Debt Reduction Storm Among Leading Real Estate Developers: Sunac Secures Support from 74% of Offshore Bondholders, Country Garden Locks in 70% Consensus

Debt restructuring for real estate enterprises is expected to enter the "debt reduction era."

Recently, Sunac China announced that holders of approximately 74% of the total outstanding principal amount of its existing debts had submitted letters to join the offshore debt restructuring support agreement. Country Garden also announced that it had reached a consensus with over 70% of its creditors on high-yield bonds in terms of offshore debt, aiming to complete the overall restructuring of offshore debt within this year.

With Sunac and Country Garden successively announcing the progress of their offshore debt restructuring, the debt restructuring or reorganization of troubled real estate enterprises is accelerating. Since June, offshore debt restructuring plans of real estate enterprises such as CIFI and Golden Wheel Tiandi have basically been approved by creditors and will proceed to court hearings. Logan Group has released a debt restructuring plan, aiming to advance debt optimization efforts.

At the same time, the debt restructuring model for real estate enterprises is shifting from extension to substantive debt reduction. Among them, Sunac's offshore debt restructuring plan is expected to reduce debt by approximately RMB 60 billion. Country Garden's offshore debt restructuring proposal is expected to reduce debt by up to $11.6 billion. CIFI's offshore debt restructuring is expected to reduce offshore debt by approximately $5.27 billion, equivalent to approximately RMB 37.9 billion.

"If enterprises and investors can reach a consensus on the terms of debt restructuring involving 'debt reduction,' we believe that the short-term liquidity pressure on real estate enterprises will be alleviated, allowing them to devote more energy to asset revitalization and sales, which will have a positive impact on the stabilization of the entire industry," Shi Lulu, Director of Corporate Ratings, Asia Pacific at Fitch Ratings, told reporters.

However, while reaching a restructuring agreement can alleviate external financing pressure, real estate enterprises still face challenges in internal operating cash flow. Shi Lulu believes that in the short term, the quality of existing projects and the ability to revitalize assets are important considerations for determining a real estate enterprise's endogenous cash flow and investor decisions.

"Despite the continuous optimization and adjustment of policies by the central and local governments, the recovery of the real estate market may primarily be concentrated in first-tier cities and some strong second-tier cities. However, competition in these cities is intensifying, as most national state-owned real estate enterprises are also repositioning and focusing on developing in these cities," Shi Lulu said. "Whether restructuring real estate enterprises can replenish land in these cities will have a significant impact on their medium and long-term development."

Acceleration of Debt Restructuring for Real Estate Enterprises

Recently, leading real estate enterprises such as Sunac and Country Garden have successively announced the progress of their restructuring, with debt reductions often amounting to billions of dollars, signaling that the industry's debt resolution process has entered a critical stage.

"Currently, Sunac has secured support from approximately 74% of all creditors, indicating that the offshore debt restructuring is substantially completed," a debt restructuring analyst said. When the court rules on a debt restructuring case, it is deemed approved if 75% of the creditors who participate in the vote cast affirmative votes.

A source close to Sunac told reporters that once the offshore debt restructuring is successful, Sunac will become the first large-scale real estate enterprise in the industry to have its offshore debt basically cleared to "zero," significantly mitigating debt risks at the publicly listed firm level, with an estimated debt resolution of approximately 60 billion yuan.

Sunac's offshore debt restructuring receiving a high level of support is not an isolated case. On June 5, Wu Bijun, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of Country Garden, stated at an online shareholders' meeting that consensus had been reached with over 70% of creditors on high-yield debt.

In addition, CIFI Holdings has also made progress in its offshore debt restructuring. The company announced that it had secured the required statutory majority support from plan creditors at a plan meeting held on June 3, and it is expected that offshore debt will be reduced by approximately $5.27 billion after the restructuring. The next step is to seek court approval for the plan on June 26.

On the same day, Logan Group announced the optimization and adjustment of its debt restructuring plan. Under the new restructuring plan, the 29 original credit enhancement assets of the underlying bonds will be used for the full conversion of the specific asset option, the asset-for-debt settlement mode (including in-kind debt settlement and trust debt settlement) under the asset-for-debt option, and the full debt retention option, maximizing the revitalization of credit enhancement assets. Meanwhile, the company's shareholders will raise additional cash and equity resources for the new restructuring plan.

Liu Shui, Director of Corporate Research at the China Index Academy, told reporters that the acceleration of debt restructuring among real estate enterprises is attributed to two factors. First, distressed real estate enterprises are offering diversified restructuring methods, such as combining debt-to-equity swaps, debt maturity extensions, asset settlements, and cash payments, which can meet the needs of different creditors and improve the acceptability of the plans.

