China Evergrande H1 net loss narrows to 33b yuan

PROPERTY developer China Evergrande Group on Sunday (Aug 27) reported a January-June net loss of 33 billion yuan (S$6.1 billion, US$4.53 billion) versus a 66.4 billion yuan loss in the same period a year ago.

Evergrande is at the centre of a crisis in China’s property sector that since late 2021 has seen a string of debt defaults.

The world’s most indebted developer posted a combined net loss of US$81 billion for 2021 and 2022 in a long-overdue earnings report last month, having posted an 8.1 billion yuan profit in 2020.

Over that two-year period, revenue dropped 55 per cent to 230.1 billion yuan. Liabilities reached 2.4 trillion yuan, up 23 per cent, while its assets were worth 1.8 trillion yuan, down 20 per cent.

On Friday, Evergrande said it had “adequately” fulfilled exchange guidance for the resumption of trade of its Hong Kong-listed stock and had applied for trade to resume on Aug 28.

Trading of the stock has been halted since March last year pending the 2021 and 2022 results and the outcome of matters including an investigation into 13.4 billion yuan of deposits seized from a subsidiary. REUTERS