(Yicai) Oct. 19 -- Country Garden Holdings’ founder and his daughter, who is chair of the board, are in China and are reporting to work as normal, the struggling Chinese developer said in response to online rumors that the pair had fled the country to escape the firm’s mounting debts.

The rumor took me by surprise, a company insider told Yicai, adding that he doesn’t know how it started. Yang Guoqiang and his daughter Yang Huiyan recently attended management meetings and not long ago Yang Guoqiang inspected projects in southern Guangdong province with the firm’s President Mo Bin, he added.

Cash flow will remain tight in the short to medium term, Country Garden said in a stock market filing on Oct. 10. The firm, which is battling against a sluggish real estate market and a tight financing environment, has already missed payments on expiring bonds worth HKD470 million (USD60.1 million).

The cash-strapped company is in the process of restructuring its 15 offshore bonds with a principal of about USD9.3 billion. None are due in the short term and it only has interest repayment obligations.

It completed the extension of nine domestic bonds worth about CNY14.7 billion (USD2 billion) last month, giving the Foshan, Guangdong province-based firm more time to concentrate on completing its real estate projects.

Country Garden had delivered 420,000 apartments so far this year as of Sept. 30, and should hand over around 700,000 units this year. The developer still has between 600,000 and 700,000 pre-sold apartments that it plans to deliver in the next two years.

Country Garden’s share price [HKG: 2007] closed down 4 percent at CNY0.71 (USD0.10) today, giving it a market capitalization of HKD20 billion (USD2.6 billion).

Editors: Liao Shumin, Kim Taylor