09-12-2021, 09:23 PM
![[Image: china_evergrande_Xu_Jiayin_-_hui_ka_yan_-_AFP_pic.jpeg]](https://media.thevibes.com/images/uploads/covers/_large/china_evergrande_Xu_Jiayin_-_hui_ka_yan_-_AFP_pic.jpeg)
BEIJING – From rural poverty to real estate billions, the fortunes of Xu Jiayin tracked China’s runaway growth for much of the past two decades – but now, he is battling to save his Evergrande conglomerate from a quagmire of debt.
The 62-year-old also known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese was at one point China’s richest man, with a taste for luxury labels, exclusive yachts and a nose for praising the Communist Party that steered the economy to a homeownership boom.
But Evergrande is sagging under hundreds of billions of dollars of debt as fears mount of an imminent collapse that can ricochet across the world’s second-biggest economy.
“China’s property developers and their creditors appear to be approaching a reckoning,” said analysts at Capital Economics in a note.
They warned that Evergrande is “close to collapse” with large losses looming for banks, bondholders and home buyers.
Total liabilities have swelled to 1.97 trillion yuan (RM1.26 trillion), the embattled group said last week, warning of the risk of default.
Evergrande started to falter under the new “three red lines” imposed on developers in a state crackdown in August 2020, forcing the group to offload properties at increasingly steep discounts.
Xu’s ascent mirrored China, rocketing from a largely rural and impoverished society to the gargantuan economy it is today.
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