Concord Construction Co (康和建設), which builds apartments in Taipei, said it's negotiating with creditors to extend its loans after it wrote checks last week that bounced.
Chinatrust Commercial Bank (
``We'll need to renegotiate with banks to extend loans for another year to plug our cash flow problems,'' Lu said. ``Our deputy finance manager went to the finance ministry today to talk about assistance the ministry can give.'' Concord joins a growing number of construction companies struggling with a decade-long slump in Taiwan's property market.
An economy that slowed to 1.1 percent growth in the first quarter of 2001 and last year's 45 percent plunge in stock prices further crimped demand for real estate in an already saturated market.
Earlier this month, an agreement between real estate developer Chief Construction Co (
Concord, which owes its creditors NT$5.8 billion, may ask Taiwan's Ministry of Finance to force creditors to lower interest charges and extend repayment on the loans, a Chinese-language newspaper reported.
The real-estate developer, which holds a 2 percent stake in publicly traded Concord Securities Corp (
``Since this week, our ability to make interest payments has worsened, and some banks are pushing us to repay loans,'' Lu said.
The finance ministry and the central bank last week ordered banks to lend more to companies to avert a credit crunch. The ministry also wants the banks to consolidate to be able to better cope with bad loans, which amounted to NT$842.3 billion, or 5.89 percent of total outstanding credits at the end of the quarter to March 31.
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