When the troubled Chinese property giant Evergrande was starved for cash earlier this year, it turned to its own employees with a strong-arm pitch: Those who wanted to keep their bonuses would have to give Evergrande a short-term loan.
Some workers tapped their friends and family for money to lend to the company. Others borrowed from the bank. Then, this month, Evergrande suddenly stopped paying back the loans, which had been packaged as high-interest investments.
Now, hundreds of employees have joined panicked home buyers in demanding their money back from Evergrande, gathering outside the company’s offices across China to protest last week.
Once China’s most prolific property developer, Evergrande has become the country’s most indebted company. It owes money to lenders, suppliers and foreign investors. It owes unfinished apartments to home buyers and has racked up more than $300 billion in unpaid bills. Evergrande faces lawsuits from creditors and has seen its shares lose more than 80 percent of their value this year.
Regulators fear that the collapse of a company Evergrande’s size would send tremors through the entire Chinese financial system. Yet so far, Beijing has not stepped in with a bailout, having promised to teach debt-saddled corporate giants a lesson.
The angry protests led by home buyers — and now the company’s own employees — may change that calculus.
Evergrande is on the hook to buyers for nearly 1.6 million apartments, according to one estimate, and it may owe money to tens of thousands of its workers. As Beijing remains relatively quiet about the company’s future, those who are owed cash say they are growing impatient.
“There isn’t much time left for us,” said Jin Cheng, a 28-year-old employee in the eastern city of Hefei who said he put $62,000 of his own money into Evergrande Wealth, the company’s investment arm, at the request of senior management.
As rumors rippled through the Chinese internet that Evergrande might go bankrupt this month, Mr. Jin and some of his colleagues gathered in front of provincial government offices to pressure the authorities to step in.
In the southern city of Shenzhen, home buyers and employees crowded into the lobby of Evergrande’s headquarters last week and shouted for their money back. “Evergrande, give back my money I earned with blood and sweat!” some could be heard yelling in video footage.
Mr. Jin said employees at Fangchebao, Evergrande’s online platform for real estate and automobile sales, were told that each department had to put monthly investments into Evergrande Wealth.
Evergrande did not respond to a request for comment, but the company recently warned that it was under “tremendous” financial pressure and said it had hired restructuring experts to help determine its future.
Things were not always this way.
For more than two decades, Evergrande was China’s largest developer, minting money from a property boom on a scale the world had never seen. With each success, Evergrande expanded into new areas — bottled water, professional sports, electric vehicles.
Banks and investors happily threw in money, making a bet on China’s growing middle class and its appetite for homes and other properties. More recently, real estate has come under scrutiny from Chinese regulators who want to end the go-go years of the boom and have forced the industry to start paying off debt.
The idea was to reduce Chinese banks’ exposure to the property sector. But in the process, the regulators took away the money that developers like Evergrande needed to finish building houses, leaving families without the homes for which they had already paid.
“The Chinese financial system is really complex and when you see fissures like this you realize the impact it could possibly have on society,” said Jennifer James, an investment manager at Janus Henderson Investors. “If Evergrande were to disappear tomorrow, it could be a socially systemic issue.”
Ms. James and other investors said they learned about Evergrande’s wealth management strategy involving its employees only this month, when the company disclosed that it owed $145 million in repayments.
Evergrande has tried to sell off parts of its vast empire to raise new funds, but said last week it was “uncertain as to whether the group will be able to consummate any such sale.” It accused the news media of triggering a panic among home buyers with negative coverage.
But Evergrande’s funding channels started drying up well before last week. According to interviews with employees, state media reports and corporate documents seen by The New York Times, the company started forcing staff members to help bail it out as early as April, when it began peddling the short-term loans.
Around 70 to 80 percent of Evergrande employees across China were asked to put up money that would then be used to help fund Evergrande operations, Liu Yunting, a consultant for Evergrande Wealth, recently told Anhui Online Broadcasting Corporation, a state-owned news group.
A version of that interview was taken offline on Friday. Anhui Online Broadcasting did not respond to a request for comment.
The extent of the campaign and how much money it might have raised were unclear. Employees were told to each invest a certain amount of money in Evergrande Wealth products, and that if they failed to do so, their performance pay and bonuses would be docked, employees told Anhui.
