Enterprises make late bond debt payments, restructure schedules

Many enterprises recently announced late payments for due bonds, while others also had to prolong and restructure bond debts.

By early May, nearly 100 enterprises were overdue on bond interest and principal payments.

Statistics from the credit rating company Fiinratings showed that as of May 4, the market recorded 98 issuers that were late to fulfil their corporate bond debt obligations, with a total value of VNĐ128.5 trillion (US$5.5 billion), an increase of 13.6 per cent from the last update.

Six companies disclosed late payments on bond debts in May alone, totaling 11 lots of bonds.

Of which, Hanoi Trading Construction JSC (Vietracimex) delayed paying interest on four lots of bonds with a total par value of VNĐ970 billion. The company said the reason for the reason for the payment delay was that it did not arrange adequate payment sources as expected.

In the first half of May, numerous real estate businesses announced late payment of bonds, including Gia Phú Real Estate, Hưng Phát Construction, and Đất Xanh Group.

After Decree 08 on the bond market was issued by the Government, allowing the maturity to be extended up to 2 years, the market also recorded a number of debt restructuring activities under the new rules.

Phát Đạt Real Estate Development JSC (PDR) extended the payment date for the remaining VNĐ148 billion, according to the par value, of the bond lot PDRH2130002 that is due on April 28.

Instead of paying on the due date, Phát Đạt split the payments into three installments from May to July, with monthly payback rates of 30 per cent, 30 per cent, and 40 per cent, respectively, and the interest rate climbed from 13 per cent to 15 per cent every year.

After showing signs of recovery in March, the corporate bond market only recorded one private placement bond lot in April. The batch is worth VNĐ671 billion and was issued by North Star Holdings.

This means the bond issuance size of the month was only equivalent to 2.5 per cent over the previous month and 2.25 per cent over last year.

The bond’s term is 16 months with an interest rate of 14 per cent a year, the highest nominal interest rate since the beginning of 2023.

In the first half of May, numerous real estate businesses announced late payment of bonds, including Gia Phú Real Estate, Hưng Phát Construction, and Đất Xanh Group.