By Xie Yu
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Embattled Chinese property developer Country Garden has won approval from creditors to extend payments for a 3.9 billion yuan ($540 million) onshore private bond, two people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The development buys time for the firm to avoid default in what will likely be a major relief for financial markets and the Chinese government, which has announced a raft of measures to support the indebted property sector.
Country Garden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cash-strapped Country Garden has been in discussions with onshore creditors to extend payments on the bond. It had proposed to repay the debt in instalments over three years instead of meeting its obligations by Saturday.
The bond is not publicly traded.
Country Garden still faces another major challenge next week. Apart from the onshore bonds, Country Garden is under pressure to repay missed interest tied to two offshore dollar bonds worth a total of $22.5 million.
(Reporting by Xie Yu and Kevin Huang from Beijing; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and William Mallard)
