Evergrande chair refuses to disclose assets, liquidators say
[HONG KONG] China Evergrande Group chairman Hui Ka Yan plans to refuse disclosing details of his assets, its liquidators said, likely complicating efforts to wind up the defaulted builder to pay back creditors.
Hui expressed his intention in an Apr 23 response to the court, a lawyer representing the liquidators said in a Tuesday (Apr 29) hearing at the Hong Kong High Court. Hui's lawyer, who was at the hearing, did not push back on the liquidator's statement.
While the liquidators argued for the earliest date possible for the hearing to resume, Hui's lawyer asked the court for more time given that the case is 'complex' and 'sensitive'. The judge said the hearing on Hui's case will not be held before Jun 30.
Tuesday's hearing is part of a legal battle waged by the liquidators to outline and potentially claw back scraps from one of the world's biggest corporate implosions. Clarity on Evergrande's assets tied to Hui is crucial for liquidation as the filings show he controls nearly 60 per cent of the total stake.
Hui's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An emblem of China's years-long property crisis, Evergrande defaulted in 2021, resulting in a creditor petition to liquidate the company. When the court sided with creditors in early 2024, it appointed Edward Middleton and Tiffany Wong of Alvarez & Marsal as the liquidators who will also be in charge of running its operations.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Tuesday, 12 pm Property Insights
Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond.
Sign Up
Sign Up
Evergrande and the liquidators have since taken steps to recoup some of what creditors are owed, including filing lawsuits against Hui, his wife Ding Yumei, former chief executive officer Xia Haijun, former chief financial officer Pan Darong, and three other entities including Xin Xin (BVI).
The lawsuits seek to recover US$6 billion in dividends and remuneration paid by the company on the basis that financial statements were allegedly misstated for several years going back to 2017, according to an exchange filing.
Hui controls his stake largely through Xin Xin, a British Virgin Islands-based corporate entity, according to the company's latest annual report filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
In 2023, Chinese authorities notified Evergrande that Hui has been subject to 'mandatory measures' due to 'suspicion of illegal crimes'. BLOOMBERG
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
Chinese managers take reins at TikTok Shop in US as sales miss goal
[SEATTLE] ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has been replacing US-hired staff near Seattle with managers connected to China, aiming to replicate its e-commerce success in Asia after sales fell short in America. TikTok Shop initially set a goal to increase its US e-commerce business tenfold last year to US$17.5 billion in transaction volume, but had to drastically lower that objective, according to people familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk publicly. TikTok established its Shop business in the Seattle area near the online retail giant it was aiming to displace. Meetings that used to be held in English are now often conducted in Mandarin and managers increasingly write in Chinese when communicating on Feishu, ByteDance's internal Slack-like app, with English-speaking staff forced to rely on the built-in translation function. 'We continually assess our business needs and have made recent team adjustments to strengthen our organisation, remaining confident in the future ahead,' a TikTok Shop spokesperson said. The company previously called the reported e-commerce transaction target 'inaccurate.' More than 100 TikTok Shop employees in the US have been fired or have left amid confusion between leaders that has worsened the work environment, according to people familiar with the company. The cultural transition taking place in the firm coincides with its fight for survival in the US – due mainly to the app's Chinese ties. A national security law passed by Congress last year requires TikTok's US business to be spun off from its Chinese parent company or it will face a ban. Lawmakers warned that TikTok's ties to China pose a threat to the safety and security of American users. