A self-made billionaire’s quest to save EvergrandeAFP, BEIJINGFrom rural poverty to real estate billions, the fortunes of Evergrande Group (恆大集團) chairman Xu Jiayin (許家印) tracked China’s runaway growth for much of the past two decades — but now he is battling to save his conglomerate from a quagmire of debt. They warned that Evergrande is “close to collapse,” with large losses looming for banks, bondholders and home buyers. Evergrande Group chairman Xu Jiayin speaks at an earnings conference in Hong Kong on March 26, 2019. In 2010, Xu bought an embattled Guangzhou soccer team, renaming it Guangzhou Evergrande and pouring money into world-class players and coaches. Without the country’s reform and opening up, Evergrande is not what it is today,” he said.

Source: Taipei Times September 12, 2021 15:56 UTC