Chinese Property Giant Country Garden Sinks

China's property sector crisis escalated again on Friday as a sharp fall in the shares and bonds of one of the country's biggest developers, Country Garden, capped a turbulent week for the long-troubled sector, Ankur Banerjee, Cklare Jim and Marc Jones reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: News that the firm, which has thousands of projects in nearly 300 Chinese cities, had moved to refinance part of a 2019 loan facility, sent its Hong Kong-listed shares down more than 5% and left its bonds close to record lows hit late last year.

News that the firm, which has thousands of projects in nearly 300 Chinese cities, had moved to refinance part of a 2019 loan facility sent its Hong Kong-listed shares down more than 5% and left its bonds close to record lows hit late last year.

"That doesn't get them completely out of the woods," said one Country Garden bondholder, who declined to be identified, adding that the developer was facing a further batch of bonds payments in coming months.

Raymond Cheng, head of China research at CGS-CIMB Securities, delivered a similar warning and said it was part of the broader issue of the government's approach to the crisis.

"If sales don't improve people will worry about the repayment ability for developers like Country Garden who have large exposure in smaller cities," Cheng said.

"Country Garden is a top developer in terms of sales. If it defaulted it would send a very bad signal to the market that the central government does not care (about) more developers going down and has no plan to bail out."

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