. Evergrande expanded aggressively to become one of China's biggest companies by borrowing more than $300bn. In 2020, Beijing brought in new rules to control the amount owed by big real estate developers. The new measures led Evergrande to offer its properties at major discounts to ensure money was coming in to keep the business afloat. Now it is struggling to meet the interest payments on its debts. This uncertainty has seen Evergrande's shares lose more than 99% of their value in the past three years. In August, the firm filed for bankruptcy in New York , in a bid to protect its US assets as it worked on a multi-billion dollar deal with creditors. There are sev){kind=link}
A crisis at the world’s most indebted company has worsened after its chairman was placed under police surveillance.
It follows earlier reports that other current and former executives at Chinese property giant Evergrande had also been detained.
Evergrande suspended the trading of its shares in Hong Kong on Thursday until further notice.
It marks another low for the firm which was declared to be in default in 2021 after missing a crucial repayment deadline, triggering China’s current real estate market crisis.
Businessman Hui Ka Yan founded Evergrande, formerly known as the Hengda Group, in 1996 in Guangzhou, southern China.