A Hong Kong court on Monday postponed the hearing on Kaisa Group's liquidation application to August 12, giving the troubled Chinese developer some breathing space in its debt restructuring plan.
The Shenzhen-based developer has been struggling with debt restructuring for two years after defaulting on $12 billion of offshore debt at the end of 2021.
Kaisa Group's senior advisor Tan LL said after the hearing on Monday, "The temporary creditors' group has seven members, and finalizing the details takes time." He noted that the developer hopes to sign the agreement within the next two weeks.
Judge Woo Ji-yan told the court that Kaisa "really has no excuse" if there is no progress.
Ever since the previous applicant withdrew, the trustee of the main creditors' group, Citicorp International, has been acting as the applicant since March.
Kaisa is the second-largest offshore debt issuer among Chinese property developers after China Evergrande Group and was the first Chinese property developer to default on its U.S. dollar bonds in 2015.
Earlier this year, China Evergrande was ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court, while an increasing number of industry companies, including Country Garden, are fighting liquidation applications filed by creditors.
According to a Reuters report last week, Kaisa Chairman Kwok Ying-cheng returned to mainland China from Hong Kong for the first time in nearly a decade to obtain regulatory approval for the offshore debt restructuring.
