China’s Record Surge of Defaults Driven by Property Developers
- Sector expected to continue seeing missed payments on bonds
- Developers were 27% of China’s record first-quarter defaults
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Property developers are propelling a record wave of China corporate bond defaults this year, as Beijing moves to clamp down on borrowing in the debt-laded sector.
Real estate firms made up 27% of last quarter’s record $15.1 billion of missed payments on onshore and offshore bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chinese companies overall defaulted on 74.75 billion yuan ($11.4 billion) of local notes during the first three months of 2021, more than double the old record set a year earlier, while defaults nearly tripled to $3.7 billion for offshore bonds.