Chinese developer Sino-Ocean Group Holding Ltd has received a winding-up petition in a Hong Kong court, according to the city’s judiciary website. 

The case was filed by The Bank of New York Mellon, London Branch, and the next hearing date is set for Sept 11, according to the website.

Sino-Ocean is among a select group of defaulters with Chinese state-owned companies as major shareholders, providing a level of confidence to investors in the past. China Life Insurance Co Ltd owns 29.59% of the builder, according to its latest annual report. 

The developer has several hundred projects in China, but the country’s property slump continues to weigh on sales. For the first five months of the year, contracted sales tumbled 67%, compared with the year-earlier period. 

Once considered one of the stronger names among China’s debt-laden developers, Sino-Ocean became a defaulter in September, when it suspended payment on all of its offshore borrowings.

The builder said earlier this week that it hasn’t raised enough funds for seven yuan-bond payments initially due June 28, with a 30 trading-day grace period, according to an exchange filing dated June 26. 

Sino-Ocean has made little progress addressing its offshore debt obligations. In January, it told a key group of its dollar bond creditors that it would prioritise repaying its local debt, Bloomberg News reported.

Onshore, the builder sought earlier this year to exchange two yuan bonds into new ones to extend payment by as much as 30 months, Bloomberg reported.  

  - Bloomberg