(Yicai Global) July 8 -- Chinese property developer Tahoe Group has finally disclosed to the Shenzhen bourse that it has amassed debts of CNY44.5 billion (USD6.8 billion), after stalling for over a month.

The Shenzhen stock exchange asked for clarification on Tahoe’s business performance on May 31 after the real estate giant posted losses of CNY5.1 billion (USD787 million) in its 2020 financial report. Tahoe applied for an extension three times before releasing details yesterday.

This is a narrowing of CNY1.1 billion (USD170,000,000) from its arrears at the end of the first quarter, Tahoe said. Some CNY31.9 billion in loans will mature this year, of which CNY140 million (USD21.6 million) will be in the third quarter. The company only had CNY28.7 million (USD4.4 million) in cash at the end of the first quarter.

Tahoe will raise funds to pay its matured debts by selling and liquidating real estate projects, it said. It owned 18 property projects worth around CNY25.1 billion (USD3.9 billion) as of the end of last year. The developable floor area of the firm’s land reserves was around 9.2 million square meters as of the end of May.

In March, real estate giant China Vanke said it was considering offering Tahoe a lifeline, should certain preconditions be met. These required Tahoe to develop a debt restructuring plan to be approved by Vanke creditors. However, this has not yet been done, Tahoe said.

Tahoe, which used to have over a turnover of over CNY100 billion (USD15.4 billion) a year, got into trouble last year when a subsidiary defaulted on CNY800 million in debt that Tahoe and major shareholder Huang Qisen had acted as guarantors for. This was followed by huge projects grinding to a standstill during the pandemic that were then abandoned one after another.

The Fuzhou, southeastern Fujian province--based firm’s stock price [SHE:000732] was trading down 1.27 percent at 1:30 p.m. China time today at CNY2.32 (USD0.36).

Editor: Kim Taylor