HONG KONG/BEIJING/SHANGHAI - China's Peking University Founder Group is looking for strategic investment from a large state-owned enterprise after defaulting on an onshore bond, three sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
State-owned Peking Founder told investors on a conference call on Tuesday it had yet to obtain the 2 billion yuan ($284 million) it needs to repay the overdue note, the sources said, although it had a grace period of 15 days to do that.
According to the sources, the company said it would seek to deal fairly with all its debt, whether onshore or offshore, and to make any repayments on time.
Shanghai-listed Founder Securities 601901.SS and China Hi-Tech Group issued statements on Tuesday evening saying Peking Founder's plans for strategic investments have not yet been finalised.
Peking Founder is the largest holder in both companies, according to Refinitiv data.
The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
($1 = 7.0389 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Noah Sin in Hong Kong, Cheng Leng in Beijing and Steven Bian in Shanghai; Editing by Edmund Blair and Jan Harvey) ((Noah.Sin@thomsonreuters.com; +852 2841 5782; Reuters Messaging: noah.sin.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; Twitter: https://twitter.com/noah_sin))
