Does the name Country Garden (碧桂园) sound familiar to you?

If you have watched my youtube video “Mahathir, China Projects and Forest City”, you can probably recall that Country Garden is the developer behind Danga Bay and Forest City – the two controversial Johor Bahru projects in Malaysia.

For the last two weeks, this largest and most aggressive property developer in China is in the headlines all over China, Hong Kong and Australia, but for all the wrong reasons.

1. Unending leverage game

In January, Country Garden announced its intention to raise US$3 billion from the issue of 460 million new shares and convertible bonds. But when they announced their plan, share price of the Hong Kong-listed company immediately plunged in the stock market.

Since late last year, regulators in China have implemented tighter control over the issue of corporate bonds by property developers. Without easy financing, the financials of Chinese