Author |Cao Anxun.
Edit |Zhou Zhiyu.
15 years ago, China Evergrande (03333HK) listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the largest mainland private real estate company by market capitalization, and Xu Jiayin sat on the throne of China's richest man for the first time. During the celebration reception, Xu Jiayin, who was full of red light, piled up a champagne tower, a scene of cooking oil on fire. In the past 15 years, China Evergrande and Xu Jiayin have fallen off the altar, and now they are even more powerless to return to the sky and are about to move towards the end of their fate.
On January 29, the High Court of Hong Kong issued a winding-up order against China Evergrande, making China Evergrande the first large private real estate company to be liquidated.
Next, the assets of China Evergrande, a listed entity, in Hong Kong will be liquidated, and the debts will be repaid in order, and then disappear into the real estate industry.
The liquidation of China Evergrande marks that the risk clearance of the real estate industry is further accelerating, or bankruptcy liquidation, completely bidding farewell to the stage, or showing more sincerity and cutting meat to save themselves.
After experiencing the pain brought about by the clearing of risks, the real estate industry will also enter a new era in which stability is king.
A winding-up order from the High Court of Hong Kong brought China Evergrande to an end, and Hui Jiayin's industrial empire fell apart. On January 29, Hong Kong stocks China Evergrande, Evergrande Automobile, and Evergrande Property fell sharply, and then suspended trading.
Many industry insiders believe that Evergrande's debt restructuring has not progressed for a long time, and its liquidation has long been doomed.
The liquidation was initiated by the creditor Jiasheng Global to the High Court of Hong Kong, involving a claim amount of 8HK$62.5 billion, finally passed after seven adjourned hearings.
In the ruling, the judge found that Xu Jiayin was one of the regulatory obstacles preventing Evergrande from issuing new debt instruments or new shares.
Sean, the chief executive officer of Evergrande Group, said that the group and China Evergrande have done their best to defend themselves. However, the Group's operation is facing huge difficulties, resources are extremely limited, and at the same time, due to the fact that the preliminary voting of creditors did not meet expectations, and the actual controller of the Group was taken compulsory measures in accordance with the law on suspicion of violating the law and committing crimes, etc., it was difficult to implement the debt restructuring plan.
After a winding-up order was issued, the Hong Kong court quickly appointed the liquidators. According to China Evergrande's announcement, Edward Simon Middleton and Wong Wing-sze of Ammann Consultants*** have been appointed as joint and several liquidators. They have served as liquidators of a number of companies such as Tempus Holdings and Baitian Petroleum.
Next, China Evergrande will pay for the aggressiveness of the past, under the guidance of the liquidators. According to the Hong Kong court ruling, the liquidators will take over Evergrande's assets, books, seals, etc., and contact the directors of Evergrande to submit a statement of affairs.
Wong Lap Chong, co-founder of Concord Strategic Management Group, said that during the compulsory winding-up, the powers of directors and the company's business operations would be suspended. The liquidator under the supervision of the court will be responsible for recovering and realising the company's assets and paying the debts in order. Once the company has been wound up, the liquidator will apply to the court to relieve the liquidator from liability and dissolve the company.
Huang Lichong pointed out that the priority of repayment of corporate debts liquidated in Hong Kong is to repay the liquidation expenses and asset-secured creditors first, then the wages of employees, social security expenses, debts and other expenses, and finally the repayment of unsecured creditors, debt interest and subordinated creditors.
It is worth mentioning that Evergrande Hong Kong is liquidated, and the rights and interests of domestic home buyers will be protected first. Wang Yuchen, the chief lawyer of Beijing Jinsu Law Firm, said that the liquidation of China Evergrande does not mean that the domestic entity of Evergrande Group is liquidated, and Evergrande's assets in the mainland need to be disposed of in accordance with the laws and procedures of Chinese mainland.
In April last year, the Supreme People's Court issued a document stating that if a buyer buys a house for the purpose of residence and has paid the full amount, his right to claim the delivery of the house will have priority over other claims. Even if the house cannot be delivered, the buyer's claim for the return of the price has priority over other claims.
Li Yujia, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center, believes that the incident only has a psychological impact on the delivery of the building, and the actual impact is not large. In the ranking of debt repayment, the protection of the rights and interests of home buyers should be put first.
