Shares in heavily indebted China Evergrande Group were taken off Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday, capping grim reversal of fortune for once-booming property developer
A committee at bourse had decided earlier this month to cancel Evergrande’s listing after it failed to meet July deadline to resume trading — suspended since early last year
Delisting on Monday marks latest milestone for firm whose painful downward spiral has become symbolic of China’s long-standing property sector woes
Once country’s biggest real estate firm, Evergrande was worth more than $50 billion at its peak & helped propel China’s rapid economic growth in recent decades but it defaulted in 2021 after years of struggling to repay creditors
Hong Kong court issued winding-up order for Evergrande in January 2024 ruling that company had failed to come up with suitable debt repayment plan
Firm’s debt load is bigger than previously estimated amount of $27.5 billion according to filing earlier this month attributed to liquidators Edward Middleton & Tiffany Wong
Statement added that China Evergrande Group was holding company & that liquidators had assumed control of more than 100 companies within group
Evergrande’s saga & similar issues faced by other property giants including Country Garden & Vanke have been closely followed by observers assessing health of world’s 2nd-largest economy
After decades-long construction boom fuelled by rapid urbanisation, China’s property sector began to show worrying signs in 2020 when Beijing announced new rules to limit excessive borrowing
With Evergrande’s default following year & other complications across industry continuing, return to boom years has proven elusive for policymakers
Crisis has also dampened consumer sentiment at a time when economists argue that China must shift towards new growth model driven more by domestic spending rather than investment
New home prices in grouping of 70 Chinese cities continued to drop in July, official data showed earlier this month
