China to Order Property Developers to Report CP Debt Monthly

Sources report that Chinese regulators have asked property developers to report their commercial paper (CP) debt on a monthly basis. The move comes just over a week after news that the world’s most indebted developer Evergrande reported $32bn in CPs outstanding causing liquidity concerns. CPs are not counted towards interest-bearing debt and are often used in the sector to pay suppliers. Brokers say that some developers issue CPs to associates or even shell firms, or issue multiple papers to a supplier against the same invoice, who then sell them directly in the secondary market and hand the cash back to the issuer. More so, local financial institutions who are holders of these CPs package and sell them into wealth management products (WMP) to retail investors. Reuters reports that as per CP marketplace Weipiaobao’s website, Evergrande Yualin’s CPs were selling 36% below issue value and that of other developers were on average selling 20% below issue value.