A Hong Kong-based creditor has filed a winding-up petition against struggling developer Country Garden, adding to a wave of legal action that threatens to increase liquidations across China’s property sector.The petition, filed by a company called Ever Credit at Hong Kong’s High Court, cited non-payment of a HK$1.6bn (US$204mn) loan facility plus accrued interest, Country Garden disclosed on Wednesday in an exchange filing.

Country Garden, which until recently was the largest developer in mainland China by sales, refocused global attention on the country’s struggling property sector when it missed interest payments on offshore bonds last summer.

Its eventual default in October, two years after the 2021 collapse of its peer Evergrande, showed that developers thought to be among the country’s most resilient were still under severe pressure from a sector-wide cash crunch.