Company management said the investments were part of “supply chain financing” and would allow Evergrande to make payments to its suppliers, Mr. Liu said in his interview with Anhui. “Because we employees had to complete a quota, we asked our friends and families to put money in,” he said.
Mr. Liu said his parents and in-laws had invested $200,000, and that he had put about $75,000 of his own money into Evergrande Wealth.
Even before the protests last week, Evergrande was on Beijing’s bad side. Late last month, its executives were summoned to a meeting with regulators. Officials from China’s top banking and insurance watchdogs told executives to sort out their towering debt in order to maintain the stability of China’s financial market.
The biggest concern for the authorities is Evergrande’s unfinished apartments. The company has nearly 800 developments in progress in more than 200 cities across China.
Evergrande, which often presold apartments to raise cash before they were completed, may still to need to deliver as many as 1.6 million properties to home buyers, according to an estimate from Barclays.
Under heightened scrutiny, Evergrande gathered its top executives earlier this month and asked them to publicly sign what it called a “military order” — a pledge to complete unfinished property developments.
Wesley Zhang and his family are among the hundreds of thousands of families who are still waiting for their apartments, and they hope the company will be able to deliver. Mr. Zhang, 33, joined the other home buyers who protested in Hefei last week after he learned that Evergrande also owed money to its employees.
“Everyone is anxious, we are a bit like ants on a hot pan, having no idea what to do,” Mr. Zhang said, using a Chinese expression to describe the distress of watching a $124,000 investment potentially vanish. He said he hoped the protests would prompt the government to act before it was too late.
“We hope it will get the central government to pay enough attention,” Mr. Zhang said. “Then someone would come out to intervene.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/19/business/china-evergrande-debt-protests.html
Asia's richest woman lost more than half her fortune in China's property crunch
Yang Huiyan, Asia's wealthiest woman, has seen her wealth fall to $11 billion from nearly $24 billion this year as China's property crisis escalates, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The 41-year-old controls Country Garden Holdings, China's largest real estate developer by sales.
Her stake was largely transferred from her father Yang Guoqiang, who founded the company in Foshan, Guangdong province, in 1992.
Country Garden's stock has lost more than half its value this year, as the country's real estate sector has struggled with falling home prices, weakening buyer demand, and a debt default crisis that has engulfed some of its largest developers since last year.
Despite losing more than half her fortune, Yang remains the richest woman in Asia, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The plunge in her net worth has narrowed the wealth gap between her and fellow female billionaires in China, making Yang only some $100 million away from being surpassed by Fan Hongwei in wealth. Fan chairs Hengli Petrochemical, a chemical fiber producer.
Blame that on China's property quagmire.
Evergrande, China's most indebted property firm, defaulted on its US dollar bonds in December following months of liquidity issues. Since then, several other major developers, including Kaisa and Shimao Group, have also sought protection from creditors.
In recent weeks, the real estate crisis has escalated, as thousands of disgruntled homebuyers who had made down payments for unfinished homes threatened to stop paying mortgages if construction is not completed in time.
Country Garden is also facing growing liquidity stress. On Wednesday, the developer announced it would sell stocks at a nearly 13% discount to raise HK$2.83 billion ($361 million), compared to its Tuesday's closing price.
Some of the proceeds will be used to repay the company's offshore debt, it added.
"The mortgage boycotts are a double threat to developers and to the housing market," said analysts at Capital Economics in a report on Wednesday.
They have drawn attention to the problem of cash-strapped developers being unable to complete properties that they have already sold, which is "putting off new homebuyers." The boycotts have also made banks more cautious about issuing mortgages, which could dent property sales further, they added.
In a report earlier this week, S&P Global Ratings estimated China's property sales could drop by a third this year because of mortgage strikes, as people believe developers won't be able to complete presold units in time— the most common way they sell homes in the country.
"Without sales, many more developers will collapse, which is both a financial and an economic threat," said Capital Economics analysts.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/28/economy/asia-richest-woman-wealth-china-property-crunch-intl-hnk/index.html
S&P dumps Chinese property giant Evergrande into default
LONDON (Reuters) - The poster child of China's property crisis China Evergrande Group was officially declared in default by credit rating agency S&P Global on Friday after the sprawling firm missed a bond payment earlier this month.
"We assess that China Evergrande Group and its offshore financing arm Tianji Holding Ltd. have failed to make coupon payments for their outstanding U.S.-dollar senior notes," S&P said in a statement.
