Provisional liquidators have asked for eight more months to find buyers for the assets of Euro-Asia Agricultural (Holdings), extending the wait of two Hong Kong banks seeking to recover loans made to the mainland floricultural firm. At a High Court hearing yesterday, Hong Kong court-appointed liquidators requested that the winding-up process be adjourned. 'We need time to look for a suitable and acceptable buyer to acquire the assets of the company and to review the visibility and viability of relevant restructuring plans,' said Derek Lai, one of two provisional liquidators. The move was supported by Chiyu Banking Corp, a BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) subsidiary, which petitioned to have Euro-Asia wound up after Yang Bin, who controls Euro-Asia, was given an 18-year prison sentence. The petition prompted the High Court to appoint the provisional liquidators in July. A company judge will decide on Monday whether to grant the lengthy adjournment. Since October last year, Chiyu and Germany's Hamburgische Landesbank, now a part of HSH Nordbank, have each sought repayment of a $30 million loan to Euro-Asia and are the only two publicly known Euro-Asia creditors in Hong Kong. Last week, Yang's aunt Yang Fenglin said the businessman and his companies owed about one billion yuan (HK$937 million) to creditors, which also include major mainland banks and a Jiangsu-based construction company.
