Evergrande ripples through Asian high yield

Asia’s high-yield bankers and investors are watching the plight of Evergrande with a sense of helplessness.

In mid October, the sprawling Chinese real estate developer is about halfway through a 30-day grace period to remedy a default on an offshore dollar bond on September 23. The missed payment, for $83.5 million, is very much the tip of the iceberg. Evergrande has $20 billion of offshore bond borrowings, which in turn are a fraction of its $300 billion overall liabilities.

Few are expecting a positive outcome.