China Evergrande Group lost control of some of its property projects around the country, as several state-owned developers picked away at its assets while the heavily indebted builder teeters on the brink with more thanUS$300 billion of total liabilities. Evergrande Fairyland, a theme park subsidiary in the Nansha district of the Guangdong provincial capital of Guangzhou was completely taken over on January 26 by the China Minmetals Group’s Minmetals International Trust, according to the business data search platform Tianyancha. In the Guangdong manufacturing hub of Dongguan, a mixed-development real estate project – built on land that Evergrande bought in 2020 for nearly 3 billion yuan (US$475 million) – came under the control of state-owned China Everbright Group on Monday, according to the national enterprise credit information publicity system. The spate of takeovers underscore how Evergrande, with the dubious honour as the world’s most indebted developer , is being taken apart by creditors as it grapples to raise capital to pay its borrowings. The company’s asset sales – including its 26-storey Hong Kong harbourfront headquarters and dozens of projects in mainland China – had been mostly spurned because of their intricate financing ties with various units. Beijing is encouraging state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including developers and distressed debt managers, to acquire assets and from liquidity crunched home builders such as Evergrande and Kaisa Holdings to ease their pressure. Beijing’s loan limit for real estate companies, widely known as the “ three red lines ”, which has pushed many developers to the brink, has been partially relaxed, according to a report by a state-backed media outlet in January. Minmetals Trust, a unit of China’s largest commodities trader, paid Evergrande 80 million yuan in January for the equity interest in a residential project in Dongguan and another one in Kunming in southwestern Yunnan Province. Chinese policymakers plan to exclude debt raised by a developer to acquire distressed assets of another home builder when calculating their compliance with the three red lines. Evergrande plans to fully restore its construction operations this month, the Guangzhou-based developer’s chairman Hui Ka-yan said during an internal meeting earlier in February. Property sales will resume as soon as possible to help resolve the company’s debts, Hui said. Is Evergrande too big to fail? The developer has about 50 billion yuan of funds in hand from pre-sold apartments, 170 billion yuan of contracted cash awaiting collection, and assets that can be sold, Hui said in the meeting, according to the person. Fitch and S&P Global Ratings declared the developer in default after it missed bond interest payments in December. Evergrande told investors and creditors last month that it intends to roll out a debt restructuring plan within six months and would “continue to listen carefully to the opinions and suggestions of the creditors”. However, some offshore creditors have already moved to seize company assets because of its mounting liabilities. Asset manager Oaktree Capital seized a Palace of Versailles-like project in Yuen Long in January and appointed receivers for the property, which was used as collateral as part of Evergrande’s efforts to restructure its debt. Evergrande has said it “is seeking legal advice to protect the legal rights of the company” regarding the project.