When short sellers targeted Evergrande recently, they were making a more nuanced bet on the Chinese property developer than it might have looked at first glance.

Evergrande is the second-largest listed mainland developer in Hong Kong, with a current market value of $14bn, and one of the best known. In the past eight years, it has been the subject of a high-profile short attack, brought in Alibaba’s Jack Ma as a partner for its football club and undertaken $3bn in acquisitions in unrelated industries including agriculture.

To support its various strategies, Evergrande has generated a stream of share placements, buybacks and bonds, making it China’s most highly geared listed developer with net debt last year worth about 600 per cent of its equity versus a sector average of 90 per cent.