'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Fears that a Chinese real estate developer's possible default on multibillion-dollar debts might send shockwaves through global financial markets appeared to ease Thursday as creditors waited to see how much they might recover.
Shares of Evergrande Group, one of China's biggest private sector conglomerates, rose 18% in Hong Kong after the company said it would pay interest to bondholders in China. The company gave no sign whether it would make a payment due Thursday on a separate bond abroad.
Evergrande's struggle has raised fears it might destabilize China's financial system and set off a global chain reaction. But economists said while banks and other creditors would lose money, there appeared to be little way a default on its 2 trillion yuan (US$310 billion) in debt would hurt the Chinese system or feed through to markets abroad.
"It's definitely a local problem in China," said Robert Carnell, head of Asian research for ING.
"There will be some suppliers and others who will go bust," Carnell said. "But it's not systemic in a sense that I can put my finger on."
Chinese regulators have yet to announce what Beijing might do. But despite that, plus uncertainty about how much banks and individual buyers of Evergrande's bonds might lose, stock markets appeared to recover from anxiety that caused Chinese stocks to tumble on Monday.
China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.4% higher on Thursday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.2%. Markets in Australia and Southeast Asia, where economies depend heavily on trade with China, also rose.
Markets are "in a worst is over frenzy" after Evergrande's promise to pay bondholders, said Jeffrey Halley of Oanda, in a report.
Meanwhile, local governments were told to prepare for Evergrande's possible collapse by talking with other developers about taking over its real estate projects and monitoring public anger and possible protests, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified sources.
Officials were told to intervene only at the last minute if Evergrande is unable to manage its affairs, the Journal said.
Evergrande was caught by tighter restrictions on borrowing imposed by Chinese regulators last year in a campaign to reduce the economy's reliance on surging debt. The company has sold billions of dollars of assets to meet government limits.
Evergrande's billionaire founder, Xu Jiayin, has expressed confidence the company will survive, but it has yet to announce a plan for repaying debtors.
That includes an $83.5 million payment due Thursday to buyers abroad of a U.S. dollar-denominated bond. The company has a month to pay before it would be declared in default.
Economists say any government action is likely to focus on protecting Chinese families that paid for apartments that are yet to built, rather than on bailing out banks or other creditors.
Beijing has resources to prevent a Chinese credit crunch if Evergrande defaults. But it doesn't want to appear to organize a bailout while it tries to force others to cut debt, economists say. The ruling Communist Party worries surging debt that piled up during China's boom years might cause problems as economic growth slows.
On Thursday, one of Evergrande's biggest shareholders, Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd., announced it sold part of its stake at a loss and might sell its remaining 5.66% of the company. Chinese Estates said it took a 1.4 billion Hong Kong dollar ($177 million) loss.
Evergrande's debt problems come at a time when Chinese economic growth is forecast to weaken due to a slowdown in construction and home sales due to government pressure on the real estate industry to reduce reliance on borrowed money.
On Thursday, Fitch Ratings cut its growth forecast for China this year to 8.1% -- still among the world's strongest -- from 8.4%, citing the real estate slowdown.
Meanwhile, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the debt of a smaller Chinese developer, Xinyuan Real Estate Co., which has delayed releasing 2020 results. S&P said Xinyuan, which has shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, faces "refinancing difficulty" that will make it harder to service $229 million in debt due to lenders abroad in October.
Hundreds of smaller Chinese developers have gone bankrupt since Beijing started tightening financial controls on the industry in 2017.
Some commentators suggested Evergrande might become a "Lehman moment," invoking the 2008 collapse of Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers ahead of the global crisis. But economists say Evergrande's debts are relatively simple compared with those of a Wall Street bank and appear unlikely to set off a chain reaction.
Evergrande's debt is the equivalent of as much as 2% of China's annual economic output, but economists say the state-owned banking industry can absorb a possible default.
"There will be some banks exposed," said ING's Carnell. "The big ones can cope. The small ones don't matter."
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.