A Chinese property developer whose owner bought a stake in SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. is piling up overdue loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as a government campaign to control debt starts to squeeze China’s property sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. Zhonghong Holding Co. disclosed in a regulatory filing on Monday that it defaulted on more than 1.1 billion yuan in borrowings, doubling in the past five weeks a pile of overdue debt that totaled 2.27 billion yuan ($360 million). In the filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Zhonghong said the debt came from “various kinds of borrowings” and didn’t disclose further details. Zhonghong is talking with creditors, which include financial institutions and banks, said a company representative. She declined to disclose further information, saying, “It’s complicated.” While Zhonghong is a relatively small developer of offices, shopping malls and other commercial real estate, its mounting defaults are seen as a bellwether of emerging problems in the real estate sector that could ripple across the banking system.
