The move, the second in as many weeks, gives the world’s most indebted developer with US$300 billion in liabilities time to sell assets to shore up its finances and hold talks with bondholders.
The two investors, who declined to be named as they are not allowed to speak about individual companies, said they received the payment late yesterday – or one day before the 30-day grace period was due to expire.
“The bond trustee informed us of the payment yesterday and the funds were received shortly (after),” said one investor.
“Nevertheless, we are hoping to hold talks with Evergrande’s advisers on the way forward with more payments due and a mountain of redemptions scheduled for next year.”
Evergrande’s missed payments to banks, retail creditors and suppliers has led to the suspension of more than half its 800 active projects in the mainland.
Last week it surprised the market, which has sent its stocks and bonds to record lows, by making an interest payment of US$83.5 million just hours before it would have been labelled a defaulter.
The payment will satisfy dues worth US$45.2 million it failed to pay on Sept 29.
Still, the developer has a further US$573 million of coupon payments due this year and faces US$7.7 billion in bond maturities next year.
It has a coupon payment due today and the next default deadline is Nov 11 when time runs out to meet three bond coupon payments worth US$148.2 million.
The company said in a recent filing that it has total debts of 240 billion yuan (US$37.5 billion) due over the next year.
That compares to cash and bank deposits of 161.6 billion yuan.
The company had hoped to get past the latest crisis by selling assets, attracting investors and boosting sales but has so far had little success.
The company this month revealed that plans to sell a majority stake in its property management unit for US$2.6 billion to rival Hopson Development had collapsed.
Other asset sales, including the sale of Evergrande’s Hong Kong offices, have also failed to come to fruition.
Contracted sales, a key source of liquidity, plunged to 3.65 billion yuan in the Sept 1 to Oct 20 period, the company said Wednesday.
That compared with over 142 billion yuan in sales in the same period last year.
While Evergrande has not revealed detailed plans to honour missed payments, advisers representing it and a group of its offshore bondholders have signed nondisclosure agreements in preparation for potential talks, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the development.
The bondholders are seeking to exchange information with the company, including the status of various projects, liquidity and asset valuation, Bloomberg said.
Chinese authorities have refused to bail out the developer, proclaiming instead that spillover risks can be contained, though in a meeting with select indebted companies asked it to pay offshore debt on time.
Companies were told that the government supports the healthy development of the real estate sector and will formulate and release policies, although the market may take some time to digest them, Caixin media reported.
However, Evergrande’s woes, and missed payments by smaller rivals, have sparked fears of contagion across the US$50 trillion Chinese financial system in recent weeks.
S&P Global Ratings last month estimated that developers it rates are due to redeem 480 billion yuan in domestic and offshore bonds over the next year, equal to almost a fourth of their free cash reserves.
The first big slug of maturities is set to come in January, with some US$6.2 billion in offshore bonds due for repayment, according to brokerage CGS-CIMB.
Smaller developers Modern Land China, Sinic Holdings and Fantasia Holdings Group have already defaulted, while a few others are struggling to repay.
Global ratings agencies have already slashed their score on a record 45 Chinese developers this month as liquidity woes mount amid rising maturities.
Kaisa Group Holdings was the latest to face the axe with ratings agencies fearing it will struggle to refinance debt amid diminished liquidity.
It faces a US$400 million bond redemption on Dec 7.