The crisis surrounding China’s most indebted property developer Evergrande has escalated to new heights after protestors through the country reportedly gathered at various offices to voice their demands.
Protests against Evergrande were first witnessed on Sunday, according to a «Caixin» report, after hundreds gathered at its headquarters in Shenzhen demanding repayments on overdue wealth management products (WMP).
The protest extended to Monday when the disgruntled investors shouted at company representatives and were met by uniformed security personnel.
Evergrande responded by proposing three repayment options on Monday: cash installments, discounted properties or the offsetting of payables on purchased residential units.
Homebuyers, Employees
Protests against Evergrande extend beyond just the average retail investors of its WMPs or bonds.
According to «Bloomberg» reports citing unnamed sources said that Evergrande told employees at its Shenyang-based office to work from home after other workers who bought WMPs held a protest over the weekend. Separately, more than 100 homebuyers staged a protest in Guangzhou last week demanding that the developer restart stalled construction on apartments that have already been purchased.
There are unconfirmed videos of other protests against Evegrande elsewhere in China with no indication of any escalation to violence thus far.
Default Risks
Meanwhile, Evergrande continues to face mounting debt pressures from over $300 billion of remaining liabilities and the continued descent of bond prices.
Fitch recently said «a default of some kind appears probable» in a statement downgrading Evergrande and two of its subsidiaries to ‘CC', defined by the credit rating agency as «very high levels» of risk.
According to Evergrande in a statement on Monday, it is facing unprecedented difficulties but does not expect bankruptcy while making efforts to restore normal operations and protect customer interests. The statement did not comment on the protests.
