Evergrande pays back some cash owed to wealth product investors

China Evergrande Group started returning a small portion of the money owed to buyers of its investment products, weeks after people protested against missed payments.   

The distressed developer paid the first 10% installment of wealth management products due September on Thursday, in line with a repayment plan announced earlier, according to a statement on its website. Payments have been deposited into investors’ accounts, it said. 

The cash installment plan is one of three repayment options offered by Evergrande earlier this month to assuage angry buyers of the high-yield products. The other choices are for investors to receive heavily discounted properties or offset payables remaining on residential units they have already purchased, Bloomberg reported earlier. 

For the cash option, investors can choose to get back 10% of their principal and interest every quarter, with full repayment in two-and-a-half years. 

Missed payments on 40 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) of wealth products sold by Evergrande itself to retail investors have sparked nationwide demonstrations, putting more pressure on Beijing to find a solution and avoid further unrest. More than 70,000 people bought the products, including many Evergrande employees, as the cash-strapped developer tapped them for funding.