Times China was downgraded to Ca from Caa1 and its senior unsecured ratings to C from Caa2, by Moody’s. The rating agency cited a “high likelihood of default” and expectations of “weak recovery prospects for the company’s creditors”. This comes after the developer suspended its offshore debt payments, which indicated “weak liquidity and constrained financial flexibility”. The company’s contracted sales dropped significantly by 56% during the first 11 months of 2022 to RMB 38.2bn ($5.6bn) and thus would depend on asset disposals or external investments to generate funds to service its debt.
Times China’s dollar bonds were trading weaker at 15-20 cents on the dollar.
