Country Garden Holdings, a troubled Chinese developer, is struggling to avoid its first ever genuine default on an offshore loan as the grace period for a US$15.4 million payment enters its last hours.

The business, which was formerly China's top house builder in terms of sales, missed an initial deadline for the dollar-bond coupon payment last month, triggering a 30-day grace period that ends on October 17 and 18 because the missed payment happened on a Sunday. The precise hour of the deadline has not been disclosed.

Country Garden warned a week ago that it would be unable to service all of its offshore borrowings on schedule.

When the Post contacted it on Tuesday, it did not respond quickly.

The Chinese property giant's admission of probable default in a statement last week signaled the start of steps to restructure some of its US$16.5 billion in offshore loans.

According to the statement, the Foshan-based firm has appointed China International Capital Corp and Houlihan Lokey as joint financial advisers, and Sidley Austin as legal counsel, to assess its capital structure and liquidity.

Country Garden has missed bond coupon payment dates in recent months amid bleak house sales across the country, adding to the list of victims of Beijing's "three red lines" policy, which was implemented in August 2020 to curb developers' leverage in what was then a booming property market.