However, Evergrande's disposal of more than 2 trillion domestic and foreign debts will be a longer and more complicated process, due to the loss of the objective conditions for debt restructuring, some of Evergrande's many creditors are destined to bear losses.
In just a few years, Evergrande Group, which was once a member of the world's top 500 companies, was liquidated in Hong Kong's listed entity, China Evergrande, and the boss Xu Jiayin and a group of executives were also taken away for investigation, which became a major footnote to the end of the real estate era.
Looking back at the rise and fall of Xu Jiayin in the past 30 years, it can be seen that this is a story of a person full of ambition and desire, who expanded wildly in the era of real estate, ignored risks, and finally ended up in prison.
Xu Jiayin established Evergrande in Guangzhou in 1996, starting from Jinbi Garden, and quickly emerged in the real estate industry.
In 2016, Evergrande's total assets and sales hit a new high, becoming the country's largest real estate company with total assets of one trillion yuan. In the same year, Evergrande Real Estate changed its name to "China Evergrande Group", and Xu Jiayin embarked on the road of diversified business, Evergrande Football, Evergrande Automobile, Evergrande Ice Spring, Evergrande Property, Hengteng Network, etc. came into being.
Until the Evergrande liquidity crisis appeared, Xu Jiayin was unlimited, he sat side by side with Ma Yun to watch the Evergrande team game, and at the same time grasped the wind of real estate leverage, leading Evergrande to move forward at a high speed. In 2017, Xu Jiayin surpassed the Ma Huateng, Ma Yun, and Yang Guoqiang families with a value of 290 billion yuan and became the richest man in China in the Hurun Report.
However, Xu Jiayin's "magic weapon" of high leverage and radical expansion hit the storm of industry regulation and control, and the failure of Evergrande's car manufacturing was superimposed, and he paid a huge price for it, and Evergrande's industrial empire did not return to its former glory.
At the beginning of this year, Newton's agreement to take a stake in Evergrande Automobile expired, and Evergrande Automobile's "life-saving money" regenerated twists and turns; Evergrande Property sued China Evergrande on January 26 to recover 11.4 billion yuan; Evergrande Ice Spring, which has been losing money for many years, was sold for 1.8 billion **; Evergrande Real Estate is also burdened with hundreds of consumption restrictions and information on dishonest judgment debtors, and its sales in 2023 will only be 60.3 billion yuan, ranking 24th in the industry.
With Evergrande Group's debt restructuring delayed and no obvious improvement in its operations, creditors lost patience and eventually let China Evergrande go into liquidation.
For the real estate industry, Xu Jiayin's Evergrande empire is coming to an end, and it is also the beginning of a new chapter after the risk is cleared.
Li Yujia, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center, believes that the Evergrande incident shows that in the risk disposal of the real estate industry, under the premise of ensuring the delivery of buildings, the risk will be dealt with in accordance with the market, and there will be no needless bailout, and there is no big too big to fail.
At the end of last year, Dong Jianguo, vice minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at the annual meeting of the Chinese economy that enterprises that are insolvent and lose their operating ability due to violations of laws and regulations should be cleared in accordance with the principles of rule of law and marketization, which is also the result of the survival of the fittest in the market.
Some investors lamented that Evergrande has been out of risk for more than two years and has finally begun to clear out. Evergrande's liquidation plan has a reference role for other insuring real estate companies. Although the clearance will be very miserable, the industry will have a chance after the clearance. "Problems have to be solved. Better a finger off than always aching. ”
Echoing this, at the beginning of the new year of 2024, a number of insuring real estate companies such as Logan, CIFI, Aoyuan, and Zhenro have successively reported new progress in overseas debt restructuring.
Li Yujia pointed out that in the future, stable real estate enterprises will be retained, and in the near future, the state is supporting these enterprises by promoting the white list of real estate projects and operating property loans.
This is the dawn of a stable real estate company, with the effect of multiple rounds of policies to stimulate the property market such as the release of purchase restrictions, the dawn will eventually become brighter and brighter. After the big waves, the new world of 10 trillion real estate is looking forward to new giants and players.
Wall Street news, welcome **app to see more.