Online Public Relations Thoughts

A company is in a poor position when it pleads with creditors for more time to repay them.  Such is the case with Evergrande, the Chinese property developer with $300 billion in defaulted bonds.  It has been reduced to telling international holders that legal action could result in a "destructive outcome."  The company has fallen far from its pinnacle over the builders of China.  Today, it is a beggar pleading for mercy.  The only message creditors want to hear is their funds plus interest is coming to them on a date certain. Should Evergrande declare bankruptcy, the best they can expect is pennies on the dollar.  One can ask, however, is how creditors believed the company's messages in the first place.  Wasn't there any skepticism about the story they were told?  Or, did their greed overcome business instincts?  Was Evergrande lying to them?  Or, was the CEO naïve?  There is still time, not much of it, for Evergrande to turn around but trust has been broken irrevocably.