During a monthly working conference on Thursday, the cash-strapped Chinese property giant, China Evergrande Group, reassured the market that it is pushing for a return to work to ensure the delivery of projects, according to media reports. 

The Chairman of China Evergrande Group, Xu Jiayin, said that the company started the return to work on February 6 and construction of 562 projects is back to normal, while activities in 179 housing projects are in the process of resumption, according to a report on Thursday by online news outlet ynet.cn. 

Xu also mentioned that the Evergrande Group has deeply understood the importance of residential sales and that the company would not be able to walk out of difficulties and repay its debt without sales, the report noted. 

At the conference, Xu acknowledged the hardships the company went through in recent months, saying that its sales revenues only stood at about 20 to 30 million yuan ($3 to $4.5 million) per month from last October to March 2022, which means that the company's sales are almost at a standstill. 

He also said the company had tried to start sales last December and in February this year but without success.

“Our pressure is unimageable,” Xu told media. 

However, Xu disclosed that the company launched a third sales campaign this April with promising results. The company's sales revenues stood at 3.09 billion yuan ($471 million) in April, a record which Xu described as “splendid.”

“The recovery of sales is significant to Evergrande, our downstream and upstream partners, house owners and creditors,” Xu said. 

The Chinese real estate giant reported about 1.97 trillion yuan ($300.2 billion) in liabilities as of June 30, 2021, the most among its peers in China. Last year, the company missed several rounds of bond payments, arousing many negative speculations about the property mammoth.

The Evergrande Group also announced the creation of a risk management committee last December as the company tried to weather the crisis by its own efforts. 

Xu added that the company is striving to hit the target of delivering 100,000 residential units in May. 

Global Times