S&P added that Evergrande had asked for the ratings to be withdrawn following the downgrades to 'selective default' a term ratings firms use to describe a missed payment on a bond, but not necessarily all its bonds.
"Evergrande, Tianji, or the trustee have made no announcement or any confirmation with us on the status of the coupon payments," S&P said.
https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/p-dumps-chinese-property-giant-100653413.html
Evergrande defaults on $1.2B in foreign bonds, Fitch says, as China intervenes in debt-ridden real estate sector
Beijing — Two major Chinese property firms have defaulted on $1.6 billion worth of bonds to overseas creditors, Fitch Ratings agency said Thursday, as contagion spreads within the country's debt-ridden real estate sector. China's government sparked a crisis within the property industry when it launched a drive last year to curb excessive debt among real estate firms as well as rampant consumer speculation.
Companies that had accrued huge debt to expand suddenly found the taps turned off and began struggling to complete projects, pay contractors and meet both domestic and foreign repayments.
Real estate behemoth Evergrande has been the highest profile firm embroiled in the crisis, struggling for months to raise capital to pay off $300 billion in debt.
On Thursday, Fitch confirmed the company had defaulted for the first time on more than $1.2 billion worth of bond debt, as it downgraded the firm's status to a restricted default rating.
Fitch also confirmed Kaisa, a smaller property company but one of China's most indebted, had also defaulted on $400 million of bonds.
Evergrande's troubles first surfaced in the summer when it made clear how heavily leveraged the firm had become. The eye-watering figures shook China's credit markets because the sheer size of the company and the potential fallout should it collapse.
Last month it missed its first foreign bond repayment but there was a 30-day grace period attached. That ran out on Tuesday with some bond owners complaining they had yet to be repaid.
Questions have swirled over whether Evergrande is simply too big to be allowed to fail, given its collapse could send shock waves through the wider Chinese — and even the global economy.
The Biden administration was closely watching the situation unfold in China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CBS News' "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan in November. Yellen warned that Evergrande's struggles could have repercussions for the world.
"Real estate is an important sector of the Chinese economy. It accounts for about 30% of demand," Yellen told Brennan in the exclusive interview. "A slowdown in China, of course, would have global consequences. China's economy is large, and if China's economy were to slow down more than expected, it certainly could have consequences for many countries that are linked to China through trade."
The Federal Reserve warned of direct risks to the U.S. in its latest financial stability report, saying: "Financial stresses in China could strain global financial markets through a deterioration of risk sentiment, pose risks to global economic growth, and affect the United States."
But CBS News Asia correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that U.S. and European investors have largely accepted that their investments in Evergrande may soon be worthless, and while the company's shares are likely to take a huge hit, stock markets in the West have been anticipating the news and are less likely to be rocked.
The Chinese government, meanwhile, has intervened to dismantle Evergrande in an orderly fashion, to avoid a spectacular crash that, in a worst-case scenario, could leave Chinese people who bought homes from the company high and dry.
As "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl reported recently, the intervention, and the crackdown on heavily indebted companies, is part of a wider rollback of free market policies in China.
Signs now point to Beijing being willing to close the chapter on the 25-year-old real estate empire that has typified China's breakneck growth in recent decades. After Evergrande said on Friday that it may not be able to meet its financial obligations, the government summoned the company's founder and announced several moves that have given the clearest picture yet of Beijing's plans to end the crisis.
A new seven-strong "risk management committee" has been set up to manage the restructuring. Only two executives from the company are on the committee -- others include officials from state entities.
Guangdong's provincial government is also sending a working team to the company, which analysts at Jefferies said indicated a "potential takeover of Evergrande."
Kaisa is China's 27th-largest real estate firm, a minnow compared to Evergrande. But its default will do little to calm investor nerves.
According to Bloomberg News, before Thursday, at least 10 lower-rated real estate firms have now defaulted on onshore or offshore bonds since the summer.
Before Thursday, Chinese borrowers had defaulted on a record $10.2 billion of offshore bonds, Bloomberg had reported, with real estate firms accounting for 36 percent of those non-repayments.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/evergrande-stock-china-default-bonds-fitch-chinese-market-intervention/
CHINA EVERGRANDE Group Evergrande officially defaulted - DMSA is preparing bankruptcy proceedings against Evergrande Group
China Evergrande Group today again defaulted on interest payments to international investors. DMSA itself is invested in these bonds and has not received any interest payments until today's end of the grace period. Now DMSA is preparing bankruptcy proceedings against Evergrande and calls on all bond investors to join it.
