How a Fortune 500 firm built a commodity giant on a shell game

Cedar Holdings under fire as investors await returns on $3bn of wealth products

20220222 cedar holdings

Since April 2020, Cedar has delayed redemption of matured WMPs but still managed to pay interest. But starting in January this year, the company could not even pay overdue interest. (Screenshot from Cedar Holdings website)

WANG JING, LUO GUOPING and HAN WEI, Caixin

Investors who poured billions of dollars into products backed by Cedar Holdings Group were betting on the commodity giant's financial strength as a Fortune Global 500 company. But as Cedar repeatedly missed payment obligations, they realized that the multibillion dollar colossus might just be an illusion.

About 8,000 individual investors holding 20 billion yuan ($3.15 billion) of wealth management products (WMPs) backed by Cedar -- including some sold overseas -- are in limbo as the company's finances worsen. Cedar also has 2 billion yuan of overdue payments on trust products, investors said.

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