China Evergrande contagion concerns rile global markets

Growing fears of China Evergrande defaulting rattled global markets on Monday as investors, worried about the potential impact on the wider economy, dumped Chinese property stocks and sought refuge in safe-haven assets.

Shares in Evergrande, which has been scrambling to raise funds to pay its many lenders, suppliers and investors, closed down 10.2% at HK$2.28 on Monday, after earlier plummeting 19% to its weakest level since May 2010.

Regulators have warned that its $305 billion of liabilities could spark broader risks to China’s financial system if its debts are not stabilised.

World shares skidded and the dollar firmed as investors fretted about the spillover risk to the global economy. US stocks were sharply lower, with the S&P 500 down nearly 2%.

A major test comes this week, with Evergrande due to pay $83.5 million in interest relating to its March 2022 bond on Thursday. It has another $47.5 million payment due on September 29 for March 2024 notes.

Both bonds would default if Evergrande fails to settle the interest within 30 days of the scheduled payment dates.

In any default scenario, Evergrande, teetering between a messy meltdown, a managed collapse or the less likely prospect of a bailout by Beijing, will need to restructure the bonds, but analysts expect a low recovery ratio for investors.

Evergrande’s troubles also pressured the broader property sector, with Hong Kong-listed shares of small-sized Chinese developer Sinic Holdings down 87%, wiping $1.5 billion off its market value before trading was suspended.

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Evergrande executives are working to salvage its business prospects, including by starting to repay investors in its wealth management products with real estate.

“(Evergrande’s) stock will continue to fall, because there’s not yet a solution that appears to be helping the company to ease its liquidity stress, and there are still so many uncertainties about what the company will do in case of a restructuring,” Kington Lin, managing director of Asset Management Department at Canfield Securities Limited, said.

Lin said Evergrande’s shares could fall to below HK$1 if it is forced to sell most of its assets in a restructuring.

“As of right now, I don’t see any systemic risk for the global economy from the Evergrande situation, but there doesn’t need to be any systemic risk in order for markets to be affected,” David Bahnsen, chief investment officer, The Bahnsen Group, a wealth management firm based in Newport Beach, Calif, said in emailed commentary.

There was some confidence, however, that the situation would be contained.

“Beijing has demonstrated in recent years that it is fully able and willing to step in to stem widespread contagion when major financial/corporate institutions fail,” Alvin Tan, FX Strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said in a research note.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2021.

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