China Vanke, the latest developer to teeter in the country’s long-running real estate crisis, said bondholders agreed to a plan that gave the company a 30-day grace period to negotiate repayment of a $285 million bond.

房地產開發商萬科表示，其債券持有人已同意一項方案，給予公司30天的寬限期來協商償還一筆20億元人民幣的債券。萬科是中國曠日持久的房地產危機中又一家陷入困境的公司。

Approval from bondholders after a vote on Monday provided Vanke with a temporary lifeline, preventing the company from immediately tipping into default for failing to repay a bond that matured on Dec. 15. However, the bondholders again rejected Vanke’s proposal to delay repayment by one year.

債券持有人週一的投票結果為萬科提供了暫時的喘息之機，避免其因未能償還一筆於12月15日到期的債券而立即陷入違約的境地。不過，債券持有人再次否決了萬科將還款期限延長一年的提議。

Vanke, which has more than 126,000 employees and carries more than $50 billion in debt, has until Jan. 28 to reach a deal to either delay payments or pay the principal to avoid default, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

根據提交給港交所的一份文件，萬科擁有超過12.6萬名員工，負債逾500億美元，公司必須在1月28日前達成協議，或推遲付款，或償還本金來避免違約。

Vanke is the latest and most urgent test of the government’s handling of China’s long-running real estate crisis, which has unsettled the economy and challenged policymakers’ resolve on whether to bail out debt-laden developers, even if doing nothing risks pushing the financial system to the brink.

萬科成為檢驗中國政府如何應對長期房地產危機的最新、最緊迫的考驗。這場危機已擾亂經濟，並考驗政策制定者是否有決心救助負債累累的開發商——即便袖手旁觀可能會將金融體系推向崩潰的邊緣。

Chinese officials did not intervene to rescue China Evergrande or Country Garden, once considered the country’s two largest developers, as both crumbled under the weight of enormous debts. Evergrande filed for bankruptcy protection two years ago. Around that time, Country Garden defaulted on a bond, with some creditors pushing the company to liquidate.

中國官員此前並未出手拯救曾被視為中國最大兩家房地產開發商的恆大和碧桂園，兩間公司最終都在巨額債務的重壓下崩潰。恆大兩年前申請了破產保護。大約在同一時期，碧桂園也發生債券違約，部分債權人要求對其進行清算。

Vanke was viewed differently from the two privately held developers because its largest shareholder is the state-owned railroad company Shenzhen Metro, which had repeatedly extended loans to Vanke over the past few years to cover obligations related to the developer’s debts.

外界對萬科的看法與這兩家民營開發商不同，因為其最大股東是國有企業深圳地鐵。深圳地鐵在過去幾年中多次向萬科提供貸款，以幫助其履行與債務相關的義務。

This year, after a $6 billion loss in 2024, Vanke’s top executives stepped down and were replaced by executives from state-owned firms. Shenzhen Metro has extended more than $3 billion in loans this year to Vanke, even as the company continues to face a severe cash crunch. In a midyear corporate filing, Vanke said that, as of the end of June, $22 billion of its debt was due within the next 12 months.

在2024年出現約495億元虧損後，萬科高管於今年辭職，由來自國有企業的高管接任。今年以來，儘管萬科持續面臨嚴重的現金流危機，深圳地鐵仍向其提供了220億元貸款。萬科在年中提交的公司文件中表示，截至6月底，其未來12個月內到期的債務規模為1553.7億元。

But more recently, Shenzhen Metro has begun imposing stricter borrowing terms on Vanke. In early November, Shenzhen Metro demanded that Vanke pledge collateral to back up unsecured loans it had already extended to the developer. Then, Vanke, for the first time, asked bondholders to accept a delay in repayment of a bond.

但近期，深圳地鐵開始對萬科施加更嚴格的借貸條件。11月初，深圳地鐵要求萬科為此前已發放的無擔保貸款提供抵押品。隨後，萬科首次請求債券持有人接受債券還款延期。

Vanke offered three proposals to bondholders seeking a one-year delay of payments due on Dec. 15. None of the proposals received enough support to meet the 90 percent approval threshold, moving the company closer to default.

萬科向債券持有人提出了三項方案，尋求將原定於12月15日到期的付款延期一年。但這些方案均未獲得達到90%批准門檻的支持率，使該公司距離違約更近了一步。

Vanke said it had a “grace period” of five working days, which expires on Dec. 22, after failing to make a payment on time.

萬科表示，在未能按時付款後，公司獲得了為期五個工作日的「寬限期」，於12月22日到期。

The developer’s negotiations with bondholders point to the “Chinese authorities’ preference for market-oriented support approaches, rather than providing blanket support to individual developers — even some government-linked entities,” the credit ratings agency Fitch said in a report this month.

信用評級機構惠譽在本月的一份報告中指出，萬科與債券持有人的談判表明，「中國當局更傾向於市場導向的支持方式，而非對個別開發商——即便是一些與政府有關聯的實體——提供全面兜底式支持。」