Evergrande. Photo: CFP

 
China's indebted property developer Evergrande said it has sold all its entire stake in HengTen Networks Group worth a total of HK$2.12 bln ($272 mln) on Wednesday, an exchange filing showed on Wednesday. It marks Evergrande's fourth reduction in ownership of the internet business this month.

Evergrande slip as much as 0.71 percent in Hong Kong trading on Thursday opening and shares of HengTen, the internet subsidiary, surged as much as 10.65 percent.

Facing an ongoing liquidity crisis, Evergrande has offloaded shares in the HengTen several times to raise an accumulated HK$8.8 billion to ease pressure in other parts of its business.

Earlier this month, a filing to the HK stock exchange showed that the company has sold 530 million shares in its Hong Kong-listed internet unit HengTen Networks Group on November 4, November 5 and November 8, raising around HK$1.125 billion.

Earlier in June, the company sold 739 million shares of the film production and internet-media unit, raising about HK$4.43 billion. Through further reducing shares of HengTen, the firm raised HK$1.18 billion and HK$2.07 billion on August 13 and August 24.

Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin, or Hui Ka Yan is also reportedly said to have raised $1.1 billion funds by selling off personal assets and equity holdings, to pay back bond coupons and maintain basic operations of Evergrande, financial media cls.cn reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to Evergrande's capital circle.

Global Times