Reuters

China Evergrande lines up funds to pay interest, avert default -source

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China Evergrande Group has supplied funds to pay interest on a U.S. dollar bond, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday, days before a deadline that would have seen the developer plunge into formal default. The person said Evergrande remitted $83.5 million to a trustee account at Citibank on Thursday – as earlier reported on Friday by state-backed Securities Times – allowing it to pay all bondholders before the payment grace period ends on Oct. 23. Still, the developer, saddled with $300 billion in liabilities, will need to make payments on a string of other bonds, with the next major deadline to avoid default on Oct. 29 and little known about whether it is in a position to pay.