Guangzhou Evergrande Group founder Xu Jiayin has been under arrest for over half a year. According to the latest reports, one of his luxury mansions in Hong Kong was taken over by creditors and sold at half the estimated value.
On May 21, the Hong Kong-based Ming Pao reported that a luxury mansion on The Peak in Hong Kong, owned by Xu Jiayin or his related parties, was publicly put up for sale for over a year until recently when it was finally sold. The selling price was 470 million Hong Kong dollars (approximately 436 million Chinese yuan), which is about half of the previous estimated value of 880 million Hong Kong dollars (approximately 800 million Chinese yuan), equivalent to a 53% discount.
The mansion, located at No. 10A in The Peak, has a practical area of approximately 5,171 square feet. It was taken over by the China Construction Bank in 2022 and put up for sale about a year ago. It was said to have received inquiries from dozens of potential buyers, but no deal was closed. The identity of the new buyer is still unknown at the moment.
Public information shows that Xu Jiayin purchased several villas at The Peak on Breezy Path in 2010, including Blocks B, C, and E, with a total market value of about 2.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (2.3 billion Chinese yuan). After Evergrande faced a crisis, Xu Jiayin used these luxury homes as collateral.
Among them, Block B was mortgaged by Xu Jiayin to China Construction Bank (Asia) in October 2022 as a grace period for overdue bonds; Blocks C and E were mortgaged to the financial company “Olushi.”
In August last year, Evergrande applied for bankruptcy protection in the United States, and Xu Jiayin was reportedly arrested in September of the same year. In March this year, Xu Jiayin and China Evergrande were issued a new spending limit order. On that day, Evergrande Real Estate was fined 4.175 billion Chinese yuan, and Xu Jiayin was fined 47 million yuan. Xu Jiayin and Xia Haijun, who was the Deputy Chairman and President of the Board of Directors of China Evergrande at the time, were required to be permanently banned from the securities market.
(Previously reported:
On the same day as the massive fine, Xu Jiayin was restricted from high consumption.)