Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - The most indebted real estate developer in the world, China Evergrande Group, declared on Tuesday that i...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - The most indebted real estate developer in the world, China Evergrande Group, declared on Tuesday that it will "vigorously" defend a petition for winding up that has been filed against it and that the case will not affect its restructuring strategy or timetable.
Evergrande verified the complaint made in Hong Kong by investment holding company Top Shine Global Ltd for failing to pay a debt of HK$862.5 million ($109.91 million).
The developer defaulted on its offshore loan last year and has over $300 billion in obligations. By the end of July, it intends to make a first restructuring plan public.
Company stated in a stock exchange statement on Tuesday that any transfer of directly held property—including assets and shares—if it were to be wound up would be invalid unless the court issued a validation order.
Any transfer of shares by shareholders or potential investors on or after June 24, when the petition was filed, would be void in such a case, it stated.
Since March 21, trading in Evergrande shares has been halted as a result of the company's failure to deliver financial results on schedule and the announcement by unit Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd that it was looking into how banks seized deposits worth $2 billion that had been pledged as security for third-party guarantees totaling 13.4 billion yuan ($1.4 billion).
A Top Shine official told Reuters on Monday that his company filed the petition because Evergrande had broken a promise to repurchase shares it had purchased in Fangchebao (FCB), Evergrande's online marketplace for cars and homes.
According to the executive, Top Shine purchased 0.46 percent of FCB for HK$750 million in March of last year in anticipation of an initial public offering (IPO), and Evergrande pledged to repurchase the shares at a 15% premium if an IPO did not occur by April 8, 2022.
(1 Hong Kong dollar = 7.8472)
$1 is equal to 6.6969 Chinese Yuan Renminbi.
