{"id":77388,"date":"2025-08-12T15:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/77388\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T15:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:07:06","slug":"artwork-among-just-255mn-of-assets-recovered-after-evergrande-default","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/77388\/","title":{"rendered":"artwork among just $255mn of assets recovered after Evergrande default"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Liquidators of failed property developer China Evergrande have recovered just $255mn of assets, including a Claude Monet painting, since a formal process began 18 months ago, highlighting the scale of the challenge in unravelling the world\u2019s most indebted real estate company.<\/p>\n

The assets recovered so far amount to less than 1 per cent of the group\u2019s total assets of Rmb1.8tn ($250bn) in 2022, the most recent figures following its collapse a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Evergrande<\/a>\u2019s default on its international bonds unnerved markets and marked the reversal of a multi-decade property boom in mainland China. In January 2024, a Hong Kong court issued a winding-up order, ending restructuring talks with offshore bondholders. Tiffany Wong and Edward Middleton, managing directors at Alvarez & Marsal, were appointed to liquidate Evergrande\u2019s Hong Kong-listed entity.<\/p>\n

However, the vast majority of the developer\u2019s assets are on the mainland, which operates under a separate legal regime. Beijing has also prioritised the completion of unfinished construction projects as prices remain under pressure from a slowdown now well into its fourth year.<\/p>\n

The entities over which the liquidators have control were valued at just $3.5bn as of January last year, the Alvarez & Marsal pair said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

It has recovered $11mn from the Hong Kong-based holding company and $244mn from subsidiaries, of which $167mn has been fully realised. Alvarez & Marsal warned that \u201cstakeholders should not assume that the whole of the US$244mn\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009will be available to the Company\u201d.<\/p>\n

The funds recovered stemmed from sales of \u201cnon-core\u201d assets, including cars, club memberships, school debentures and artwork, said the firm.<\/p>\n

People familiar with the situation said a painting by Monet was sold as part of the liquidation. The Financial Times could not establish which painting by the French impressionist was sold.<\/p>\n

\"BarrierThe near deserted Evergrande City Plaza shopping mall in Beijing \u00a9 Bloomberg<\/p>\n

Evergrande had total liabilities of Rmb2.4tn as of its 2022 annual report, which was released after a significant delay. In March last year, Chinese authorities accused it of inflating revenues by Rmb80bn<\/a> over 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

The Alvarez & Marsal liquidators pointed to the \u201cscale and complexity\u201d of Evergrande\u2019s operations, with 1,300 projects under development in more than 280 cities, as a challenge to recovering assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe value of the Company\u2019s liquidation estate \u2014 its assets and liabilities \u2014 is so uncertain as to render it impossible for the Liquidators to provide any guidance regarding dividend expectations at this point in time,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The liquidators are also pursuing legal action against auditor PwC China, which was fined Rmb441mn by Chinese authorities last year and banned for six months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Evergrande\u2019s liquidation is being closely watched by investors in dozens of other Chinese property groups that are in restructuring talks and also face possible winding-up orders in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Less than 1 per cent of about $150bn in offshore property bonds have been recovered so far, despite years of restructuring talks, the FT reported this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a Hong Kong court ordered the liquidation of state-linked China South City, a smaller property developer but the largest to face such an order since Evergrande, in a sign of the continued impact of China\u2019s property crash.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Kaye Wiggins and Chan Ho-him<\/p>\n

This article has been amended since first publication to reflect the fact PwC China was fined Rmb441mn last year, and not $441mn as originally stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-77388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}