HONG KONG — Embattled Chinese developer giant
Evergrande announced Monday it was once again suspending trading of its shares
in
Hong Kong ahead of an announcement.
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The country's property firms have struggled in the wake of
Beijing's drive to curb excessive debt in the real estate sector as well as
rampant consumer speculation.
Drowning in $300 billion in liabilities, Evergrande has
struggled to repay bondholders and investors after Beijing's crackdown suddenly
turned off the liquidity taps.
"At the request of the Company, trading in the shares
of the Company was halted at 9am on January 3, 2022 pending the release by the
Company of an announcement containing inside information," the group said
in a short statement on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
It previously saw a period of suspended share trading back
in October.
The troubled developer was labelled as being in default by
international ratings firms last month after it failed to repay liabilities on
time.
Earlier struggles to pay suppliers and contractors due to
the debt crisis led to sustained protests from homebuyers and investors at the
group's Shenzhen headquarters in September.
Last week, Evergrande momentarily cheered investors by
insisting it would be able to deliver tens of thousands of units this month,
and pay off some debts.
But its shares took a dive at the end of the week after a
report that the group had failed to meet two more offshore payments.
In recent months, the company has repeatedly said it will
finish its unfinished projects and deliver them to buyers in a desperate bid to
salvage its debts, despite having missed the earlier payment of more than $1.2
billion.
But in a new headache for the firm, local Chinese media
reported over the weekend that it has been ordered to demolish 39 buildings by
the authorities on Hainan island because the structures were built illegally on
an artificial archipelago in the tourist hub.
The bloated firm has tried to sell assets and shave down its
stakes in other firms, with chairman Hui Ka Yan — known as Xu Jiayin in
Mandarin — paying off some of the debts using his own considerable personal
wealth.
The provincial government of Guangdong — where the firm is
headquartered — is currently overseeing Evergrande's debt restructuring
process.
Evergrande's woes have had knock-on effects throughout
China's property sector with some smaller firms also defaulting on loans and
others struggling to find enough cash.
Bloomberg News calculates that China's property firms need
to stump up some $197 billion to cover maturing bonds, coupons, trust products
and deferred wages to millions of migrant workers in January.
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