By JOE McDONALD
Associated Press
Posted2/10/2022 7:00 AM
BEIJING -- A Chinese real estate developer that is struggling under $310 billion in debt is promising to deliver 600,000 apartments this year, a newspaper reported Thursday, in a show of confidence it can avert collapse and resume normal business.
Evergrande Group has left financial markets guessing at its status since the developer warned in December it might run out of cash. Its struggle to avoid default alarmed investors, but Chinese officials say any financial impact can be contained.
Xu Jiayin, the Evergrande founder, announced the plans to deliver apartments at a Feb. 6 meeting with employees, the Securities Times reported. It said the company aims for monthly sales of 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) to make sure construction can be completed.
The report suggested Evergrande aims to carry on normal business, contrary to expectations among investors the company might be broken up or shut down.
The target of 600,000 apartments is comparable to deliveries in one of Evergrande's busiest past years, the newspaper said.
Evergrande and some smaller developers are scrambling to comply with tighter limits on borrowing imposed in 2020 to rein in surging debt the ruling Communist Party worries is dangerously high.
Evergrande says it has 2.3 trillion yuan ($350 billion) in assets, but the company has struggled to turn that into cash to pay bondholders and other creditors.
