NANJING, CHINA – AUGUST 18, 2023 – Aerial photo shows a residential area of Evergrande in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, August 18, 2023. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Shares in the world’s most indebted property developer, China Evergrande Group, plunged as much as 87% at Monday’s open, trading for the first time since March 21, 2022.
Shares fell as low as 22 HK cents on Monday, compared to their last close of HK$1.65 per share on March 18, 2022.
The resumption of trading comes as the company posted a loss of 39.25 billion yuan ($5.38 billion) in the six months ended June, a smaller loss compared to the loss of 86.17 billion yuan in the same year period of the previous year.
Revenue was 128.81 billion yuan, up from 89.28 billion yuan in June 2022.
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In July, the ailing company filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in a US court, which protects its US assets from creditors while it works on a restructuring deal elsewhere.
In its filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Evergrande said it had total liabilities of 2.39 trillion yuan as of June this year, down slightly from the 2.44 trillion yuan in the six months ended June 30, 2022.
As of June, Evergrande had total assets of 1.74 trillion yuan, including cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of 13.4 billion yuan.
Evergrande defaulted in 2021 and announced an offshore debt restructuring program in March after struggling to complete projects and repay suppliers and lenders.
Earlier this year, the company posted an overall loss of $81 billion in its long-overdue earnings report.
Net losses for 2021 and 2022 were 476 billion yuan and 105.9 billion yuan, respectively, due to property depreciation, land restitution, losses on financial assets and financing costs, the company said.
In 2020, before the company defaulted on payments, Evergrande posted net profit of 8.1 billion yuan.
– CNBC’s Sumathi Bala and Elliot Smith contributed to this report.
Source : www.cnbc.com