China Evergrande Group, the second largest real estate developer in China, defaulted on interest payments on two bonds back in September, with the 30-day grace period still ending in October. However, shortly before the end of the grace period, the public was misled by rumors about alleged interest payments. The international media also took the rumors for granted. Only the DMSA - Deutsche Marktscreening Agentur (German Market Screening Agency) already recognized the default at that time and proved in a study that the bankruptcy of Evergrande, the world's most indebted corporation, could ultimately lead to a "Great Reset", i.e. the final meltdown of the global financial system.
"But while the international financial market has so far met the financial turmoil surrounding the teetering giant Evergrande with a remarkable basic confidence - one can also say: with remarkable naivety - the U.S. central bank Fed confirmed our view yesterday," says DMSA senior analyst Dr. Marco Metzler. "In its latest stability report, it explicitly pointed out the dangers that a collapse of Evergrande could have for the global financial system."
In order to be able to file for bankruptcy against the company as a creditor, DMSA itself invested in Evergrande bonds, whose grace period expired today (Nov 10, 2021). In total, Evergrande would have had to pay $148.13 million in interest on three bonds no later than today. "But so far we have not received any interest on our bonds," explains Metzler. He adds, "With banks in Hong Kong closing today, it's certain that these bonds have defaulted."
Particularly problematic for Evergrande: all 23 outstanding bonds have a cross-default clause. "This means that if a single one of these bonds defaults, all 23 outstanding bonds automatically have 'default' status" DMSA senior analyst Metzler knows. However, this does not automatically result in a bankruptcy for Evergrande Group. To determine bankruptcy, a insolvency petition must be filed with the court. This can be done either by the company itself or by one or more of the company's creditors. And this is precisely what is now planned. Metzler: "DMSA is preparing bankruptcy proceedings against Evergrande. We are already holding talks with other investors in this regard. We would be pleased if other investors were to join our action group."
For the DMSA expert, it is clear: "As soon as a court opens insolvency proceedings, Evergrande will also be officially bankrupt - and that is only a matter of days."
Source: DMSA, own research
About DMSA Deutsche Markt Screening Agentur GmbH:
DMSA Deutsche Markt Screening Agentur GmbH, is an independent data service that collects and evaluates market-relevant information on companies, products and services. DMSA sees itself as an advocate for consumers, private customers and intelligent investors. The claim: to always look at companies and providers, products and services through the eyes of the customers. The customers are the focus of DMSA's work. For them, important and decision-relevant information is bundled and presented as market screenings. The aim is to create more transparency for consumers when selecting products, investments and services.
https://www.leta.lv/eng/home/press_release/F85E79FF-9F6E-4CAE-BC82-069FBE5A6831/
Evergrande misses third round of bond interest payments
China Evergrande Group has missed its third round of bond payments in three weeks, intensifying market fears over contagion involving other property developers as a wall of debt payment obligations come due in the near-term.
Some bondholders said they did not receive coupon payments totalling $148m on Evergrande's April 2022, April 2023 and April 2024 notes due by 4am this morning.
This follows two other payments it missed in September.
That puts investors at risk of large losses at the end of 30-day grace periods as the developer wrestles with more than $300 billion in liabilities.
A total of $101.2 billion bonds issued by Chinese developers will be due in the next year, Refinitiv data show.
"We see more defaults ahead if the liquidity problem does not improve markedly," said brokerage CGS-CIMB in a note, adding developers with weaker credit rating are having difficulty in refinancing at the moment.
Trading of high-yield bonds remained soft today following a rout in the previous session on fears about fast-spreading contagion in the $5 trillion sector, which accounts for a quarter of the Chinese economy and often is a major factor in policymaking.
Shanghai Stock Exchange data showed the top five losers among exchange-traded bonds in morning deals were all issued by property firms.
Small developers Modern Land and Sinic Holdings were the latest scrambling to delay deadlines, after Evergrande and Fantasia missed their payments since September.
Modern Land, whose shares dropped over 3% to new low today, had requested bondholders on Monday to delay a repayment due later this month for three months, while Sinic said it would likely default next week.
