Evergrande, riddled with debt, resumes work on more than 10 real estate projects

BEIJING, Oct.24 (Reuters) – China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) on Sunday said it had resumed work on more than 10 projects in six cities, including Shenzhen – a statement that comes after it appears to avoid default with a bond last minute coupon payment last week.

Evergrande, in the midst of a crisis with more than $ 300 billion in liabilities, has not revealed how many of its 1,300 real estate projects across China have had to stop work.

The company said on Aug.31 that some projects had been put on hold due to late payments to suppliers and contractors and that it was negotiating to resume construction.

On Sunday, he said in an article on his Wechat account that some of the projects he had resumed work on had entered the interior decoration phase while other buildings had recently completed construction.

Evergrande added that his efforts to secure construction would boost market confidence and included several photos of construction workers on different projects, stamped with the time and date.

Last month, China’s second-largest real estate developer also promised potential buyers that it will complete construction on their homes and said work on one of the world’s largest football stadiums in the southern city of Guangzhou will be completed. were going as planned.

The decision to pay $ 83.5 million in interest on a U.S. dollar bond last week helped Evergrande tackle a debt crisis that threatens the world’s second-largest economy.

Highlighting the tensions on its core business, Evergrande also announced on Friday its intention to prioritize its electric vehicle business over real estate in the future.

Evergrande’s woes have spilled over into China’s $ 5,000 billion real estate sector, which makes up a quarter of the economy by some measures, with a series of announcements of defaults, downgrades and collapses in securities. corporate bonds.

Its debt crisis is also widely watched by global financial markets concerned about wider contagion.

Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

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