By Xie Yu

HONG KONG Creditors of Sunac China Holdings Ltd have approved its $9 billion offshore debt restructuring plan, the company said on Monday, marking the first approval of offshore debt restructuring by a major Chinese property developer.

Sunac is among a string of Chinese property developers that have defaulted on their offshore debt payment obligations since the sector was hit by an unprecedented liquidity crisis in 2021, roiling global markets.

Creditors holding 98.3% total value of the voting scheme have approved Sunac's restructuring plan proposed earlier this year, according to a filing by the company at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Sunac said after the creditors' approval, the company would proceed to seek the approval of the plan by a Hong Kong court hearing scheduled for Oct. 5.

The developer reached an agreement with a group of offshore creditors in March to restructure $9 billion of its debt, under which a part of its debt would be exchanged into convertible bonds backed by its Hong Kong-listed shares along with new notes with maturities of between two and nine years.

The plan had won support from holders of 87% of outstanding offshore debt by July, the company earlier said in a filing.

Sunac's revenue in the first six months rose 20.5% to 58.47 billion yuan ($8.02 billion), its interim results showed. Losses declined 18.1% to 15.37 billion yuan.

(Reporting by Xie Yu; Editing by Jan Harvey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)