Evergrande said it had slashed its debt by almost a quarter despite a drop in earnings, as the Chinese property group races to respond to Beijing’s crackdown on highly leveraged real estate companies.
The group led by Hui Ka Yan, once China’s richest man, has come under intense pressure since the Chinese government tightened controls over property developers in response to ballooning house prices during the pandemic.
The company’s interest-bearing debt stood at Rmb674bn ($103bn) at the end of March, down 23 per cent from a year earlier. After a Rmb42.5bn cut in the first quarter, China’s most indebted property real estate developer expects total liabilities to drop to Rmb560bn by the end of this year and as low as Rmb350bn by mid-2023.