Evergrande’s Hui Ka-yan orders executives to speed up construction, step up marketing, as shared voice clip debunks suicide rumour
- In a move that seemed designed to put rumours of his death to bed, Hui also chaired a meeting with company executives on Friday night, according to Evergrande’s website
- China Evergrande Group has the dubious honour of being the world’s most indebted developer, with US$300 billion in liabilities as of 2019
Hui, also known as Xu Jiayin in mainland China, spoke in a voice clip that was shared on China’s ubiquitous WeChat social network. The clip was verified by a source at the company. Evergrande’s spokespeople in Guangzhou declined to comment.
The clip, bearing the time stamp of 1:33pm on Friday, began circulating just as a rumour began circulating that Hui had jumped off a building in the Hunan provincial capital of Changsha. Sources close to the company said the rumour was groundless, and that Hui was still meting out instructions to his senior executives to maintain the pace of the construction of his unfinished projects.
Then, in a move that seemed designed to put rumours of his death to bed, Hui chaired a meeting with company executives in southern Guangzhou on Friday night, according to a post on Evergrande’s official website.
The Chinese tycoon was shown in two pictures and a video clip talking to senior staff at the Guangzhou Evergrande Centre in the post on December 2. He was seen reiterating his demand that sales efforts be intensified.
“We have delivered 256,000 units between January and November, approaching our targeted 300,000 units in 2022,” Hui said in the Friday night clip.
