Evergrande Group Photo: CFP

Xia Haijun, Vice Chairman and President of the China Evergrande Group, the debt-plagued real estate giant, sold firm bonds with a face value of $128 million in August before the company ran into a debt crisis in 2021, according to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on Thursday.

Xia made the declaration to HKEX on Wednesday, six months after the sale.

According to the declaration, Xia sold three batches of Evergrande bonds between July and August 2021, with an average sale price that was only about 35.9 to 52.4 percent of par value.

Xia is known as the highest paid professional manager in China's real estate industry, media reported. 

According to Evergrande's annual report, Xia's annual salary in 2020 exceeded 200 million yuan ($31.5 million). 

Analysts said that the investment trend of listed companies and their actual controllers or senior managers is a barometer of the capital market, especially when reducing the shares of their own companies, potentially creating high concerns. 

"Xia cashed out in large quantities before the crisis of Evergrande started on September 8, 2021, and only sold company bonds at about 30 to 50 percent discount of face value indicating that he had anticipated the crisis of the company," analyst said.

It is reported that Xia also sold 10 million shares of Evergrande Property Services at an average price of HK$7.3026 ($0.94) per share on August 11, 2021, reducing his shareholding, from 0.61 percent to 0.51 percent. Xia also sold 3 million shares of Evergrande New Energy Vehicle at an average price of HK$14.18 per share, reducing his proportion of shares, from 0.15 percent to 0.12 percent.

Evergrande said on Wednesday that it plans to deliver 600,000 new homes in 2022 while it struggles to contain its debt crisis.

Evergrande in January announced a debt restructuring, saying that it would try to come up with a preliminary restructuring plan within six months to protect the interests of creditors.