Lenders to a property services unit of China Evergrande Group have claimed more than $2bn of its cash, dealing a blow to international investors in the heavily indebted real estate developer who were hoping to recoup some of their losses through the subsidiary.
The claim stands to hit the remaining value of Evergrande’s international bonds, which are already trading at a fraction of their $20bn face value following the company’s default late last year. A bond maturing in 2025 is trading at 13 cents on the dollar.
Evergrande said in a Tuesday filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange that lenders had taken over Rmb13.4bn ($2.1bn) of the subsidiary’s deposits that were pledged as security for “third party guarantees”. It did not give further details or identify the lenders.