Fantasia Holdings' unit limited trading in its Shanghai bonds yesterday, which is often done ahead of defaults.
While global attention has been focused on missed dollar debt payments by Chinese property issuers, market indicators suggested that worries about contagion and a slowing economy are spreading further.
Market players say the sell-off, however, appears limited to more riskier bond names.
"The market is trading more rationally now, according to different quality and rating of the companies, rather than selling off on the whole sector," said Michael Wong, director at CP Securities based in Hong Kong.
Shares of several other property firms, however, fared better as markets bet on more loosening of policies following northeastern city of Harbin's measures to support property developers and their projects.
Top developers Country Garden and Sunac China both rose 2%.
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/1012/1253146-china-evergrande-group/
Chinese developer Fantasia can't pay its debts. That's stoking real estate fears
(CNN) — A Chinese developer of luxury apartments missed $315 million in payments to lenders on Monday, sparking fears that financial strains in the country's outsized property sector are spreading beyond the troubled Evergrande conglomerate.
Fantasia Holdings, a Shenzhen-based developer, missed repaying $206 million worth of bonds that matured Monday, the company said in a stock exchange filing. It is now assessing "the potential impact on the financial condition and cash position of the group," it added.
Separately, the property management unit of Country Garden, China's second largest developer by sales after Evergrande, said in a filing that Fantasia had failed to repay a company loan of about 700 million yuan ($109 million). Fantasia had informed the company that it would probably "default on [its] external debts," Country Garden Services added.
S&P and Moody's slapped "default" credit ratings on Fantasia and said the non-payment of principal would likely also put the company in default on its remaining bonds.
"The downgrade follows Fantasia's announcement ... that it had missed payment on its $205.7 million bond due on the same day, and reflects our expectation of weak recovery prospects for Fantasia's bondholders after its default," said Celine Yang, a senior analyst at Moody's.
Fantasia shares were suspended on Tuesday but shares of Country Garden Services tumbled 3.2% in Hong Kong. Country Garden Holdings lost 2.8%.
Defaults could hit growth
The news revived fears that debt woes are deepening in China's overextended property sector, which accounted for 29% of outstanding loans issued by Chinese banks in yuan in the second quarter of 2021. The sector is vital to China's economy — real estate and related industries account for around 30% of GDP.
"The [Chinese] property sector is worrisome," wrote Larry Hu and Xinyu Ji, China economists for Macquarie Group, in a research note on Tuesday.
Fantasia's default shows that Evergrande's troubles "could dampen the sentiment for homebuyers, developers and banks, causing more developers to run into a liquidity crunch," they said.
The outlook for the Chinese property market is not encouraging. Property sales in the top 30 Chinese cities plunged 31% in September from a year ago, according to Macquarie's estimates.
Evergrande's debt crisis has unsettled global investors in recent weeks, raising concerns about a potential domino effect on the broader Chinese economy and financial markets.
The company's problems have been brewing for more than a year, after Beijing started reining in the real estate sector in August 2020 to curb excessive borrowing to prevent the market from overheating.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government made it clear that it would prioritize "common prosperity" in its policy goals and tame runaway home prices, which it has blamed for worsening income inequality and threatening economic and social stability.
Evergrande's liquidity crisis has escalated in recent months. The company warned investors of its cash flow crisis in September, saying that it could default if it was unable to raise money quickly. In the past few weeks, it missed at least two bond interest payments.
"While Evergrande's problems are unlikely to trigger a Lehman moment, they will aggravate the ongoing property sector slowdown," said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, in a report on Tuesday.
"Given the large overall footprint of the residential real estate sector via 'backward linkages' to sectors such as steel, its slowdown will weigh significantly on overall economic growth," he said.
Nevertheless, Chinese policymakers appear to be standing firm. Last week, the People's Bank of China and the banking regulator said that they would protect homebuyers. Their statement made no mention of developers.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/05/business/china-real-estate-fantasia-default-intl-hnk/index.html
China Evergrande to raise $5 bln from property unit sale - Global Times
HONG KONG — China Evergrande will sell a majority stake in its property management business for more than $5 billion, Chinese media said on Monday, a deal which would be the largest asset sale yet at the debt-laden property developer if it goes ahead.
Once China’s top-selling property group, Evergrande is facing what could be one of the country’s largest-ever restructurings as the company is weighed down by debts of around $305 billion. Uncertainty over Evergrande’s fate has unsettled financial markets worried about any fallout from its troubles.
