Chinese property giant Evergrande shares were delisted from Hong Kong stock market after more than 15 years of trading. Once China’s biggest real estate firm, valued at over USD 50 billion, the company collapsed under the weight of huge debts that had fueled its meteoric rise.
Evergrande is part of a property market crisis that has for years dragged on the world’s second largest economy. At the time of its collapse, Evergrande had over 1,300 projects under development in 280 cities across China. Its empire also included an electric car maker and China’s most successful Football team Guangzhou FC, which has been thrown out of the Football League this year, for failing to pay off its debts.
Evergrande was built on $300 billions of borrowed money, making it the world’s most indebted property developer. The collapse started after Beijing brought in new rules in 2020 to control the amount big developers could borrow. The firm defaulted on some of its debts and after legal battles, Hong Kong High Court ordered the company to be wound up in January 2024.
Evergrande’s collapse along with the serious problems faced by other developers has hit the country’s economy hard. It faces other problems such as Trump tariffs, high local government debt, weak consumer spending, unemployment and an ageing population. The property sector earlier accounted for nearly 1/3rd of Chinese economy and was a major source of income for local governments.