Reports also suggest that LDK may be seeking to nationalise, although details of such a plan have not been released.

The creditor in question is Huarong International Trust, a subsidiary of China Huarong Asset Management Corporation, one of a handful of state-owned Chinese asset management firms.

Huarong issued LDK a three-year loan worth 500m yuan ($78.5m) in August 2009 as the company – the world’s largest maker of PV wafers – raced to expand its production of polysilicon, cells and modules.