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up President Donald Trump has twice delayed the ban – with legal assurances from his attorney general – and another deadline for divestiture looms later this month, though that might also be extended, the Wall Street Journal reported. ByteDance said during the Biden administration that it had no plan to sell TikTok, but in April the Beijing-based company confirmed that it had been in discussions with the Trump government regarding a potential solution for TikTok US. It said any agreement would be subject to approval under Chinese law. The TikTok Shop near Seattle in February began requiring workers to be in the office five days a week for eight hours a day, according to a memo reviewed by Bloomberg. The change is in contrast to some other major tech companies that still offer flexible work schedules, and has been particularly burdensome for employees who often join late-night calls with colleagues in Asia after they leave the office, according to former employees. US-based staff require human resources and manager pre-approval to work from home. The changes were introduced after Bob Kang, China-based global head of TikTok's e-commerce division, visited the office in Bellevue, Washington, earlier this year and found there weren't enough staff present on a work day, according to multiple people who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Assigning Chinese executives to run TikTok's fastest-growing business may raise questions about its previous corporate promise to distance the US operation from China. After Trump initially tried to ban the app during his first term, the company announced a security plan dubbed 'Project Texas' and vowed to wall off the app's US data and operations from any Chinese oversight. TikTok Shop is the biggest source of revenue for the video-sharing app besides advertising, and it has become a major investment area for ByteDance. Adding full-scale commerce to its eye-catching content and popular influencers sets it apart from rivals like Instagram and YouTube. The company still aims to challenge Amazon in major markets. Recruited aggressively To better compete, TikTok Shop recruited aggressively near Seattle over the past three years, targeting people with experience at Amazon, according to a review of Linkedin profiles and people who worked at both companies. In some corners of TikTok's Bellevue office of about 1,000 employees, the workflow felt like a remix of previous Amazon teams, the people said. But since January, growing tension in the teams below Kang and Nico Le Bourgeois, who oversaw TikTok's e-commerce operations in the US, became a distraction for staff who were often unsure about whose orders to follow, the people said. TikTok's uncertain fate in the US also weighed on morale. The company carried out a round of layoffs in April. A second batch followed in May. In the first round, Le Bourgeois was demoted when Mu Qing, a Chinese executive from ByteDance's e-commerce platform Douyin moved to the Seattle area to run TikTok Shop in the US. After the second bout, Mu sent an internal message saying Le Bourgeois was leaving to pursue other opportunities, according to a copy of the message seen by Bloomberg. Those cuts were intended to improve TikTok's 'efficiency,' according to former employees, though it wasn't clear to staff what factors contributed to a worker's efficiency rating. With these changes, ByteDance leaders are bringing in people who are familiar with what worked for the company in China, where Douyin, its TikTok clone for the Chinese market, has evolved into a US$490 billion shopping phenomenon. In addition to Mu, who was the head of Douyin's e-commerce, six other leaders with Chinese backgrounds were appointed in April, according to a different internal memo from Kang viewed by Bloomberg. Possible ban One challenge is that habits of many American users trend towards passive TikTok scrolling as opposed to making purchases in the app. Some US sellers told Bloomberg that they have also been reluctant to invest in the platform, given the possible ban. The final tally for the US e-commerce business's 2024 sales came in at around US$9 billion, according to an estimate by Singapore-based consultancy Momentum Works. TikTok Shop's US struggles have not halted the company's global shopping ambitions. ByteDance in 2021 rolled out e-commerce services in countries including Indonesia, Vietnam and the UK. In South-east Asia, it's already the region's biggest shopping platform after Shopee, according to Momentum Works. Last year, TikTok Shop opened in five countries in Europe, including Germany and Spain. The Europe expansion was delayed because the company first prioritised US growth, Bloomberg reported. This is a crucial month for TikTok in the US. The company will host merchants and creators in Los Angeles next week for a summit featuring some of the new leaders of the e-commerce unit. The current deadline for ByteDance to sell the TikTok's US operation is June 19 and there have been several interested suitors. The company came close to a possible spinoff in April to a consortium of investors that included Oracle, but the deal was scuttled in part because of Trump's trade war with China. Meanwhile, the churn of e-commerce employment continues in the Seattle area. Current and former TikTok Shop employees told Bloomberg that they get hounded by recruiting messages from Temu, another Chinese e-commerce competitor. BLOOMBERG
Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business Times
Can US ports handle a freight spike or will they be overwhelmed?
