(Yicai Global) Oct. 29 -- Shares of Central China Real Estate bounced back after the property developer said it had allocated CNY3 billion (USD469.2 million) to repay US dollar debt due to mature next month.

Central China Real Estate’s stock price [HKG:0832] had fallen over the previous four days before climbing as much as 4 percent today. It closed up 1.7 percent at HKD1.17 (15 US cents).

The Henan-based company said yesterday it had allocated funds to repay the principal and interest on dollar bonds worth USD400 million that will mature in November, with a coupon rate of 6.75 percent. The developer has dollar liabilities totaling USD2.86 billion.

Central China Real Estate previously told Yicai Global that it is operating normally, and that revenue and profit are slightly higher than last year. The company also said it had plans to deal with its debt pile.

Fears have been growing over China’s real estate sector amid the travails of indebted giant China Evergrande Group, which narrowly avoided a default last week. But other developers including Sinic Holdings and Modern Land have defaulted this month.

China Aoyuan Group and Shanghai Zhongliang Real Estate Group have also been taking measures to repay debt about to mature. Aoyuan said on Oct. 12 that it had repaid CNY1.5 billion (USD234.5 million) in the Chinese mainland and the company will have no corporate bonds set to mature in the mainland as of next year.

Zhongliang Real Estate Group told Yicai Global on Oct. 15 that it has enough cash to repay its outstanding bonds, adding that it will strengthen the buyback of bonds in future amid a broader deleveraging drive.

Other developers have bought back US dollar bonds this month, which can help boost market confidence, industry insiders said.

Chinese real estate developers are facing maturing US dollar debts worth nearly USD63.7 billion in the next 15 months, according to Zhang Xu, chief analyst of fixed income at Everbright Securities.

The current dollar bonds of Evergrande, Kaisa Group Holdings and Country Garden exceed USD10 billion, while those held by Sunac China Holdings, Shimao Property Holdings, China Resources Land, Yuzhou Properties, China Overseas Land & Investment and China Jinmao Holdings Group range from USD5 billion to USD7 billion.

At a meeting held on Oct. 26, Chinese regulators told firms with US dollar debts to use the funds raised strictly according to approved usage and to abide by financial rules and market regulations. The firms have also been ordered to prepare to repay debts outside the Chinese mainland, so as to safeguard the sector’s corporate reputation and market order.

Editor: Tom Litting