Fitch has downgraded the credit rating of heavily indebted Chinese property developer Evergrande, adding to worries about the financial health of one of the country’s biggest borrowers on international markets.
The US rating agency said on Tuesday that the downgrade from B plus to B for its long-term foreign currency ratings, its first in more than five years for the company, reflects “ongoing pressure for Evergrande to downsize its business and reduce total debt”.
Evergrande, which grew into a sprawling conglomerate on the back of decades of urbanisation in China, has come under pressure at a time when Beijing has demanded that the country’s biggest real estate developers reduce their leverage as it attempts to rein in the property sector.