Shares in China Evergrande Group were suspended on Thursday, the Hong Kong stock exchange announced.
The chairman of the embattled Chinese property developer has reportedly been placed under surveillance, according to Bloomberg News.
Evergrande shares last closed at 32 Hong Kong cents on Wednesday.
This is not the first time Evergrande’s shares have been suspended. Trading was suspended in March last year and only resumed on 28 August after a 17-month hiatus.
Late on Wednesday, Evergrande reported a loss attributable to equity holders of 33 billion yuan ($4.15 billion) for the six months to June. The operating loss was 11.72 billion yuan, down from 39.36 billion yuan in the first half of 2022.
In July, the company posted a combined net loss of $81 billion for 2021 and 2022 in its long-overdue earnings report. That compares with a net profit of 8.1 billion yuan in 2020 – before the company went into default.
Just this month, Evergrande postponed a debt restructuring meeting with creditors, saying in a filing that “the group’s sales have not been as expected by the company” since the debt restructuring was announced in March.
As a result, Evergrande “considers it necessary to re-evaluate the terms of the proposed restructuring to meet the objective situation of the company and the demand of the creditors”.
The company also revealed that it was unable to issue new bonds under its debt restructuring plan due to an investigation into subsidiary Hengda Real Estate.
Reuters reported that the Evergrande unit was being investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission for suspected breaches of information disclosure.
The latest development comes a week after police detained some employees of Evergrande’s asset management unit.
In August, Evergrande filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in a US court, which allows a US bankruptcy court to intervene in cross-border bankruptcy cases involving foreign companies undergoing restructuring by creditors.
Tianji Holdings, an affiliate of Evergrande, and its subsidiary Scenery Journey also filed for Chapter 15 protection in Manhattan Bankruptcy Court, according to the filing.
Evergrande defaulted in 2021 and announced an offshore debt restructuring programme in March, after struggling to complete projects and repay suppliers and lenders.
