HONG KONG -- The liquidity crisis at Chinese chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup, a crown jewel of President Xi Jinping's grand "Made in China 2025" plan, deepened this week after the company said it would default on more bonds.
The company, majority-owned by the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, Xi's alma mater, said a subsidiary failed to meet a deadline to repay a $450 million Eurobond and noted that the credit delinquency "will constitute a cross-default." That means three U.S.-dollar denominated bonds issued by the unit in January 2018, with a total face value of $2 billion, will also be considered in default.