Liabilities, including payables, totalled 1.97 trillion yuan ($306 billion) at June-end вЂ“ equivalent to 2% of ChinaвЂ™s gross domestic product. And in September, it sought payment extensions for trust and bank loans. The firm in late August said construction at some of its developments had halted due to missed payments to contractors and suppliers. In June, Evergrande revealed it did not pay some commercial paper on time, and in July a court froze a $20 million bank deposit held by the firm at the bankвЂ™s request. Sources said the letter was authentic вЂ“ Evergrande called it fake. In September last year, a leaked letter showed Evergrande pleading for government support to approve a now-dropped backdoor stock market listing.

Slowing growth has seen it branch into businesses such as insurance, bottled water, football and electric vehicles (EVs). It employed 163,119 staff as of June-end, its interim report showed. It listed in Hong Kong in 2009.Д®vergrande grew rapidly through a loan-supported land-buying spree and selling apartments quickly at low margins. It is ChinaвЂ™s second-largest property developer, with $110 billion in sales last year, $355 billion in assets and more than 1,300 developments nationwide. Cash-strapped real estate giant China Evergrande is on the precipice facing a formal default after it was reported some offshore bondholders did not receive coupon payments by the end of a 30-day grace period.ДЇailure to make $82.5 million in interest payments that were due last month would trigger a cross-default on the firmвЂ™s roughly $19 billion of international bonds and put the ailing developer at risk of becoming ChinaвЂ™s biggest-ever defaulter.Д¬hairman Hui Ka Yan founded Evergrande in Guangzhou in 1996.

Gross beat banks