Chinese court accepts Evergrande liquidation petition 1 day after founder’s life sentence

A court in southern China’s Guangdong province formally accepted a bankruptcy liquidation petition against China-evergrande-group" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="116136" data-entity-type="organization">China Evergrande Group’s main onshore unit, closing the final chapter in the unravelling of what was once the country’s largest property developer.The Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court said on Friday that Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank’s Huaxia branch met the legal criteria under the nation’s Enterprise Bankruptcy Law to force the Evergrande unit, Hengda Real Estate, into liquidation, citing the firm’s inability to pay mature debts and insufficient total assets.The decision came just a day after the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court handed down a life sentence to Hui Ka-yan, the billionaire founder also known as Xu Jiayin, following a high-profile trial over financial fraud and mismanagement.Hui was convicted on multiple financial charges, stripped of his political rights for life and ordered to forfeit all personal property.The Shenzhen court also levied administrative fines totalling 8.82 billion yuan (US$1.32 billion) on parent company China-evergrande-group" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="116136" data-entity-type="organization">China Evergrande Group and 7 billion yuan on Evergrande Real Estate, alongside orders to recover remaining illegal gains.The rapid sequence of events underscores Beijing’s determination to bring a definitive end to the years-long debt crisis surrounding Evergrande. Once the poster child of China’s debt-fuelled property boom, the company spiralled into crisis in 2021 after falling foul of Beijing’s “three red lines” – regulatory curbs on overleveraged developers.