At its open on Monday, trading for the first time since March 21, 2022, shares of the world’s most indebted property developer, China’s Evergrande Group, plunged by as much as 87%
The share price plummeted to as low as 22 Hong Kong cents Monday, falling from its last close on March 18th, 2022, of 1.65 Hong Kong dollars per share.
The stock resumed trading after the company posted a loss of 39.25 billion yuan ($5.38 billion) for the six months ended June, which was less than the 86.17 billion yuan loss the firm posted for the same period a year ago.
Revenue was reported as 128.81 billion yuan, increasing from 89.28 billion yuan in June 2022.
The debt-stricken developer filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in July, in a US court, which will offer protection to its US assets from any potential creditors as it pursues a restructuring deal in another jurisdiction.
When it filed to resume on the Hong Kong exchange, Evergrande disclosed that it had total liabilities of 2.39 trillion yuan as of June this year, which was somewhat lower than the 2.44 trillion yuan of liabilities it held in the six months ending June 30th of 2022.
Evergrande held total assets of 1.74 trillion yuan as of June, which included total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of 13.4 billion yuan.
In 2021, Evergrande defaulted on bond payments and announced it would undergo an offshore debt restructuring program in March, after having difficulties finishing its projects and repaying suppliers and lenders.
The company went on to post a combined loss for 2021 and 2022 of $81 billion, in an earnings report which had been long overdue.
According to the company, 2021 and 2022 saw net losses of 476 billion yuan and 105.9 billion yuan, respectively, due to write-downs of properties, return of lands, losses on financial assets and financing costs
Evergrande had posted a net profit of 8.1 billion yuan before it went into default.