China Evergrande applies for trading to resume in Hong Kong on Tuesday

The Shenzhen-based developer said it was notified by relevant authorities last week that its chairman and founder Hui Ka-yan was placed under so-called “mandatory measures” due to “suspicion of illegal crimes”, hours after its shares and those of its two major subsidiaries were suspended from trading on September 28.

“The board is of the view that there is currently no other inside information in relation to the company that needs to be disclosed,” Evergrande’s executive director Siu Shawn said in the filing late on Monday.

Evergrande Property Services, the developer’s property services arm, has also applied for trading in its shares to resume on Tuesday.

Hui, known as Xu Jiayin on the mainland, has not been seen in public for some time, and his whereabouts have been a subject of intense speculation in Chinese media. His disappearance was preceded by the arrest of several top group executives last month.

Evergrande, the world’s most indebted developer with US$327 billion of liabilities at the end of June, sparked a crisis in China’s property sector when it defaulted on its offshore debt two years ago.