Country Garden, a distressed Chinese property developer

Country Garden Holdings, a troubled Chinese developer, is struggling to avoid its first ever genuine default on an offshore loan as the grace period for a US$15.4 million payment enters its last hours.

The business, which was formerly China's top house builder in terms of sales, missed an initial deadline for the dollar-bond coupon payment last month, triggering a 30-day grace period that ends on October 17 and 18 because the missed payment happened on a Sunday. The precise hour of the deadline has not been disclosed.

Country Garden warned a week ago that it would be unable to service all of its offshore borrowings on schedule.

When the Post contacted it on Tuesday, it did not respond quickly.

The Chinese property giant's admission of probable default in a statement last week signaled the start of steps to restructure some of its US$16.5 billion in offshore loans.