Beijing. Hui Ka Yan, the founder of China’s ‘real estate giant’ Evergreened, was once among the richest people in the Asian continent. According to American magazine Forbes, in 2017, he is the richest businessman in Asia with 42.5 billion US dollars.
64-year-old Yan is also famous as Su Jian in China. Yan, who once dominated the list of Asia’s richest men, has now reached police custody. And, with that, his empire as president of Evergreened seems to have collapsed. According to the BBC, the Chinese police detained Yan to investigate allegations of illegal crimes.
The Rise of Evergrande
After being listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2009, the financial size of the company rose rapidly. Since the company was registered in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the financial size has been increasing rapidly. What analysts call an explosive rise. As the company was taking shape in Hong Kong, Yan, together with Chinese friends, started business in China as well.
To make Chinese Evergrande financially stronger and stronger, Yan’s friends started buying shares and bonds of the company. Evergrande got the direct benefit and continued to move forward. Currently, Evergrande has more than 1,300 projects in 280 cities in China. Moreover, Evergrande Chairman Yan’s business journey is not limited to real estate and he has ventured into property management, electric car manufacturing, food and beverage manufacturing as well.
Evergrande also owns a majority stake in Guangzhou, China’s most famous and successful professional football club.
The trip down
Evergrande’s uphill journey had progressed at a rapid pace. At the same speed, the downhill journey also proceeded. In 2020, the Chinese government enacted a new policy to control large real estate companies. Evergrande, which is being affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, was badly affected by China’s new policy. With China’s new policies, Evergrande, burdened with debt, started selling its properties with special discounts.
The company’s share price fell by 99 percent after Evergrande started selling assets at a heavy discount with the aim of rising from the Chinese government’s new policies and debt burden. Along with this, the net worth of Yan, who owns more than USD 42 billion in 2017, has shrunk to USD 3.2 billion. After this, the fact that the Chinese authorities were also investigating Yan came out and Evergrande stopped its trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Analysts attribute the collapse of Evergrande’s empire to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s equal income and socialist ideology. The Chinese government introduced a new policy for the year 2020 to bridge the income gap between the wealthy Chinese and ordinary Chinese. The president of Evergrande was the epitome of a wealthy businessman. Joe, who was traveling the world in his private jet,” said Dector Roberts, director of the China Watch Institute at the University of Montana, ‘was keeping a close eye on riches like Sealy Yan. Who was apparently living an elite life. He knew that this would be against the country’s economy and the party’s policy.
– BBC