HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese property developer Jiayuan International said the Hong Kong stock exchange has decided its shares will be delisted on Oct. 29 after the company did not meet guidelines for the shares to resume trading by an 18-month deadline.
Jiayuan was one of the first Chinese property developers ordered by the Hong Kong court to liquidate since the sector slipped into a debt crisis in 2021, resulting in many company defaults.
A number of Chinese property developers have been ordered to liquidate by offshore courts so far, including China Evergrande Group, and Jiayuan’s delisting highlights the struggle of companies in liquidation to come up with a viable restructuring solution.
“The Listing Committee (of the stock exchange) considered the company had not fulfilled any of the resumption guidance by the resumption deadline,” the liquidators of Jiayuan said in a filing late on Wednesday.
The guidance from the stock exchange includes publishing all outstanding financial results since 2022 and having the winding-up order against the company withdrawn or dismissed.
Early this month, Jiayuan’s liquidators said insufficient funding was a critical barrier to restructuring the company and finding a new investor. The company did not meet the exchange’s guidance by the deadline of Oct. 2.
Shares of Jiayuan have been suspended from trading since April 3, 2023 due to the delay in publishing its 2022 financial results. It received a liquidation order in May last year, as the Hong Kong High Court decided the restructuring proposal offered by the company at the time was not a concrete one.
Evergrande received a liquidation order on Jan. 29 also because it was not able to come up with a concrete restructuring proposal to creditors, and its shares have been suspended since.
(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
