Beijing, Sept. 29, Highly debt-ridden Chinese real-estate group Evergrande has sold bank shares worth 10 billion yuan (1.55 billion dollars), it announced on Wednesday, in an effort to stay afloat.
The embattled company said it sold around 20 per cent of shares in the Shengjing Bank, based in the northern city of Shenyang, to a state-owned investment group.
Shenjing Bank had demanded that the profits from the sale be used to settle Evergrande liabilities to the bank.
Following the announcement, Evergrande’s share price rose almost 15 per cent on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Since the start of the year, however, it remains down by more than 78 per cent.
Evergrande is the world’s most indebted real estate group, with debts equivalent to more than 300 billion dollars. The liquidity crisis has intensified after it failed last week to make an 83.5-million-dollar interest payment on an offshore bond.
The group is so big that some experts fear a contagion risk for the Chinese economy and beyond.