Evergrande boss has fire sale

The founder of Evergrande has sold off a range of personal assets in an attempt to keep the hugely indebted company afloat.

Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin. Picture: Supplied

The founder of China Evergrande Group has raised about 815 million pounds ($A1.5 billion) by selling his personal assets, including a villa in Hong Kong and private jets, in an attempt to keep the hugely indebted property company afloat.

Xu Jiayin, 63, has used the money to pay salaries of Evergrande employees, make interest payments on domestic and offshore bonds and to help the company to resume construction projects around China, according to Jiemian News, a state-run news site.

Xu Jiayin’s private plane. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Xu was said also to have pledged his personal stocks and to have offered to sell luxury properties in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as artworks.

“For the time being, it is [Xu] personally raising money to keep Evergrande alive,” a source told Yicai, a state-run financial news outlet.

Evergrande, which bet on a bullish property market and expanded aggressively, has been hobbled by more than 300 billion dollars in debts after the Chinese market began to cool under tighter government regulations.

Determined to rein in the property market and to control financial risks, Beijing is unlikely to bail out Evergrande, but it wants to limit the damage that the company may do to the property and financial sectors. Beijing had demanded that Xu use his own wealth to pay off some debts, it was reported last month.

A man walks past a housing complex by Chinese property developer Evergrande in Guangzhou, China's southern Guangdong province. Picture: AFP

Xu is estimated to be worth about 8.4bn pounds, according to the Hurun China Rich List 2021, down from $45bn pounds in 2017.

His net worth, however, represents only a fraction of Evergrande’s debts, which are feared to be so great as to pose a systemic threat.

Hui founded the company in 1996 and it has since grown into one of the country’s largest property developers.

The Times