ARE Los Angeles and Long Beach heading for another port congestion crisis? Since the United States put tariffs on hold for a 90-day trade war truce with China on May 14, the market has expected a shipping surge driven by Chinese exports. Ocean carriers have re-instated suspended services, restarted vessels lying idle, and introduced new routes – revitalising transpacific lanes. But how much capacity has actually returned to the US-bound trade? Estimates vary. According to maritime consultancy eeSea, total capacity from Asia to North America will reach 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in June – 400,000 TEUs more than May. That figure is projected to climb further in July to 2.8 million TEUs. The majority of this added capacity targets the US West Coast, particularly the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Data provider Sea-Intelligence reports similar trends. Its latest weekly update shows a 17 per cent year-on-year rise in Asia-US West Coast capacity in June, with a projected 19 per cent jump in July. Meanwhile, East Coast capacity is growing more modestly – up only 7 per cent in June but expected to match the West Coast's 19 per cent rise in July. These figures are based on carriers' existing schedules, which remain subject to change. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The big question is whether Los Angeles and Long Beach can handle this influx. Will the port congestion seen in the pandemic era re-appear? Preliminary forecasts indicate that container volumes at both ports will begin rising in the second week of June, topping 100,000 TEUs a week. Volumes will continue climbing in the third week. While fourth-week data is not yet available, estimates suggest traffic will remain elevated. Many extra sailings are scheduled to arrive in late June and early July, suggesting persistently high throughput at least into mid-July. Historically, both ports handled their highest Asian import volumes in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic – about 10 million TEUs for the year. The Port of Los Angeles alone processed a record 520,000 TEUs in May 2021, while the Port of Long Beach reached its single-month peak of 400,000 TEUs the same month. Will the same influx appear again this time? Industry opinion is divided. Senior executives at leading carriers and terminals suggest the tariff deferral may not trigger a pandemic-style shipping boom. While June volumes are likely to exceed May's, early expectations may have overshot. Much of the inventory that had been sitting in warehouses shipped out quickly after the May 14 tariff suspension. And even if buyers place new orders, lead times mean many shipments will not depart until late June or July. Moreover, despite the suspension of a 125 per cent reciprocal tariff, the 30 per cent levy added this year – on top of 2018's Section 301 duties – means US-China trade has not returned to normal. The truce may offer temporary relief, but it is unlikely to generate a prolonged surge. Freight rates on transpacific routes have spiked in recent weeks. But does that signal true demand strength? A key indicator is the balance between cargo booked under negotiated contract (NAC) rates versus freight-all-kinds spot rates. At present, many freight forwarders are still able to secure lower-priced NAC slots — suggesting excess capacity remains. While sentiment may push prices upward temporarily, ultimate rate direction hinges on ship utilisation. If vessels sail full, rates will hold firm. If not, the rally will fade. So, will there be port congestion? A sudden and sustained spike in volume could strain operations. However, if elevated cargo volumes last only two to three weeks, the ports can manage. If imports climb more than 20 per cent above normal and stay high through July, congestion risks increase sharply. The bottom line is that Los Angeles and Long Beach are entering a high-alert phase. If disruption comes, it will probably begin to show in late July. CAIXIN GLOBAL Zhang Huafeng is the chief operating officer of Duke Shipping Agency
Business Times
4 hours ago
- Business Times
Meta in talks for scale AI investment that could top US$10 billion
[NEW YORK] Meta Platforms is in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, according to people familiar with the matter. The financing could exceed US$10 billion in value, some of the people said, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time. The terms of the deal are not finalised and could still change, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. A representative for Scale did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meta declined to comment. Scale AI, whose customers include Microsoft and OpenAI, provides data labelling services to help companies train machine-learning models and has become a key beneficiary of the generative AI boom. The startup was last valued at about US$14 billion in 2024, in a funding round that included backing from Meta and Microsoft. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Scale was in talks for a tender offer that would value it at US$25 billion. This would be Meta's biggest ever external AI investment, and a rare move for the company. The social media giant has before now mostly depended on its in-house research, plus a more open development strategy, to make improvements in its AI technology. Meanwhile, Big Tech peers have invested heavily: Microsoft has put more than US$13 billion into OpenAI while both and Alphabet have put billions into rival Anthropic. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Part of those companies' investments have been through credits to use their computing power. Meta does not have a cloud business, and it is unclear what format Meta's investment will take. Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has made AI Meta's top priority, and said in January that the company would spend as much as US$65 billion on related projects this year. The company's push includes an effort to make Llama the industry standard worldwide. Meta's AI chatbot – already available on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – is used by one billion people per month. Scale, co-founded in 2016 by CEO Alexandr Wang, has been growing quickly: The startup generated revenue of US$870 million last year and expects sales to more than double to US$2 billion in 2025, Bloomberg previously reported. Scale plays a key role in making AI data available for companies. Because AI is only as good as the data that goes into it, Scale uses scads of contract workers to tidy up and tag images, text and other data that can then be used for AI training. Scale and Meta share an interest in defence tech. Last week, Meta announced a new partnership with defence contractor Anduril Industries to develop products for the US military, including an AI-powered helmet with virtual and augmented reality features. Meta has also granted approval for US government agencies and defence contractors to use its AI models. The company is already partnering with Scale on a programme called Defense Llama – a version of Meta's Llama large language model intended for military use. Scale has increasingly been working with the US government to develop AI for defence purposes. Earlier this year the startup said it won a contract with the Defense Department to work on AI agent technology. The company called the contract 'a significant milestone in military advancement.' BLOOMBERG
