Indebted Chinese giant Evergrande again suspends stock trading

Troubled Chinese real estate giant Evergrande announced on Monday it was suspending its stock trading, without giving a reason.

Drowned in $ 300 billion in debt, the firm is now struggling to pay its bondholders and investors, after being trapped by Chinese measures to contain its real estate sector.

“Trading in China Evergrande Group shares will be suspended at 9:00 AM (01:00 GMT) todayMonday, the group said in a brief statement on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Last October it also suspended its stock market operations.

The developer was pointed out in December by the rating agencies as in default, after it failed to pay its obligations on time.

Previous attempts to pay suppliers and contractors due to its debt crisis sparked protests from buyers and investors at the group’s Shenzhen headquarters in September.

Last week, Evergrande momentarily delighted investors by announcing that it could turn over tens of thousands of residential units this month and pay off some of its debt.

But its shares fell at the end of the week after reports that it had not paid off two more offshore bonds.

The company insisted in recent months that it would complete its unfinished projects and hand them over to buyers, in a desperate attempt to save its debts despite having defaulted on a previous payment of more than 1.2 billion dollars.

The firm has tried to sell assets and shares in other firms and its president Hui Ka Yan (known in Mandarin as Xu Jiayin) used part of his personal fortune to pay off part of the debt.

The Canton provincial government, where the company is based, is currently monitoring Evergrande’s debt restructuring process.