China Evergrande Group, once the country’s largest and most indebted property developer, has been officially delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The move follows years of financial difficulties that culminated in a 2021 default on offshore bonds, which exposed severe funding pressures across China’s real estate sector.
Evergrande’s shares had been suspended since January 2024, when a Hong Kong court ordered the company into liquidation after restructuring negotiations collapsed.
The exchange confirmed last week that the delisting would take effect, after Evergrande failed to meet requirements to resume trading within 18 months.
Founded by Hui Ka Yan, Evergrande grew rapidly during China’s property boom, debuting on the stock market in 2009 and borrowing more than $20 billion on international bond markets.
The FT reported Hui became one of Asia’s richest men at the company’s peak, when Evergrande’s market capitalisation reached HK$398.8 billion in 2017.
At the time of suspension, its market value had fallen to just HK$2.15 billion (US$275.3 million).
The developer’s collapse left behind liabilities of more than US$300 billion, mostly within mainland China, reflecting the debt-fuelled expansion of the country’s real estate industry.
Liquidators Alvarez & Marsal revealed this month that only $255 million of assets had been recovered so far, including a Claude Monet painting, while warning that the value of assets and liabilities remained too uncertain to provide guidance on potential creditor recoveries.
The liquidators have also filed legal action against PwC, Evergrande’s former auditor, after Chinese regulators found the firm approved accounts despite the developer inflating revenues by US$80 billion in 2019 and 2020.
PwC China was fined US$62 million and suspended from practice for six months in 2023.
Evergrande’s delisting underscores the continuing challenges in China’s property sector, where new home prices remain under pressure and authorities have focused on completing unfinished housing projects.
Across US$150 billion of defaulted property bonds issued offshore, less than 1 per cent has been recovered, according to figures reported earlier this year.
