Sino-Ocean Suspends Trading in Offshore U.S. Dollar Securities

By P.R. Venkat

Sino-Ocean Group has suspended trading its U.S. dollar-denominated securities as continued stress on China's real estate market weighs on the developer's ability to meet its debt obligations.

Given the tight liquidity position, the company will suspend payments under all offshore debts until holistic restructuring and extension solutions are implemented, Sino-Ocean said Friday.

"The group will continue to proactively negotiate with the relevant stakeholders of the group, including banks, noteholders and financial institutions, to extend the maturity of and/or restructure the relevant offshore debts," it said.

Many Chinese property developers face problems meeting their debt commitments because of a slowing economy, higher finance costs and weak consumer sentiment that has hurt property sales.

"Since 2023, in the circumstances where the industry sales and financing environment have not been notably improved, the group has experienced a rapid decline in contracted sales and increased uncertainty in asset disposals and has continuously faced limitations in various financing activities," the company said.

Starting Friday, trading in the eight offshore bonds will be suspended on the Hong Kong stock exchange. These offshore bonds have a maturity period spanning from 2024 to 2030.

Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 14, 2023 19:53 ET (23:53 GMT)

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