Evergrande’s Unconfirmable Interest Payments, The Silent Paying Agent, The Roaring Helicopter And The Parable Of The Rich Fool
/By Stan Szymanski
Two weeks ago, the financial press reported that at the 11th hour, Evergrande, the second largest Chinese Real Estate Developer, made its past due interest payment one day before the ratings agencies would have declared the Company bankrupt for being in arrears for 30 days to bondholders.
Then, a week later, Evergrande pulled a rabbit out of their hat for an encore with the ‘journalists’ who cover the business of money proclaiming that Evergrande paid the second past due interest payment just before they would be baptized as bankrupt.
Last week I wrote ‘Dr. Marco Metzler: Evergrande Missed Second Past Due Interest Payment In A Week-Is Bankrupt-Could Drag Down Real Estate Sector/HSBC & World Financial System’ detailing the work of Dr. Metzler who says that the company did not respond to his firm’s request for positive confirmation of the payment(s). With the supposed and reported making of these payments-promulgated by the media, the beleaguered company should have their investor relations department broadcasting this to the entire world, who by the way, is watching. But they don’t. Dr. Metzler got -no- confirmation from Evergrande regarding the proof of their payment. Not from them, not from any rating agency. According to Dr. Metzler in a press release referenced in my article…’the bankruptcy has apparently already technically occurred’.
On September 21, 2021, before the company was past due on its interest payments, ‘China ‘Evergrande Inches Close To Default Deadline, Investors Wait’ appeared at nasdaq.com.
As we now know, that claim was a fallacy as Evergrande missed that payment. In reading the article, the contributors at nasdaq clearly described the bond issues: …’A major test for Evergrande comes this week, with the firm due to pay $83.5 million in interest relating to its March 2022 bond VG158043114= on Thursday. It has another $47.5 million payment due on Sept. 29 for March 2024 notes VG158786753=.’…
This details enough information about the bonds so there can be no mistaking exactly which securities are in question. As is further detailed on the nasdaq article…’Citigroup Inc C.N subsidiaries serve as trustee and payment agent for a China Evergrande bond VG158043114= that matures in March 2022 and has $83.5 million in interest coming due on Thursday..’…
So we know that Citibank is the paying agent for at least one of the Evergrande bonds.
At one time bonds were a real part of my life. After coming out of school in the early eighties, it was a bit tough to find a decent job as Pittsburgh PA. was really in a depression with tens of thousands leaving the ‘City Of Champions’ to find gainful employment, mainly because of the steel mills closing. I was fortunate to find a modest, but stable job at the Pittsburgh branch of the Federal Reserve Bank in the Check department. Not too long afterward I moved to the ‘non-cash’ department. ‘Non-cash basically means bonds. I started out processing coupons that were being redeemed from bearer municipal bonds. Later, I worked the non-cash desk being responsible for taking in and processing the actual bonds. I am relating this story because most people in the brokerage business have never actually read a physical bond that they could hold in their hands. But I did. I made a point of reading through the covenants on the bonds and could actually see that the ‘paying agent’ was part of the covenant of the bond.
Of course today, what do investors get when they buy a bond? They only get a digital notification of the title of the bond, the interest rate and when it is due. There is actually a lot more to the ‘promises’ in a bond covenant but does anyone honor those anymore? Less and less do we see the honoring of covenants whether it is between God and man or between corporations and bondholders.
So this is why I am aware of things like the paying agent for a bond. I thank the folks at nasdaq for providing us which some of the information necessary to identify the bond issue and especially for identifying the paying agent, who in this case is Citibank.
So, just as Dr. Metzler tried to get information from Evergrande and the rating agencies about the authenticity of the alleged interest payments, so too, I tried to obtain the veracity of the media claims of remittance of interest and principle when due to bondholders which should be available from the paying agent.
So very early on the 3rd of November 2021 I sent an email to Ms. Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a spokesperson of some tenure at Citi. Later on in the day, I sent an email inquiry to Citi Fixed Income Investor Relations. Somewhat later, I placed a phone call to Citi Fixed Income Investor Relations as well. I received no correspondence in return from any of my attempts to obtain information that one should be able to readily retrieve from a bond paying agent.
So, I failed, but I succeeded. I failed in getting any confirmation from the paying agent about any authenticity as to the media’s claims. I succeeded in further confirming the work of Dr. Metzler who also shared that he could not come by any information to verify that the interest payments had been made from what should be a reputable resource, mainly the company Evergrande itself.
If I am contacted by Citi I will post that I was contacted and the resulting info, if any, at the EA blog.
The financial media has acted with subterfuge and the actual responsible parties who should be able to unequivocally provide the truth in this matter (the company and the paying agent) are silent in the face of public questions.
I would like to share that shortly after I placed the phone call to Citi Fixed Income Investor Relations that a roaring helicopter flew directly over my little house located half way to the middle of nowhere at approximately 75 feet AGL (Above Ground Level). I’m sure that this was just a coincidence (now turn off sarcasm). I also had this happen this year after I wrote ‘Dr. David Martin, CEO M•CAM Illuminates What Big Pharma Knew, When They Knew It and the case for RICO’. It was the same deal; helicopter in the middle of the afternoon, while I was outside flying approximately 75 feet AGL over the house.
If the company won’t tell Dr. Metzler the answers to his questions-If the paying agent won’t respond to inquiry-Should all investors not be utterly concerned about their investments (this is not financial advice-consult your financial advisor)? If the corporate financial media is unwilling to question the conventional narrative-should you trust them? If you cannot trust the financial media-how will you make decisions when it comes to investing and protecting what you have worked so hard to accumulate?
JUST HOW BAD IS THE EVERGRANDE SITUATION? Why aren’t the large financial media companies and journalists doing what Dr. Metzler and I are doing by simply asking pointed questions to the appropriately responsible parties? Evergrande is bankrupt according to Dr. Metzler. What’s the worst that could happen to you in an Evergrande collapse? Dr. Metzler has shared how a global contagion my happen if Evergrande goes down.
How are you set for food, water (it’s obtainment and purification), shelter, energy, protection and if you have financial assets, the consideration of physical (not paper like SLV) precious metals? Have you even considered any of these in order for you to make it through a potentially very bad scenario?
Have you considered that all of the money and assets in the world will not save you from hell if you don’t have a saving knowledge of God through His Son, Jesus Christ? Consider making the first things first.
Have you not heard the parable of the rich fool?
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21 NIV)
Will an abundance of assets save you in the end? We live in a world where the virus and the experimental vaccines kill. If, as Jesus says, your life were to be demanded from you, what does it matter the treasures you have laid up on earth? At that point, all that matters is the treasures you have laid up in Heaven. Do you know God? Do you know Jesus? He is the Word Of God; read His Word. His Word is the real treasure.
We need to be good stewards of what our Creator has given us. Ask the right questions of Evergrande. Ask the right questions of CitiBank. Be brave and ask your questions of Jesus. He is big enough to handle your inquiry and He has an answer for you.
If you appreciate this article perhaps you might consider a gift to Encouraging Angels for the intelligence we provided today.
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Stan Szymanski (or Encouraging Angels) is not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. In all matters pertaining to the health and care of a human being consult a medical doctor. This is not legal, financial or personal advice. Consult appropriate professionals in those fields for that type of advice.