(Yicai) Oct. 10 -- Shares of Country Garden fell after the struggling Chinese real estate developer said it had started restructuring its overseas bonds with a total principal of about USD9.3 billion.

Country Garden [HKG: 2007] was trading down 3.6 percent at 82 Hong Kong cents (10 US cents) as of today's lunch break, after earlier gaining as much as 3.6 percent.

After completing the rollover of all its domestic bonds, Country Garden will restructure its all overseas debt including 15 US dollar bonds, the Foshan-based property developer announced today.

Country Garden has yet to pay expiring bonds with a principal of HKD470 million (USD60 million). The company is expected to be unable to repay all its overseas debts, including the US dollar ones.

On Oct. 16, Country Garden will face the interest maturity of two US dollar bonds worth a total of USD66.8 million, with a grace period of 30 days, which will expire in April 2024 and April 2026, respectively.

Country Garden completed the extension of nine domestic bonds worth about CNY14.7 billion (USD2 billion) last month. "The extension plan obtained the necessary consent from relevant creditors, giving the company time and space to concentrate on resuming operations," the firm said.

Country Garden has been under pressure this year because of profound adjustments to China's real estate market, it added. Its sales plunged 44 percent to CNY155 billion (USD21.7 billion) in the first nine months from a year earlier.

Under these circumstances, Country Garden is facing the uncertainty of asset disposal and sale, and its liquidity will not improve in the short-to-medium term, the company noted.

In addition to promoting debt extension, Country Garden's main work is ensuring the delivery of houses. As of the end of September, it had delivered about 420,000 new houses with a total area of 51.1 million square meters in 235 cities.

Editor: Futura Costaglione