China has put Evergrande’s billionaire founder under police control, Bloomberg reported. Other former execs have also been swept up in Beijing’s ongoing probe, according to reports. The embattled real-estate giant’s shares have plunged after saying it would be unable to issue new debt. Loading Something is loading.
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Evergrande’s billionaire founder has been put under police control by Chinese authorities, Bloomberg reported.
Police took the embattled property developer’s chairman, Hui Ka Yan, to a designated location earlier this month and placed him under surveillance, the outlet reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
Hui hasn’t been formally charged with a crime but will be unable to leave the location and was likely forced to hand over his passport and ID card to officials, Bloomberg reported.
The news comes a day after Chinese publication Caixin reported that several ex-Evergrande executives, including a former CEO and CFO, were also facing official investigations.
Evergrande was once China’s second-largest property developer, but has struggled to stave off a liquidity crisis since 2021 in a financial collapse that’s rattled the country’s entire real-estate sector.
It reached a peak market capitalization of nearly 420 billion Hong Kong dollars ($54 billion) back in 2017, but is now worth less than $1 billion.
Evergrande filed for bankruptcy in August but said Monday that an ongoing official investigation would hamper its ability to issue fresh debt, sparking a 42% crash in its share price over the past three trading sessions.
Hui’s own wealth has tanked as well, with his personal fortune plummeting from $42 billion in 2017 to just $1.8 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.