reduced access to debt markets.

Evergrande, which holds a 58.5% stake in China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd., warned that the unit would risk being shut down without new funding.

It said that if Evergrande NEV can obtain over 29 billion yuan ($4.21 billion) of financing, the EV unit is expected to launch several flagship models that will reach mass production.

Evergrande said its shares will remain suspended on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange until further notice as none of the conditions for the resumption of trading have been met.

The property developer’s shares have been suspended since March last year.