Second, creditors' attitudes have shifted under the current market conditions. "The real estate market has been adjusting for a long time, and creditors are aware of the difficulty real estate enterprises face in repaying debts. Compared to bankruptcy liquidation and the continuous depreciation of assets, they are more inclined to accept restructuring plans to improve the debt repayment rate. Additionally, some creditors, after the continuous transfer of debts of distressed real estate enterprises, have lower holding costs. If the cash recovery value of the restructuring plan is more attractive, they are more willing to accept it."

Debt-to-Equity Swaps and Debt Reduction Become Mainstream

It is worth noting that this year, the debt restructuring of real estate enterprises has moved from maturity extensions and deferred payments into the deep waters of debt reduction and burden alleviation. According to the offshore debt restructuring plans of Sunac, Country Garden, and CIFI Holdings, a significant reduction in debt principal has become a core feature.

This shift may be driven by severe debt pressures. Data from CRIC shows that the scale of debt maturities for real estate enterprises in 2025 will reach 525.7 billion yuan, further climbing from 482.8 billion yuan in 2024.

"The scale of debt maturities for real estate enterprises this year is higher than that in 2024, posing greater debt repayment pressures. As multiple real estate enterprises advance their debt restructuring, the trend of increasing debt reduction ratios is gradually emerging," pointed out a research report by Orient Securities.

"This year, the debt reduction ratios in the debt restructuring of many real estate enterprises are significantly higher than the levels in 2023," Zhang Bo, President of the 58 Anjuke Research Institute, told reporters. In the first five months of this year, the total sales of the top 100 real estate enterprises declined on a YoY basis, while the sales decline of distressed real estate enterprises was even more pronounced, directly leading to changes in the original cash flow forecasting models for these enterprises.

"Under the new model, the future cash inflows of distressed real estate enterprises are expected to continue to decrease. This cash flow gap renders extension strategies ineffective. Only by reducing debt through debt reduction can the interests of creditors be maximized," Zhang Bo said.

Liu Shui further explained that considering the decline in the absolute scale of the new home market over the long term and the fact that the market is still bottoming out in the short term, with asset depreciation pressures remaining, simply extending the repayment period may lead to issues of repeated overdue payments and secondary extensions, and cannot thoroughly resolve the debt crisis.

"Therefore, debt-to-equity swaps and principal reductions can achieve a reduction in the company's debt scale, delay the overall debt repayment pressure, and debt-to-equity swaps also simultaneously increase net assets, which is conducive to repairing the company's balance sheet and creating conditions for an improvement in the company's fundamental business performance," Liu Shui said.

Multiple industry analysts have pointed out that in the future, under the pressure of unstable new home sales and asset depreciation, real estate enterprises with greater debt repayment pressures will accelerate their debt restructuring processes, and increasing debt reduction ratios may become a widespread trend.

Policy Environment Provides Support for Real Estate Enterprises' Debt Restructuring

Behind the acceleration of real estate enterprises' debt restructuring lies the simultaneous improvement of the policy environment and market financing conditions.

At the policy level, Li Yunze, Director of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, stated at a State Council Information Office press conference on May 7 that the government will expedite the introduction of a series of financing systems tailored to the new model of real estate development to help sustain and consolidate the stability of the real estate market.

"This means that more supporting policies will be continuously implemented in the future, and loan support for enterprises will be continuously increased," Liu Shui said. It is expected that the "white list" policy for real estate project financing will continue to be refined to facilitate the substantial allocation of funds and improve the financial positions of enterprises.

At the same time, the urban real estate financing coordination mechanism plays a positive role in ensuring the smooth construction and delivery of projects, stabilizing the confidence of financial institutions, alleviating the financial pressure on enterprises, promoting risk isolation and resolution, and driving improvements in market expectations, which is conducive to the smooth progress of debt restructuring work.

A real estate industry analyst pointed out that it is expected that the role of policy support will become increasingly apparent. For example, the 4 trillion yuan financing white list and the acquisition and storage of existing housing and idle land by real estate enterprises will play a certain role in promoting the asset liquidation and debt repayment of distressed real estate enterprises.

At the market level, financing costs for real estate enterprises have declined. Data from the China Index Academy shows that in May this year, the total bond financing of real estate enterprises was 28.88 billion yuan, up 23.5% YoY. The average interest rate for bond financing was 2.35%, down 0.43 percentage points YoY and 0.41 percentage points MoM.

"In terms of institutional innovation in the future, tools such as tiered design of convertible bonds, service trusts, and optimization of M&A financing will be used to reshape the logic of debt restructuring for real estate enterprises. However, challenges such as the sustainability of sales recovery and slow credit repair still need to be addressed," said Zhang Bo.

In fact, although the debt restructuring of real estate enterprises has accelerated, industry risks have not yet been fully cleared.

Liu Shui believes that the success of a real estate enterprise's restructuring does not mean it is out of the woods. Successful debt restructuring will help mitigate risks, but for enterprises to truly emerge from the crisis, they still need the support of a market recovery. Only after their fundamentals improve can they avoid repeated extensions or restructuring.