Sunac China Holdings Ltd. said it will take “every measure” to defend itself against a winding-up petition in Hong Kong, highlighting the turmoil at the property developer as it crafts a debt-resolution plan.
(Bloomberg) — Sunac China Holdings Ltd.
said it will take “every measure” to defend itself against a winding-up petition in Hong Kong, highlighting the turmoil at the property developer as it crafts a debt-resolution plan.
A court hearing is scheduled for Nov.
16, according to a filing, with parties involved including the company and Chen Huaijun.
The petition is an “aggressive” move by an individual creditor whose holdings account for an “extremely small” share of the company’s debt, Sunac said in a statement, adding that the case won’t have any material impact on the firm’s operation or debt restructuring work.
The company expects to publish its debt restructuring plan within this year, according to the statement.
Creditors of embattled Chinese property firms are increasingly seeking court help on debt repayments.
A wind-up petition was filed in June against Sunac peer China Evergrande Group, a case that’s been adjourned until November as the company continues work on a restructuring plan that it aims to deliver as soon as possible.
The two firms are among more than a dozen developers to have defaulted on dollar bonds in the past year, fueling a record amount of delinquencies by Chinese issuers.
Sunac founder Sun Hongbin, dubbed the “white knight” in China for bailing out fellow billionaires and their empires, has been unable to rescue his own from the property crisis that’s engulfing the world’s second-biggest economy.
The filing against Sunac could add pressure on the firm to speed up its restructuring process.
After defaulting in May, the company said previously it would seek a holistic solution and has appointed financial and legal advisers to explore liquidity solutions.
Sunac, which was once the country’s fourth-largest builder by sales, has fallen to ninth, according to China Real Estate Information Corp.
data. Most of the developer’s dollar bonds have been trading below 20 cents on the dollar for much of the past six months, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.
The case number for Sunac’s winding-up petition is HCCW 319 / 2022.
(Updates with Sunac’s statement throughout)
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