Evergrande Group Photo: CFP

Chinese Estates Holdings has sold a total of 751 million mandate shares in indebted real estate developer China Evergrande Group, the company said in a company filing on Wednesday.
 
According to the filing, the company disposed of the 751 million mandate shares on September 23, representing approximately 5.67 percent of the issued share capital of Evergrande as at October 31, 2021.
 
Hong Kong tycoon Joseph Lau, the former chairman of Chinese Estates, used to be a significant shareholder in Evergrande and a close friend of Hui Ka Yan, founder of Evergrande, owning 9 percent of the shares. Lau and his wife received a dividend of 1.7 billion yuan ($266 million) from Evergrande in 2019, business news site nbd.com reported on Wednesday, adding that the combined loss from disposing of the shares for Lau will be more than HK$11 billion.
 
Chinese Estates started selling the stocks in August, with an aggregate of 109 million shares sold from August 30 to September 21 at an average price of appropriately HK$2.26 per share, said the filing.
 
Hui Ka Yan has reportedly raised funds by selling off personal assets and his holdings of equities in a bid to pay back bond coupons and maintain basic operations of the company, financial media outlet cls.cn reported on November 16, citing sources close to Evergrande.