China Central Bank Chief Vows To Protect Evergrande Creditors

China will fully respect and protect the legal rights of Evergrande Group's creditors and asset owners in line with repayment priorities laid out by the law, the country's central bank head, Yi Gang, told Claire Jim and Meg Shen of Reuters.

Photo Insert: Governor Yi Gang, People's Bank of China

Yi made the remarks on Sunday at an online meeting of the Group of 30 International Banking Seminar and they were released in a transcript on Wednesday.

The central bank chief stressed regulators should do their best to avoid risks from cash-strapped Evergrande spilling over into other property developers and the broader financial sector. Evergrande has a total debt in excess of $310 billion.

At least 10 Chinese property developers led by Evergrande have been saddled with debt and already defaulted on their bond payments. A state-backed company also dumped a plan to buy Evergrande’s headquarters to ease its financial woes.

Evergrande has failed to deliver at least 200,000 housing units. After selling its stake in a Chinese bank, Evergrande had to pay its debt to the bank, leaving nothing for foreign creditors.

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