HONG KONG—Cash-strapped developer China Evergrande Group said it held an internal meeting late on Wednesday night, in which its chairman urged company executives to ensure the quality delivery of properties and redemption of wealth management products.
There is mounting political pressure on the company to act as homebuyers and retail investors grow increasingly angry about having sunk their savings in the properties and wealth management products of highly indebted Evergrande.
With $305 billion in liabilities, Evergrande is struggling to meet its debt obligations and investors worry that the rot could spread to creditors, including banks in China and abroad.
Global markets were closely watching whether Evergrande will be able to pay interest on one of its dollar bonds due on Thursday (Sept. 23), after some relief the previous day when the People’s Bank of China injected $13.9 billion into the banking system and an Evergrande unit said it had “resolved” a coupon payment on an onshore bond.
At a meeting held at 11:00 pm, the Evergrande chairman stressed the importance of resuming construction and to have a “highly responsible attitude” towards helping wealth investors redeem their products, adding it was the company’s top priority.
The chairman repeated those messages on several occasions this month, as it has an estimated $6 billion of wealth management products outstanding and hundreds of thousands of uncompleted homes to deliver to homebuyers.
The company said on Sept. 18 it has begun repaying investors in its wealth management products with real estate, and investors interested in redeeming the products for physical assets should contact their investment consultants or visit local offices.
