China developer Yango offers to swap dollar bonds to avoid ‘imminent’ default By Reuters

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese developer Yango Group said on Monday it has launched an offer to exchange some of its U.S. dollar bonds and is seeking the support of investors to change the terms of the remaining ones to improve its liquidity and avoid defaults.

Yango is offering $25 in cash and $1,000 in new notes for each $1,000 of existing bonds exchanged, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong bourse. The exchange offer applies to its U.S. dollar notes due in February 2023, January 2022 and March 2022, which have an outstanding face value of $747 million.

The company said government policy tightening, credit events and deteriorating consumer sentiment had cut off refinancing avenues for property firms “and put enormous pressure on our short-term liquidity”.

It said the offer was part of “overall efforts to improve our liquidity, preserve options to stabilize our operations as a going concern, and avoid imminent payment defaults and potential holistic restructurings of our debts and business operations.”

Yango’s liquidity crunch comes against the backdrop of a crisis at China Evergrande Group, which has stoked concern among investors globally about the country’s deeply indebted, $5 trillion property sector and tightened funding access for other developers.

Evergrande narrowly avoided a catastrophic default for the second time in a week on Friday, making a last-minute payment on an overdue dollar bond coupon just before its grace period expired.

Yango’s shares in Shenzhen plunged more than 8% in morning trade on Monday. They have fallen by nearly a quarter in the past five sessions.

Yango has eight outstanding U.S. dollar bonds worth a total $2.24 billion and 14 outstanding yuan-denominated bonds worth 13.1 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data. Holders of the February 2023 notes, worth a total of $247 million, have the option to demand early repayment on Nov. 12.

Its March 2022 bond slumped 13% on Monday, boosting its yield to nearly 750%, according to Duration Finance.