The seized Hong Kong headquarters of embattled China Evergrande Group has drawn interest from dozens of prospective buyers including local property developers, family offices, and mainland financial firms, said the agent managing the sale.
The deadline for submission of final bids for the tower, China Evergrande Centre, which is valued at between HK$8 billion and HK$9 billion (US$1.02 billion to US$1.15 billion), ends on Oct 31.
However, after a lukewarm response in an earlier round of bids this year, it is unclear how many will submit final offers.
The sale is expected to leave Evergrande and its offshore bondholders with very little, if any, of the money they are owed, once proceeds pay off a HK$7.6 billion loan to a bank that holds the building as collateral.
Evergrande, which is saddled with more than US$300 billion in debt and is at the centre of an unprecedented property sector crisis in China, had been trying to sell its 27-storey tower in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district to raise cash before it was seized by creditors last month.
A potential US$1.7 billion deal to sell the landmark building collapsed late last year, dealing a blow to Evergrande’s efforts to divest some assets to repay creditors after it missed interest payments on its offshore bonds.