Evergrande on Monday said it requested a halt in the trading of its shares in Hong Kong pending an announcement about a major transaction. Evergrande Property Services Group , a spin-off listed last year, also requested a halt and said it referred to “a possible general offer for shares of the company.”
China’s state-backed Global Times said Hopson Development was the buyer of a 51% stake in the property business for more than HK$40 billion ($5.1 billion), citing unspecified other media reports. Hopson also said it had suspended trading in its shares, pending an announcement related to a major acquisition of a Hong Kong-listed firm and a possible mandatory offer.
Neither Hopson nor Evergrande responded to requests for comment on the Global Times report.
Analysts said the possible deal signals the company is still working to meet its obligations. But it also rekindled broader concerns about the risk to China’s property sector and economy if Evergrande is liquidated at low prices.
“Selling an asset means they are still trying to raise cash to pay the bills,” said OCBC analyst Ezien Hoo. “Looks like the property management unit is the easiest to dispose in the grand scheme of things.”
The reported proceeds from the sale of $5 billion, in theory, would be enough to pay short-term offshore creditors, with Evergrande due to find just over $500 million in coupon payments by the end of the year and facing a $2 billion dollar bond maturity in March.
The price also represents a roughly 17.5% discount to the Services’ Group’s December 2020 listing valuation.
Shares in Hopson, which has a market value of HK$60.4 billion ($7.8 billion), have jumped 40% so far this year and it was rated B+ by Fitch in June.
Evergrande’s property services business, which says it managed a total contracted floor area of 810 million square meters at the end of June, was also profitable in the first half of 2021, based on its financial statements.
NERVOUSNESS
With liabilities equal to 2% of China’s gross domestic product, Evergrande has sparked concerns its troubles could spread through the global financial system.
Nervousness has eased after China’s central bank vowed to protect homebuyers’ interests, but ramifications for China’s economy has kept investors on edge – particularly as signs of distress have begun spreading to Evergrande’s peers.
Credit ratings agency Fitch on Monday cut property developer Fantasia Holdings’ credit rating by four notches.
Monday’s share trading suspension knocked the offshore yuan, which fell about 0.3% against the dollar, and weighed on the Hang Seng benchmark index.
Still, the possible deal activity lifted shares in Evergrande’s electric vehicle unit by 29% but cast a pall over regional stocks and global markets.
“It is definitely a positive move towards solving Evergrande’s liquidity crisis and we expect more to come,” said Gary Ng, senior economist Asia Pacific at Natixis.
“However, having said that, offloading some assets may not be totally sufficient, the key for Evergrande is to get project construction going and to sell inventory.”
Shares in Evergrande have plunged 80% so far this year, while its bonds have held steady at distressed levels.
The group said last month it had negotiated a settlement with some domestic bondholders and made a repayment on some wealth management products, largely held by Chinese retail investors.
Holders of the company’s $20 billion in offshore debt appear further back in the creditor queue and bondholders have said interest payments due in the past few weeks have failed to arrive.
Evergrande faces deadlines on dollar bond coupon payments totalling $162.38 million in October.
https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/china-evergrande-to-raise-5-bln-from-property-unit-sale-global-times-3
'I have nothing left to live for': Evergrande meeting descends into chaos as investor pulls knife and threatens to kill herself
A compilation video that shows desperate investors confronting Evergrande staff amid the company’s financial issues has gone viral on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
The confrontation: The 10-minute-long video was published on Sept. 29 to Weibo by local news site Xing Tai Shen Bian Shi, who did not specify when and where the videos were taken, according toInsider.
• In one of the videos, a female investor can be seen brandishing a knife and threatening to kill herself in front of the Evergrande Wealth staff and other people inside a meeting room.
• “I don't want the interest on my investment, I just want my money back. So here's what I have to say to you. If Evergrande Wealth doesn't give me my money today, I'll kill myself right here,” she told the staff. “If this isn't handled today, I'll die right here, right in front of you. My retirement savings are all in that investment. I have nothing left to live for."
• Another clip showed a group of people trying to block a car outside the company’s building. A woman can be heard crying and demanding an explanation in the video.
• “I don't have any choice but to do this, and I won't listen to you," she said. “All my money is gone."
