An apartment building in the middle of a city center sits in disrepair.
That’s because construction has been halted everywhere since China’s largest real estate developer, Hengda Group, defaulted in late 2021.
[Hengda Group investors, September 2021: “We want our money back, we want our money back!”]
This time, a similar crisis hit a large developer in the Wanda Group.
According to local and foreign media, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group, a key affiliate of Wanda Group, is facing the maturity of a $400 million, or more than 500 billion of our money, dollar bond the day after tomorrow.
However, it is reportedly short by at least $200 million, or 250 billion won.
They are reportedly looking to sell assets to make up the difference by the maturity date, but the situation is still unclear.
The dollar bonds, in particular, have virtually no grace period to postpone principal repayments, so the company has no choice but to default if it doesn’t pay on time.
Wanda Group has been one of the few developers to survive China’s real estate slowdown since the Hengda default, and has been seen as a “bulwark” against the spread of the crisis.
[Fu Linghui/China’s National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson/Jan. 17: “The real estate market will be stable in the future as the property consolidation policies take effect.”]
However, China’s real estate industry is facing a string of negative indicators, with investment declining in the first half of this year and new real estate construction down 20% from last year.
With real estate accounting for more than 20% of China’s GDP, 먹튀검증 there is speculation that if Wanda defaults, China’s growth rate will falter around the 5% targeted for this year.