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Highlights
- Xu Jiayin, Evergrande’s founder, has lost the most among the world’s richest in 2021.
- Jiayin has seen his net worth plummet by 66.98%.
- Shares of Evergrande have crashed by a massive 78.29% since the beginning of 2021.
China’s Cantonese billionaire Xu Jiayin – also known as Hui Ka Yan – has seen his wealth plummet by two-thirds, as his company – the embattled property developer China Evergrande Group – is struggling for a lifeline in the markets.
With a massive 66.98% loss in his net worth, Mr Jiayin, founder of Evergrande, has earned the unwanted distinction of being the biggest loser on the world's rich list for 2020. Though still a billionaire with a net worth of US$7.69 billion, Mr Jiayin is poorer by US$15.6 billion after nine month of 2021.
Though many other Chinese businessmen have lost bucks in China owing to ruling party’s continuous purge on the corporate sector, none of them has been hit as hard as Jiayin.
However, it seems like diversified investments across sectors have helped him partially. The company’s shares have lost 78.29% in Hong Kong since the beginning of the year.
The property giant, which has piled a debt of more than US$300 billion, has been facing a lot of problems to raise funds as it faces a million dollars’ worth of bond interest payment deadline every week. The embattled real estate giant also owes payments to banks and suppliers.
The cash-starved real estate developer has already missed one key US$83.5 million coupon payment last week, on an offshore March 2022, US$2 billion 5-year bond. This has mostly hit non-Chinese investors, as dollar bonds are typically held by foreign investors.
In a bid to tide over its liquidity woes for the time being, the company has decided to sell its entire stake in Shengjing Bank. The company sold its 19.93% holding (1.75 billion shares) in Shengjing Bank for CNY5.70 per share, totalling CNY9.99 billion (US$1.5 billion).
Earlier, Evergrande had disposed of CNY1 billion worth of shares in Shengjing Bank.