• Investors have been protesting outside Evergrande since Sept. 13, according to Reuters. At one point, around 100 people had gathered outside the building, prompting the guards to form a human barricade to prevent them from getting inside.
The downfall of an empire: China Evergrande Group has become the world’s most indebted company after its liabilities piled up to more than $300 billionfrom years of borrowing. The financial crisis has also spilled over to the company’s wealth management arm, Evergrande Wealth.
• The Evergrande crisis has affected the global market and the crypto world, according to TRT World. The prices of Bitcoin and Etherium have reportedly dropped to their lowest since August, while traditional stocks on Wall Street, such as those in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, suffered their biggest daily percentage drop since May.
https://news.yahoo.com/nothing-left-live-evergrande-meeting-174442622.html
Evergrande vows to meet local debt deadline, but doubts remain over dollar bond
Embattled Chinese property giant allays some market concerns despite lack of guidance over $83.5m due on a separate offshore debt
Chinese property developer Evergrande has said it would pay some of the bond interest due on Thursday, allaying fears of an imminent and messy collapse that had spooked investors.
Markets in Taiwan and China reopened lower after a two-day break, catching up with a sharp sell-off around the world triggered by concern over Evergrande’s predicament.
But stocks picked up after the promise to repay an estimated 232 million yuan ($35.88m), buoyed the mood.
Evergrande is still due to pay $83.5m in interest on a separate US dollar bond, but the signal on Wednesday that it has at least some ready cash for creditors seems to have cheered investors.
Investors were also encouraged when China’s central bank injected 120bn yuan ($19bn) into financial markets to ease liquidity concerns.
“We are still trying to understand what this payment means for the other bonds but I imagine they would want to stabilise the market and make other coupon payments, given the close scrutiny,” said a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.
“That provides some reassurance,” said Ryan Felsman, senior economist at brokerage firm CommSec in Australia. “We may see certainly some improvement in terms of the volatility … it looks as though we’re going to see a little bit of a risk rally.”
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.3% lower mid-morning. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.6%, while Australian shares rose 0.7%. Hong Kong, where Evergrande has its main listing and where its shares have crashed 85% this year, was closed for a holiday.
S&P 500 futures reversed an early loss to trade slightly higher after Evergrande pledged to pay the scheduled coupon on a yuan bond that is due on Thursday. Safe-haven assets such as the yen and treasuries also sold after the announcement.
The news also helped the risk-sensitive Australian dollar, although anticipation that the Federal Reserve may move a step closer to tapering later on Wednesday kept a lid on gains and the mood.
Globally, markets had also already started to calm down as analysts downplayed the threat of Evergrande’s troubles becoming a “Lehman moment” and setting off a financial crisis.
Overnight on Wall Street the S&P 500 fared little worse than flat, to sit about 4% below a record peak made early in the month.
Evergrande’s distress has already spread to other Chinese developers, but investors are now anticipating that the global fallout can be contained and concern is shifting to worrying about more gradual economic consequences.
“[The] Evergrande debacle is further stoking concern over the fallout from China’s broadening crackdown,” analysts at Rabobank said in a note to clients, pointing to new rules on everything from online gaming to developers’ debt levels.
“As a consequence, Evergrande can perhaps be seen not so much as a potential crisis trigger but rather a symptom of a broader policy shift which threatens Chinese growth as politics dominate economic considerations.”
In currency markets, the Australian dollar jumped 0.3% to $0.7253 after Evergrande’s news and the yen handed back small early gains on the euro and the dollar.
Moves were capped ahead of Wednesday’s Fed meeting, however, and the dollar was firm at $1.1727 against the euro. The 10-year US Treasury yield lifted as high as 1.3450% from a morning low of 1.3140%.
Most analysts think the Fed will not go into detail about its tapering plans but say risks lie in board members’ “dot plot” of rates projections.
“Even though a tapering announcement is not expected, the dot plot may deliver a hawkish surprise and require Powell to be dovish and push back in the press conference,” said National Australia Bank’s director of economics and markets, Tapas Strickland.
The outcome of the Fed’s meeting is announced at 6pm GMT, with a news conference half an hour later.
In commodities, copper hovered near a month low and oil prices found support from a relaxation of inbound travel rules, likely to boost airline fuel demand.
