SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, Nov 27 (Reuters) - China Vanke's bonds tumbled at market open on Thursday, extending this week's losses, after the state-backed developer sought to delay an onshore bond repayment for the first time.
Several of Vanke's yuan bonds slumped more than 20%, with some down around 40%, prompting the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to suspend trading in six of the company's exchange-traded bonds as of 0143 GMT.
Vanke's yuan bond due in March 2027 CN149815= changed hands at 50 per 100 par value in early trading, down nearly 30%. The bond has dropped more than 40% this week.
Vanke said it is seeking bondholder approval to delay the repayment of a 2 billion yuan ($282.6 million) onshore bond CN102282715= due on December 15, a filing late on Wednesday showed.
An onshore bond extension would be a first for the state-backed property developer, surprising many market participants and raising concerns over how willing Beijing is to further support the crisis-hit sector.
Offshore, Vanke's dollar bond was bid at 30.4 cents on the dollar, further down from around 40 cents on Wednesday, data from Duration Finance showed. The bond was bid at around 55.4 cents on Tuesday.
The developer's bonds have been falling since financial publication Octus reported on Tuesday that Beijing gave preliminary guidance to the government of Shenzhen, where Vanke is based, to consider a "market-oriented approach" for dealing with the developer's debt, which is a euphemism for restructuring, according to the report.
A debt restructuring by Vanke 000002.SZ, 2202.HK, with 364.3 billion yuan of interest-bearing liabilities, could also potentially dwarf the impact of defaults by privately owned peers Evergrande and Country Garden this decade.
Two people with knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Wednesday that state-owned China International Capital Corporation (CICC) had been brought in to assess Vanke's debt and a debt restructuring was among the options the investment bank featured in an internal report to the central government.
($1 = 7.0758 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Shanghai and Hong Kong Newsrooms; Editing by Kevin Buckland)