Chinese Firms Owe Roughly $24 Billion in Overdue Credit Bonds
Borrowers include state-run enterprises who were previously rated AAA by Chinese bond rating agencies.
The Chinese market has three types of bonds: government bonds that were issued by different level governments; credit bonds issued by companies; and convertible bonds, issued by listed companies and which can be converted into shares of common stock in the issuing company or cash of equal value.
Chinese state-run media Economic Observer reported the latest bond market statistics collected by Wind, a Chinese private financial services company.
“164 credit bonds that were issued by 27 enterprises were in repudiatory breach by Dec. 18 in this year,” it reported. “Among them, the sum breached by state-run enterprises was 51.897 billion yuan ($7.92 billion), or three times more than the figure in 2019, 12.93 billion yuan ($1.97 billion).”