Hong Kong High Court Adjourns Country Garden Liquidation Hearing Amid Conflicting Timetables

The Hong Kong High Court moved to adjourn a liquidation petition against Country Garden, the Foshan-based developer that defaulted on offshore debt in late 2023, but conflicting public records and courtroom accounts left the timetable for a resolution unclear. Judicial schedules list the next hearing as Jan. 5, 2026, while contemporaneous court coverage described an adjournment to May 26 following a contested hearing in which the petitioner sought immediate liquidation.

The petition was filed last year by Ever Credit, a financing unit of Kingboard Holdings (ticker 0148.HK). At the recent hearing the petitioner sought a winding-up order while another creditor asked the court for a four-week adjournment to consider options. Country Garden’s lawyer, Jose-Antonio Maurellet, requested up to four months for the company to progress restructuring talks, saying the company expected to produce a term sheet by the end of February and had previously indicated plans to reach agreement with offshore creditors in the first half of 2025, an outcome that did not materialize.

The timing matters because the scope of Country Garden’s proposed restructuring and the depth of creditor backing are central to whether the Hong Kong court will permit another deferment. Legal precedent in Hong Kong generally allows courts to adjourn winding-up petitions to facilitate restructuring only when a company can show a concrete plan and reasonable prospects of obtaining creditor support; absent that proof, judges have granted liquidators’ petitions in other major insolvencies.

Complicating assessments of feasibility are differing figures for the scale of Country Garden’s offshore liabilities cited in public accounts. One set of filings and reporting frames a restructuring that would cut roughly $14.1 billion of offshore debt by 78 percent. An earlier Company proposal outlined restructuring options covering up to $11.6 billion in liabilities, including choices between cash conversion and extended maturities. Those figures have not been reconciled in the public record and reflect evolving proposals presented at different stages of negotiations.

The immediate stakes are high for bondholders and the wider property sector. A successful restructuring that wins creditor approval would preserve some value for offshore creditors and reduce the risk of asset fire sales, while a winding-up order could accelerate creditor claims and complicate an already fragile recovery for China’s troubled developers. Country Garden was once the country’s largest developer by sales; its collapse would be another marker of the deep, industry-wide rebalancing that began with the 2021-23 debt shock.

Market participants will be watching whether Country Garden can marshal sufficient creditor support and produce the concrete term sheet its counsel described as forthcoming. The judiciary’s listed next hearing date of Jan. 5, 2026 gives the company a proximate legal timetable, while alternative accounts pointing to a May 26 adjournment underscore ongoing uncertainty. How creditors respond to the company’s revised proposals will be decisive for the outcome and for broader confidence in restructuring frameworks that Hong Kong courts have been asked to police in high-profile corporate rescues.