Embattled Evergrande to resume trading

China Evergrande said trading of its shares will resume today as the embattled developer's chairman Hui Ka-yan is being investigated on suspicion of unspecified crimes, with some reporting it as related to transferring assets offshore.

The developer said in a regulatory filing yesterday that there was currently no other inside information that needs to be disclosed after the firm said last week Hui was subject to "mandatory measures" due to suspicion of "illegal crimes." It did not elaborate.

Earlier, it was reported that Hui was being monitored by police at a designated location.

Trading in Evergrande's property services arm will also resume today.

On transferring assets, Hui is said to have established a 2.3 billion yuan (HK$2.47 billion) family trust for his two sons.

However, his younger son Peter Xu, who once ran the firm's wealth unit, is also reportedly under investigation along with certain former executives of the developer after authorities detained some staff of the unit.

Meanwhile, Ding Yumei, who was no longer listed as Hui's spouse in Evergrande's filing in August, had left Hong Kong as early as late July after learning that a mainland entrepreneur linked to Hui was barred from leaving China, according to Tencent News. There were also media reports that Ding had "technically" divorced Hui last year.

The 21st Century Business Herald said that Hui and Ding had obtained most of Evergrande's 90 billion yuan worth of accumulated dividend payouts through offshore companies.

Such dividends may have been transferred offshore earlier and were eventually under Ding through the divorce, the report said, citing an unnamed industry watcher.

This came as the number of unfinished projects under Evergrande reached 1.62 million units, involving six million owners, according to the estimation of several mainland media.

A group of offshore creditors was planning to join a court petition to liquidate the developer if it did not submit a new debt restructuring plan by the end of the month.