Hui Ka Yan, Chinese billionaire business mogul, board chairman, and Communist Party secretary of the largest real estate company Evergrande Group, has lately seen his wealth collapsing like a house of cards following the mounting financial challenges and debt repayment.
For the unversed, he holds over sixty percent of shares in the real estate developing company. He is also the founder and chairman of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group.
In 2020, Forbes listed Hui Ka Yan as the second-richest man in China. Yan’s fate took a tumultuous turn, and now in 2023, his wealth has been reduced to $3 billion from $42 billion in 2017.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, the real estate mogul has lost over 93 percent of his wealth.
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Evergrande Grand Crash:
China Evergrande Group is involved in real estate development and is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The company, for a time, has been grappling with a revenue crunch. The revenue growth plummeted from 59 percent in 2016, 47 percent in 2017, and 49 percent in 2018 to just 2 percent in 2019 and 6 percent in 2020.
China Evergrande is a cash-strapped company scrambling to pay off its debt worth over $300bn.
Hui ka yan has tried to limit the crippling debt by selling over 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) worth of personal assets to “prop up his embattled company”, yet the company failed to pay off US dollar bonds.
Evergrande defaulted on its US dollar bonds in December 2021, following which the company also failed to deliver its preliminary debt restructuring plan in 2022, adding to the company’s uncertain future, CNN stated.
Hui ka yan is the next multi-billionaire to lose whopping wealth worth billions after Elon Musk.
Evergrande has been under the scanner of regulatory authorities.
In 2019, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) ordered the company to offload its assets worth $20 billion to trim its debt figures and improve its financial situation.
Additionally, the company is undergoing investigation by China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) over its financial statements.
Astonishingly, in 2021, the company posted robust financial performance, reduced its debt, and improved cash flow.
2023 would define the course of the company in the face of inflation and global economic recession. Mr. Hui in a New Year message said as seen in South China Morning Post (SCMP) that “I believe we can complete our mission of delivery, repay various debts, eliminate the risks, and start a new chapter on survival, as long as all of our work together and never give up on resuming our construction, sales, as well as operations.”