Founder of China Evergrande: The Rise and Fall of Hui Ka Yan

Hui Ka Yan founded the Chinese real estate giant China Evergrande. His promise to transform rural villages into megacities with middle-class amenities made him one of the richest people in China. He met with officials at the highest levels of government, and they celebrated the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party in 2021 in Tiananmen Square.

Now he is being investigated by the authorities on suspicion of criminal behavior.

Mr. Hui’s life story, from poor village boy to real estate tycoon, once made him a symbol of the great promise of China’s economic renaissance. Buyers flocked to buy Evergrande apartments in hundreds of cities across China, often years before the buildings were finished. At its peak, the company reported bumper sales as home prices skyrocketed.

Signs of trouble for the master. Hui’s company emerged in 2020. China’s hot real estate market began to slow after a campaign by the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, to slow its growth. And Mr. Xi’s response to the Covid pandemic, by ordering lockdowns in regions across the country, has cut property spending and begun to spook potential homebuyers. In 2021, Evergrande defaulted on payments to some creditors. Its debts accumulated.

Evergrande has reported debt of more than $300 billion. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in New York in August, in an attempt to ease the way for debt settlement with its bondholders abroad. In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, Evergrande announced that Mr. Hui, 64, is still a billionaire but no longer the richest person in China, and authorities suspect him of criminal wrongdoing. The statement seemed to confirm newscast this mr. Hui was under police surveillance, a form of house arrest.

Who is Hui Ka Yan?

Born in Henan Province, Mr. Hui, known as Xu Jiayin in mainland China, was raised by his grandmother in rural poverty. His mother died when he was one year old, after the family was unable to obtain medical care. He remembers walking to his thatched school with steamed cornbread cakes shaped by the summer humidity. He would wash it and then eat it.

Grow up, Mr. Hui said that he intended to become a construction worker so that he could receive a regular salary. “At that time, I was eager to get help from others, I was eager to get a job, leave the countryside forever, and eat wheat flour,” he said. Hui said in 2018 letter. But as universities reopened after the Cultural Revolution, he enrolled at Wuhan University of Science and Technology and worked for ten years in a state-owned steel factory.

He founded Evergrande in the southern city of Guangzhou in 1996, as the government sought to move hundreds of millions of people from the countryside to the city. He bought hundreds of plots of land, promising to turn them into urban residential towers. Because of its middle-class amenities—such as proximity to public transportation and good schools—buyers flocked to his homes, and Evergrande sold more properties than other developers.

After listing Evergrande shares in 2009, Hui poured his profits from the property boom into unrelated projects. Evergrande took over Guangzhou’s top soccer club in 2010, spending billions of dollars on foreign players in the years Mr. Evergrande was president of the country. Xi spoke of ambitions to transform China into a football superpower. Number of mr. Hui’s other investments, including developing electric cars and traditional Chinese medicine, were consistent with the party’s priorities. The company hired Jackie Chan to become the face of the mineral water project.

What led to his downfall?

To support Evergrande’s aggressive expansion across the country, the company borrowed heavily. She has taken loans from banks and even their employees. Ultimately, the company borrowed more than it could repay.

Mr. Hui belonged to an elite group of Chinese political advisors, and once wore a mask Hermes belt with gold buckle To the 2012 session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. On July 1, 2021, he was among the guests on stage in Tiananmen Square during the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in 2021. “Everything I own and everything Evergrande Group has achieved has been granted by the Party, the state and the whole society,” Mr. Hui said in a 2018 speech.

But later in 2021, Evergrande began defaulting on payments. After being among the country’s best-performing stocks, the company’s shares fell amid concerns about whether the company would be able to repay its debts and complete the construction of apartments.

Homebuyers protested in the streets. China’s central bank has served notice to Evergrande to settle its debts. The company is struggling to sell some of its assets to raise money.

It was once worth $43.8 billion. Hui’s estimated wealth has fallen to $3 billion in 2023, according to Hurun Report, a research firm that tracks wealth in China.

Chinese officials have said nothing publicly about the investigation into Mr. Hey. Evergrande, which has suspended trading in its shares while it negotiates with its creditors, issued statements on Monday saying it had no further information to add about the situation at the company, despite the investigation into Mr. Evergrande. Hey.

Evergrande said it had filed for trading to resume its shares The main holding company And for her Real estate services unit Tuesday. The company said that operations in the real estate services unit were “normal.” It did not address the employment situation in the main holding company.