China’s Latest Default Warning Takes Shock Factor to Extreme
- Zhenro says it may not be able to meet debt obligations
- Developer had seemed like a rare bright spot just weeks ago
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Only seven weeks ago, Zhenro Properties Group Ltd. looked like a rare beacon of strength in a Chinese real estate industry reeling from an unprecedented stretch of defaults.
The company had just announced plans to redeem a perpetual bond and boasted that one of its units had secured a 9.14 billion yuan ($1.44 billion) credit line from state-owned Bank of China Ltd. Zhenro’s short-dated bonds were trading near 80 cents on the dollar, compared with 17 cents for embattled property giant China Evergrande Group.