Embattled Chinese property developer Country Garden sparked a rally across Asian markets overnight as bondholders approved a restructuring of part of its debts.
Shares in the residential house builder jumped almost 20% as a small majority (56%) voted to give the group more time to pay off an RMB4 billion (US$550 million) bond that had been set to mature on Saturday.
Instead, the property group will be allowed to repay the debt in a series of instalments over three years.
Country Garden, which has been floored by a slowdown in housebuying in China's second and third-tier cities, admitted recently it missed interest payments of US$22.5 million on two US$500 million international bonds about a month ago, sparking a renewed sell-off of Chinese property stocks.
Some of that reversed overnight with Country Garden closing up 14% with Evergrande, whose debt problems originally brought the crisis into focus, up by 7%.
Chinese authorities have introduced measures to try to alleviate the problems, such as lowering deposit limits for homebuyers and reducing mortgage rates.
Analysts are sceptical it will be enough as Dealogic data shows around US$38 billion of renminbi and dollar bond payments fall due over the next four months.
Country Garden itself has to pay the interest payments missed a month ago by Wednesday.