Brent crude futures were last up 0.9% at $75.02 a barrel and US crude rose 1% to $71.18. Gold was supported at $1,776 an ounce.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/22/evergrande-vows-to-meet-first-debt-deadline-allaying-some-fears-of-collapse
Evergrande wooed retail investors with Gucci bags and Dyson appliances
Lured by the promise of yields approaching 12%, gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci bags, and the guarantee of China's top-selling developer, tens of thousands of investors bought wealth management products through China Evergrande Group.
Now, many fear they may never get their investments back after the cash-strapped property developer recently stopped repaying some investors and set off global alarm bells over its massive debt.
Some have been protesting at Evergrande offices, refusing to accept the company's plan to provide payment with discounted apartments, offices, stores and parking units, which it began to implement on Saturday.
"I bought from the property managers after seeing the ad in the elevator, as I trusted Evergrande for being a Fortune Global 500 company,” said the owner of an Evergrande property in the conglomerate's home province of Guangdong surnamed Du.
"It's immoral of Evergrande not to pay my hard-earned money back," said the investor, who had put 650,000 yuan ($100,533) into Evergrande wealth management products (WMPs) last year at an interest rate of more than 7%.
More than 80,000 people – including employees, their families and friends as well as owners of Evergrande properties - bought WMPs that raised more than 100 billion yuan in the past five years, said a sales manager of Evergrande Wealth, launched in 2016 as a peer-to-peer (P2) online lending platform that originally was used to fund its property projects.
Some 40 billion yuan of the investments are outstanding, said the person, declining to be named as they were not authorised to speak with the media.
China Evergrande did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, which was a public holiday in China.
With more than $300 billion in debt, Evergrande's liquidity crisis rattled global markets this week. The company has vowed to repay WMP investors.
CHRISTMAS PROMOTION
China's years-long effort to deleverage its economy has pushed companies to resort to off-balance sheet investments in search of funding.
After Beijing further capped debt levels of property developers last year, the most indebted players like Evergrande felt even more pressure to find new sources of capital to ease mounting liquidity stress, turning to employees, suppliers and clients for cash through commercial paper, trust and wealth management products.
Evergrande Wealth started to sell WMPs to individuals in 2019 after a regulatory crackdown led to a collapse of the P2P lending sector, said the sales manager and another Evergrande employee who bought the WMPs.
To attract investors, the sales manager offered gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci handbags to each person who bought more than 3 million yuan of WMPs during a Christmas promotion last year.
A product leaflet provided by the sales manager seen by Reuters showed the WMPs are categorised as fixed-income products suitable for "conservative investors seeking steady returns".
'DE-FACTO EVERGRANDE PRODUCT'
In two products sold last November, a construction company in Qingdao was looking to raise up to 10 million yuan with annualised yield of 7% in one and 20 million yuan with yields ranging from 7.8% to 9.5%, depending on the investment size, in another. Minimum investments were 100,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan, respectively.
Evergrande also usually offers additional yield up to 1.8% to certain investors, which can push returns to above 11% for a 12-month investment, said the sales manager.
Proceeds were to be used for Qingdao Lvye International Construction Co's working capital, the documents showed. The firm could not be reached for comment during a public holiday.
Repayment would either come from the issuer's income or from Evergrande Internet Information Service (Shenzhen) Co, a subsidiary that runs Evergrande Wealth and promises to cover the principal and interest if an issuer fails to repay, the prospectus said.
The sales manager said the Qingdao company was working on Evergrande projects and would use the payment from Evergrande upon completion to repay investors.
“It's a de-facto Evergrande product," the person said.
Other highly leveraged Chinese conglomerates including HNA Group, which declared bankruptcy early this year, and China Baoneng have used similar products.
In a petition to various government bodies, a group of WMP investors in Guangdong accused Evergrande of inappropriately using money that should have gone to the issuers to fund its own projects, and not sufficiently disclosing the risks.
They also complained that they were misled by the stature of its chairman, Hui Ka-yan, noting that he was seated prominently during a 2019 celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
"The investors trusted Evergrande and bought Evergrande's WMPs out of our love for and faith in the Party and government," they wrote.
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/with-gucci-bags-dyson-appliances-evergrande-wooed-retail-investors-2021-09-21/
Their shitty Guangzhou Evergrande FC is about to go belly up too....
Looks like this time it's really wlwlsmdwl for many tiongland citizens.....mass suicides to happen soon?
Evergrande makes Hin Leong's woes look like a mere mosquito bite.