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Kaisa’s debt restructuring passes critical stage

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A 2009 file photo of Kaisa Group Holdings Chairman and Executive Director Kwok Ying-shing speaking at the company's video press conference on its IPO plan at the Four Seasons Hotel in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: May Tse
Summer Zhen

Kaisa Group, the Shenzhen-based property developer which defaulted on its US dollar-denominated bonds, has reached a milestone in its yearlong debt restructuring negotiations after a plan was formally approved by bondholders.

In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday, the company said its offshore debt restructuring plan was “duly passed with the approval of the requisite majority of the Scheme Creditors,” at scheme meetings held by courts in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands on May 20.

The developer completed a 33 billion yuan (HK$39.14 billion) domestic debt restructuring in January.

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Tam Lai Ling, a senior adviser and former vice chairman of Kaisa, said the creditor meetings approval “marks the completion of business negotiation” of the restructuring of nearly 17 billion yuan in offshore debts.

Under the Hong Kong and Cayman Islands law, approval is required from 75 per cent of shareholders by value when casting votes to implement a restructuring. According to Tam, 96 per cent of shareholders by value attended the meeting with more than 99 per cent voting to back the plan.

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There remains a final legal process to obtain the US court’s recognition of Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands court sanctions, as the company is using US law to deal with offshore creditors, he said.

“We expect the [offshore] restructuring to be completed by the end of June.”

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