(June 26): China Evergrande Group’s former chief executive officer asked a Hong Kong court to significantly raise the cap on his living expenses to suit his lifestyle, adding a new twist to one of the country’s largest liquidation cases.
At a hearing on Friday, Xia Haijun’s lawyer said his client would like to increase his monthly expenses permitted by the city’s High Court to US$43,000 ($55,624) from the current ceiling of HKD50,000 (US$6,377). The latter is not enough considering Xia’s lifestyle and previous salary as Evergrande’s CEO, the lawyer added.
The Hong Kong court issued an injunction order to freeze Xia’s assets in June 2024, as liquidators sought to recover US$6 billion in dividends and remuneration from seven defendants including Xia and others.
A lawyer of Evergrande’s liquidators said at Friday’s hearing that there is no solid evidence to support Xia’s latest request, adding that Xia has a track record of playing a strategy of “catch me if you can”.
“The starting point is I do not trust this man,” the High Court’s judge Russell Coleman said, adding that the risk of Xia breaching the injunction order has not dissipated. He did not elaborate or make a decision before ending the hearing.
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Xia’s request injects a fresh layer of complexity into a liquidation process that began in January 2024, following the once giant developer’s debt default that marked one of the world’s biggest corporate implosions. Despite liquidators’ quest to recoup assets to repay creditors, such as pursuing the wealth of Xia and his ex-wife, creditors have so far not received any funds from the liquidators.
Xia has previously sought to strike down the injunction order and told the court that complying with an order to disclose his assets could place him in “extreme danger”. The court has maintained its original decisions on both occasions.
Evergrande, an emblem of China’s years-long property crisis, defaulted in 2021. Xia resigned the following year after an investigation showed he was involved in arranging undisclosed loan guarantees.
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Xia has almost US$500 million in assets from his previous income, shares and investments in Evergrande, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Before his resignation, Xia earned a salary of almost CNY150 million (US$22.1 million), according to Evergrande’s 2021 annual report.
Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee
