債務危機下，中國恆大將從香港證券交易所除牌

Recently Yahoo News on-line picked up the following:

China Evergrande to be delisted from Hong Kong stock exchange following debt woes

The Associated Press - Kanis Leung

Tue, August 12, 2025 at 7:06 a.m. PDT·4 min read

HONG KONG (AP) — The severely indebted real estate developer China Evergrande, already in the process of liquidation, said on Tuesday it will be delisted from Hong Kong’s stock exchange on Aug. 25, another setback to mainland China’s property sector.

Evergrande was the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer, with over $300 billion owed to banks and bondholders, when the court handed down a liquidation order in January 2024. The court had ruled that the company had failed to provide a viable restructuring plan for its debts, which fueled fears about China’s rising debt burden, and trading of its shares has been halted since the ruling.

The city's rules stipulate that the listing of companies may be canceled if trading in their securities has remained suspended for 18 months consecutively.

China Evergrande Group received a letter Aug. 8 from the city's stock exchange notifying the firm of its decision to cancel the listing as trading had not resumed by Jul. 28. The last day of the listing will be Aug. 22 and Evergrande will not apply for a review of the decision, the company said in a statement.

“All shareholders, investors and potential investors of the company should note that after the last listing date, whilst the share certificates of the shares will remain valid, the shares will not be listed on, and will not be tradeable on the Stock Exchange," the statement said.

Evergrande is among scores of developers that defaulted on debts after Chinese regulators cracked down on excessive borrowing in the property industry in 2020. Unable to obtain financing, their vast obligations to creditors and customers became unsustainable.

The crackdown also tipped the property industry into crisis, dragging down the world’s second-largest economy and rattling financial systems in and outside China. Once among the nation's strongest growth engines, the industry is struggling to exit a prolonged downturn. Home prices in China have continued to fall even after the introduction of supportive measures by policymakers.

The Hong Kong court system has been dealing with liquidation petitions against some Chinese property developers, including one of the largest Chinese real estate companies, Country Garden, which is expected to have another hearing in January.

China South City Holdings, a smaller property developer, was also ordered to liquidate on Monday.

Evergrande, founded in the mid-1990s by Hui Ka Yan, also known as Xu Jiayin, had over 90% of its assets on the Chinese mainland, according to the 2024 ruling. The firm was listed in Hong Kong in 2009 as “Evergrande Real Estate Group” and suspended its share trading on Jan. 29, 2024, at 0.16 Hong Kong dollars ($0.02).

Its liquidators said in a progress report that they received debt claims totalling $45 billion as of Jul. 31, much higher than the some $27.5 billion of liabilities disclosed in December 2022, and that the new figure was not final.

The liquidators said they have assumed control of over 100 companies within the group and entities under their direct management control with collective assets valued at $3.5 billion as of Jan. 29, 2024. They said an estimate of the amounts that may ultimately be realized from these entities wasn't available yet.

About $255 million worth of assets have been sold, the liquidators said, calling the realization “modest." Of this amount, $244 million was derived from subsidiaries’ assets, and not all of them will be available to the company, given the complex ownership structures of the assets.

“The liquidators believe that a holistic restructuring will prove out of reach, but they will, of course, explore any credible possibilities in this regard that may present themselves,” they said.

Hui, Evergrande's founder, was detained in China in September 2023 on suspicion of committing crimes, adding to the company’s woes.

In 2024, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a fine of 4.2 billion yuan (about $584 million) against the firm's subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate Group Company, over violations including falsifying financial records. Hui was fined 47 million yuan ($6.5 million) and barred from China’s securities markets for life. Some other executives were also penalised.

Chinese authorities in September 2024 banned the accounting firm PwC for six months and fined the company more than 400 million yuan ($56.4 million) over its involvement in the audit of the collapsed property developer.

Translation

債務危機下，中國恆大將從香港證券交易所除牌

香港（美聯社）— 負債累累的房地產開發商中國恆大周二宣布，將於8月25日從香港證券交易所除牌。該公司先前已進入清盤程序。這無疑是中國內地房地產產業的另一個挫折。

2024年1月，法院下達清盤令時，恆大是全球負債最重的房地產開發商，欠銀行和債券持有人的債務超過 3,000億美元。法院裁定恆大未能提供可行的債務重整計劃，這加劇了人們對中國債務負擔不斷加重的擔憂，自該裁決發布以來，恆大已暫停股票交易。

根據香港交易所規定，如果公司股票連續停牌18個月，其上市地位可能被取消。

中國恆大集團於8月8日收到香港證券交易所的函件，通知該公司因股票交易未能在7月28日前恢復，決定取消其上市地位。該公司在聲明中表示，上市最後期限為8月22日，恆大不會就該決定申請覆核。

聲明稱： “所有公司股東、投資者和潛在投資者應注意，在最後上市日期之後，雖然股票證書仍然有效，但股票將不再在香港證券交易所上市，也不能在香港證券交易所交易。”

恆大是2020年中國監管機構嚴厲打擊房地產行業過度借貸後，眾多拖欠債務的開發商之一。由於無法獲得融資，他們對債權人和客戶的巨額債去履行義務變得不可持續。

這次整治行動也使房地產業陷入危機，拖累了世界第二大經濟體，並擾亂了國內外的金融體系。房地產業曾是中國最強勁的成長引擎之一，如今正艱難地擺脫長期低迷。即使政策制定者推出扶持措施後，中國房價仍在持續下跌。

香港法院系統一直在處理針對一些中國房地產開發商的清盤申請，其中包括中國最大的房地產公司之一碧桂園，預計該公司將於1月再次開庭審理。

規模較小的房地產開發商華南城控股也在周一被勒令清盤。

根據2024年的裁決，恆大地產由許家印（ Xu Jiayin）於1990年代中期創立，其超過90%的資產位於中國大陸。該公司於2009年以「恆大地產集團」的名稱在香港上市，並於2024年1月29日以每股0.16港元（0.02美元）的價格停牌。

其清盤人在進度報告中表示，截至7月31日，他們收到的債務總額達450億美元，遠高於2022年12月披露的約275億美元的負債，且新的數字並非最終數字。

清盤人表示，截至2024年1月29日，他們已控制集團內100多家公司及其直接管理的實體，這些實體的總資產價值為35億美元。他們表示，目前尚無法估算這些實體最終可能變成現金的数字。

清盤人表示，已出售價值約2.55億美元的資產，並稱兑現金額「適中」。其中2.44億美元來自子公司資產，鑑於這些資產的所有權結構複雜，公司無法全部動用這些資產。

他們說: 「清盤人認為，整體重組難以實現，但他們當然會探索任何可能出現的可靠方案」。

恆大創始人許家印於2023年9月因涉嫌犯罪在中國被拘留，加劇了公司的困境。

2024年，證監會對恆大旗下子公司恆大地產集團公司處以42億元人民幣（約5.84億美元）的罰款，原因是其存在偽造財務記錄等違規行為。許家印被罰款4700萬元人民幣（約650萬美元），並被終身禁止進入中國證券市場。其他一些高管也受到了處罰。

2024 年 9 月，中國當局因羅兵咸永道會計師事務所參與對這家倒閉的房地產開發商的審計，禁止該事務所開展業務六個月，並對其處以超過 4 億元人民幣（5,640 萬美元）的罰款。

              So, China Evergrande, already in the process of liquidation, will soon be delisted from Hong Kong’s stock exchange and thus becomes another setback to mainland China’s property sector. It is interesting to note that this company’s auditing was done by PwC and the Chinese authorities in September 2024 had fined this company more than $56.4 million over its involvement in the auditing of this company.