Trading of shares of heavily indebted property developer China Evergrande suspended in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (AP) — Share trading of heavily indebted Chinese property developer China Evergrande Group was suspended in Hong Kong on Thursday, according to a notice on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The suspension comes after Bloomberg News reported that the chairman of Evergrande, Hui Ka Yan, had been taken away earlier this month and placed under police watch according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Shares of Evergrande closed at 32 Hong Kong cents on Wednesday. The company had resumed trading on Aug. 28 after a 17-month hiatus.

Last week, Evergrande said in a filing that it had to delay a proposed debt restructuring meeting with creditors as “sales of the group have not been as expected by the company.”

Earlier in September, police in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city, said they had detained some staff at China Evergrande Group’s wealth management unit.