Published on : 23/07/2022 – 13:25Modified : 23/07/2022 – 13:26
After months of internal investigation, Chinese real estate giant Evergrande has decided to fire its CEO and CFO. This change of direction comes as the over-indebted group must present a restructuring plan by the end of the month.
With our correspondent in Beijing, Stephane Lagarde
Evergrande is back to work. In any case, this is the message conveyed by the most indebted promoter in the world on social networks, in a campaign aimed at demonstrating that construction sites have resumed – or will resume – and that cleaning has been done within the building. company to begin its recovery.
Since last summer, following an interim report from June 2021, the group, which has become a symbol of the real estate crisis in China, has not published its accounts. Taken in default of payment the following winter, Evergrande promised to unveil a restructuring plan by the end of July. Among the sources of refinancing, the sale of assets and the reduction of participations in other companies.
A stolen loan
Change of heads too: in his press release Friday evening June 22, Shawn Siu, the president of the electric vehicle subsidiary, takes over the reins of the group. Xia Haijun, the ex-CEO and Pan Darong the financial director, were forced to resign. The internal investigation having updated small arrangements between leaders, and in particular a loan from a “third party” of 13.4 billion yuan (1.943 billion euros) “hijacked” to be used in the group’s day-to-day operations, while the latter was facing a cash crisis.
Will this big spring cleaning be enough to make people forget a debt that exceeds Finland’s GDP? Nothing is less certain, while some of the owners have decided to stop paying their mortgages until the diggers are back to work. This risks further weakening Evergrande and the other “gray rhinos” in the sector. The banking regulator this week called on financial institutions to grant loans to promoters in difficultyso that they complete the work undertaken.