A Hong Kong court has postponed a decision on the liquidation of Country Garden, as the debt-laden Chinese real estate giant said it expects to reach an agreement with creditors by the end of next month.

Country Garden referred to the prospect at a hearing on Monday. The court said it will hold the next hearing in late May citing the need to wait and see if there is progress on negotiations.

The property developer has been in financial distress. It had defaulted on roughly 20 billion dollars' worth of debt as of the end of June last year.

Some of its creditors filed a petition for its liquidation with the court.

Country Garden announced on January 9 that it reached a basic agreement with key banks on a debt-restructuring plan. Based on the plan, the firm has been negotiating with creditors.

On Tuesday last week, the firm reported a net loss of 178.4 billion yuan, or more than 24 billion dollars, for 2023.