Evergrande announced on August 12 that it has received a letter from the stock operator confirming that, having exceeded the deadline of July 28, the stock admission committee decided to cancel its market participation starting today at 9:00 a.m. local time (2:00 a.m. in Lisbon).
Under Hong Kong Stock Exchange rules, the operator can delist any company whose shares have been frozen for 18 consecutive months.
In March 2024, the operator already warned Evergrande that the real estate company would be delisted if it failed to meet the requirements on time.
Initial demands included the requirement for “the liquidation order against the company to be dismissed or set aside.”
The stock exchange also required Evergrande to publish all the company’s pending financial results and demonstrate the “integrity and capability” of the management.
Evergrande’s shares have been suspended since January 29, 2024, when a Hong Kong court ordered the liquidation of the real estate firm.
On that date, the company’s shares were trading at 0.16 Hong Kong dollars (0.02 euros), a drop of nearly 99.5% from the peak of 31.55 Hong Kong dollars (3.46 euros) achieved in October 2017.
The real estate company informed shareholders and investors that while the securities remain valid, they will no longer be listed and traded in Hong Kong and subject to listing rules.
With liabilities of about 330 billion dollars (approximately 282 billion euros), Evergrande defaulted in 2021 after facing a liquidity crisis due to Beijing’s restrictions on financing developers with high debt levels, leading to its intervention by Chinese authorities.
The group, the main visible face of the Chinese real estate crisis, plunged into new turmoil at the end of 2023, after the founder and chairman, Xu Jiayin, was placed under a form of house arrest for “suspected illegal activities.”
