The world’s most indebted developer said it expects that a restructuring support agreement will be ready by the end of March, after it won preliminary support from a group of major creditors.
China Evergrande Group said during a Hong Kong court hearing on Monday that creditors will get access to term sheets as early as Wednesday. The progress allowed for adjournment of the case to July 31.
The announcement came after an ad hoc group of offshore bondholders expressed support for Evergrande’s debt overhaul plans right before the hearing, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The builder sweetened its preliminary proposal including terms of a debt-to-equity swap option, the people said.
An agreement would be a milestone in the saga of Evergrande, the poster child of woes in China’s real estate industry whose tumble into distress over the past two years set off contagion in the nation’s US$150 billion (S$201 billion) junk dollar bond market. Indications of how much creditors can recover will serve as important reference points in the debt restructurings of other defaulted developers.