China’s Once Biggest Property Developer Delisted After $50,000,000,000 Market Cap Vanishes

The bankrupt Chinese property development giant Evergrande was delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange earlier this month after witnessing a market valuation of more than $50 billion evaporate in scandal.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the exchange’s holding company, announced the delisting on Friday.

Evergrande went bankrupt in 2022, which helped trigger a property crisis across China.

Chinese regulators accused the company’s founder and chairman, Hui Ka Yan, of exaggerating revenues by $78 billion prior to the bankruptcy, the BBC reports. Last year, Hui was fined $6.5 million and received a lifetime ban from China’s capital market.

Evergrande relied on $300 billion worth of loans and began to crumble after the Chinese government implemented borrowing restrictions on large developers, forcing the company to start selling off its properties at discounted rates, according to the BBC. The firm could not pay its overseas debts and reportedly still owes $45 billion to creditors.

Dan Wang, the China director at the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, tells the BBC that “there is no coming back” from the delisting, which she says is “symbolic” but also “a milestone” for the country.

“The property slump has been the biggest drag on the economy, and the ultimate reason why consumption is suppressed.”

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