High Court orders Evergrande to wind up in Hong Kong’s biggest liquidation, as the world’s most indebted property developer reaches a dead end
- Eddie Middleton and Tiffany Wong of Alvarez & Marsal have been appointed as liquidators of the company
- The mainland Chinese developer, saddled with US$328 billion of total liabilities, can still appeal against the winding up order
Eddie Middleton and Tiffany Wong Wing-sze, managing directors of the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, were appointed as liquidators for the developer by Justice Linda Chan on Monday, hours after granting the winding up order earlier in the day.
“The hearing has lasted for one and a half years, and the company still has not been able to bring forward a concrete restructuring proposal” to restructure its US$328 billion in liabilities, Justice Chan said in her ruling. “It is the time for the court to say enough is enough.”
In respect of the developer, Chan added that the decision “has the additional advantage of putting the company out of the control of Mr Hui, which had hitherto been one of the regulatory hurdles preventing the company from issuing new debt instruments or new shares.”
The judge was referring to Evergrande’s founder and chairman Hui Ka-yan, who along with several executives of the developer’s major units, had been arrested by Chinese authorities since late September on unspecified crimes.
