Evergrande Chairman Hui kept in special detention center in Shenzhen, sources say
Repeats late Friday item with no change to text
Hui taken away by Chinese authorities about a year ago
Hui moved to Shenzhen to better communicate with company execs -source
Evergrande close to handing over most homes promised to buyers -sources
By Clare Jim and Julie Zhu
HONG KONG, Sept 12 (Reuters) -Hui Ka Yan, the chairman of China Evergrande Group 3333.HK - the company at the centre of the country's property sector crisis - has been moved to a special detention centre in Shenzhen, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Hui, 65, has not been seen in public since he was taken away by Chinese authorities a year ago and his current whereabouts have not been previously reported.
After China's securities regulator found Evergrande's flagship unit had inflated earnings and committed securities fraud, Hui was fined $6.6 million in March and barred from the securities market for life. Evergrande was ordered into liquidation in January.
Hui, who was once China's richest man, is not known to have been formally charged with any crimes and it is unclear how long he will remain in detention or whether he will be tried or set free.
Chinese authorities have detained many former high-flying business executives and some have remained in detention for years with little or no information about their fate.
The property tycoon was initially under house surveillance in Beijing after his arrest, according to one of the sources.
He was transferred to Shenzhen a few months ago to allow him to more easily communicate with top Evergrande executives, said the second source. Evergrande is headquartered in the neighbouring southern city of Guangzhou and its wealth management unit is based in Shenzhen.
The sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
China's Ministry of Public Security and the Shenzhen municipal government did not respond to Reuters requests for comment, nor did Hengda Real Estate, Evergrande's main unit. Evergrande's liquidators, who have been appointed by a Hong Kong court, declined to comment.
Hui founded Evergrande in 1996, transforming it into China's biggest property developer in terms of contracted sales, aggressively taking on debt.
Since 2021, the company has defaulted on most of its $300 billion liabilities as well as billions of dollars of wealth management product payments, and its troubles have been emblematic of China's property sector woes that have long dragged on economic growth.
In March, a regulatory probe found an Evergrande unit had inflated revenue by 564 billion yuan ($79 billion) during 2019-2020 and issued bonds based on falsified statements.
WEALTH MANAGEMENT PAYMENTS
According to the second source, Hui is in "good shape" and has access to medical care and good food at the special detention centre. Detainees at special detention centres typically receive better treatment than at ordinary detention centres.
Hui wrote a letter to senior Evergrande executives after being sent to the centre, urging them to resolve the non-payment of returns to investors in its wealth management products as soon as possible, the source added.
Evergrande's wealth management unit announced plans in late 2021 to repay investors in its wealth management products. But in August last year, it said it was no longer able to make the monthly installments. Some of the unit's staff were detained by the Shenzhen police a couple of weeks later.
The two sources also said Evergrande is close to handing over most homes that have been promised to buyers, adding that more than 70% of the construction is completed for those apartments.
They did not provide details on how many apartments that might mean. Evergrande had nearly 800 projects across the country as of 2022.
($1 = 7.1213 Chinese yuan)
Reporting by Clare Jim and Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Xie Yu; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Edwina Gibbs
Últimas noticias
Descargo de responsabilidades: Cada una de las entidades de XM Group proporciona un servicio de solo ejecución y acceso a nuestra plataforma de trading online, permitiendo a una persona ver o usar el contenido disponible en o a través del sitio web, sin intención de cambiarlo ni ampliarlo. Dicho acceso y uso están sujetos en todo momento a: (i) Términos y Condiciones; (ii) Advertencias de riesgo; y (iii) Descargo completo de responsabilidades. Por lo tanto, dicho contenido se proporciona exclusivamente como información general. En particular, por favor tenga en cuenta que, los contenidos de nuestra plataforma de trading online no son ni solicitud ni una oferta para entrar a realizar transacciones en los mercados financieros. Operar en cualquier mercado financiero implica un nivel de riesgo significativo para su capital.
Todo el material publicado en nuestra plataforma de trading online tiene únicamente fines educativos/informativos y no contiene –y no debe considerarse que contenga– asesoramiento ni recomendaciones financieras, tributarias o de inversión, ni un registro de nuestros precios de trading, ni una oferta ni solicitud de transacción con instrumentos financieros ni promociones financieras no solicitadas.
Cualquier contenido de terceros, así como el contenido preparado por XM, como por ejemplo opiniones, noticias, investigaciones, análisis, precios, otras informaciones o enlaces a sitios de terceros que figuran en este sitio web se proporcionan “tal cual”, como comentarios generales del mercado y no constituyen un asesoramiento en materia de inversión. En la medida en que cualquier contenido se interprete como investigación de inversión, usted debe tener en cuenta y aceptar que dicho contenido no fue concebido ni elaborado de acuerdo con los requisitos legales diseñados para promover la independencia en materia de investigación de inversiones y, por tanto, se considera como una comunicación comercial en virtud de las leyes y regulaciones pertinentes. Por favor, asegúrese de haber leído y comprendido nuestro Aviso sobre investigación de inversión no independiente y advertencia de riesgo en relación con la información anterior, al que se puede acceder aquí.
