Troubles mount for 80-year-old builder Hsin Chong – defaults on US$150 million bond, files for provisional liquidation and faces delisting

Hsin Chong, the construction company that built Ocean Park and Kai Tak Airport, has been granted permission by the Supreme Court of Bermuda to file for provisional liquidation

It will be delisted in July unless it reaches a deal with potential white knights including Greenland, Kaisa Group or Poly Property

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Hsin Chong Centre in Ngau Tau Kok. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:12am, 23 Jan 2019Updated: 10:59pm, 23 Jan 2019

Hsin Chong Group Holdings, the Hong Kong construction major behind the iconic Ocean Park and former Kai Tak Airport, could be delisted in July after filing for provisional liquidation earlier this week.

The development came just before the company defaulted on a US$150 million bond due on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court of Bermuda approved Hsin Chong’s application to go into provisional liquidation. Edmund Yeung Lui-ming and Glen Ho Kwok-leung of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Hong Kong, and Rachelle Ann Frisby, of Deloitte in Bermuda have been named joint provisional liquidators, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday.

The company, whose shares have been suspended from trading for 21 months, will be delisted on July 31 if it is unable to resolve its issues by then. The stock exchange last August introduced a new rule to delist a company that has been suspended for 18 months, or 12 months in the case of a company that had been suspended before the rule was introduced.

Geoffrey Yeh Meou-tsen, the then chairman and managing director of Hsin Chong Holdings, speaks at the 50th anniversary of the company. Photo: SCMP

The 80-year-old company, chaired by Guangdong businessman Lin Zhuoyan, has previously been in talks with several potential white knights including Greenland Holdings, 46.4 per cent owned by the Shanghai government, the Post reported in September, quoting two anonymous sources.