HONG KONG – A mansion belonging to the chairman of embattled China Evergrande Group, Mr Hui Ka Yan, has been seized by lender China Construction Bank (Asia), local online news outlet HK01 reported on Thursday.

The report did not say when the 465 sq m mansion in Hong Kong’s prestigious The Peak residential enclave was taken over by the bank. HK01 said the property was valued at HK$700 million (S$126 million).

Evergrande declined to comment on the report, and Mr Hui could not immediately be reached. China Construction Bank (Asia) had no immediate comment.

The mansion, with sweeping views of the city’s gleaming skyscrapers, had been pledged to raise about HK$300 million to repay an overdue Evergrande bond, HK01 reported last year.

A filing with Hong Kong’s Land Registry confirmed in October 2021 that the property was pledged for a loan from China Construction Bank (Asia), although it gave no monetary figure.

Mr Hui owns two other luxury homes in the same development in The Peak. They were pledged to Orix Asia Capital in November 2021 for undisclosed amounts, according to the Land Registry.

Evergrande’s main assets in Hong Kong – its headquarters and a vast plot of rural land – were seized by creditors in 2022. 

Chinese state-owned China Citic Bank, lender to the office tower, took over the asset in September and put it on a tender sale in October, while United States asset manager Oaktree Capital Management seized the land in Yuen Long district early in 2022.

After years of explosive growth in the property sector, the Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on excessive debt in 2020. This squeezed financing options for developers such as Evergrande as they struggled to make repayments and restructure mountains of debt. REUTERS