Evergrande founder handed fine and stock market life ban
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The news: The founder of embattled property developer China Evergrande Group, Hui Ka Yan, will be barred from the securities market for life and fined 47 million yuan ($10 million).
The numbers: A probe by the China Securities Regulatory Commission found that Hengda Real Estate inflated revenues by 213.99 billion yuan, or half of the total, in 2019, Reuters reported.
It also found sales were inflated by 350 billion yuan, or 78.5% of total, in 2020.
Hengda Real Estate will be fined 4.2 billion yuan, and ordered by the regulator to rectify.
The context: With Hui at the helm, the developer was found to have issued bonds based on falsified statements, and failed to make timely disclosure of annual and mid-term results, lawsuit cases and outstanding debts. The company, as well as several of its former senior executives, have also been penalised following the regulator's investigation.
Last September, Evergrande – considered the world's most indebted property developer – said its founder was being investigated over suspected crimes.
A default by Evergrande in 2021 triggered a string of defaults at other builders and left thousands of homes unfinished across China, while the developer's financial woes have weighed heavily on China's property market ever since. In January, the Hong Kong High Court ordered the liquidation of the company.
The source: Reuters
