HK court delays Country Garden hearing till June
The High Court adjourned to June 11 a hearing of a petition on Friday seeking the liquidation of Chinese property giant Country Garden.  The decision provides some relief to the embattled developer amid Beijing's efforts to revive the crisis-hit property sector. A Hong Kong firm filed the petition against Country Garden in February for non-payment of a US$205 million loan. The developer defaulted on US$11 billion of offshore bonds last year and is in the process of an offshore debt restructuring. Country Garden applied for the adjournment to prepare more evidence. The request was not opposed by the petitioner which filed the action against the company. If Country Garden is able to present progress on the debt restructuring talks with its offshore creditors, it would help the developer push back against the liquidation petition. A key group of creditors, the ad hoc group of bondholders, have signalled their "neutral stance" towards the liquidation petition, according to the petitioner's lawyer.  In a letter to the court, the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, representing the ad hoc group, said they no longer intended to appear in the court. The hearing into the petition comes against the backdrop of Beijing stepping up efforts to revive the property sector, which slipped into an unprecedented debt crisis in mid-2021. Over the past few years, a growing list of developers has defaulted on debt repayment obligations and a handful of them, including China Evergrande, have been ordered to be liquidated. (Reuters)