From $42B to less than $1B: How Asia’s once richest man lost it all

investmentnews.com:

Hui Ka Yan has already lost his freedom. 

Now, China Evergrande Group’s founder is no longer a billionaire. 

Hui’s net worth has fallen to $979 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with shares of his debt-laden real estate firm trading at just HK$0.24 (3 cents) each. Shares of China Evergrande have dropped 86% since its trading resumption in late August. 

While Hui’s wealth may seem trivial in the context of a police investigation into alleged crimes by the property tycoon, the value of his assets is of keen interest to creditors seeking to limit losses from one of the biggest corporate collapses in Chinese history. The slump is also another illustration of how hard Hui has fallen after riding the nation’s real estate boom for more than a decade.

Once Asia’s second-richest man and worth $42 billion at his peak in 2017, Hui’s wealth has plummeted 98% since then, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index. The founder is now under police control, leaving his empire in limbo with no clear restructuring plan in sight. 

A further test later this month has the potential to almost wipe out his fortune. The world’s most indebted developer will face an Oct. 30 court hearing in Hong Kong over a petition to liquidate the firm.

If a winding up order is made, liquidators will be appointed to convert Evergrande’s assets into cash for the benefit of all creditors, according to Jonathan Leitch, a partner at Hogan Lovells in Hong Kong. 

“Potentially, creditors end up owning the business and shareholders get wiped out,” said Leitch. Still, if Hui is kept onboard to see through a restructuring, he may get to keep some equity as an incentive, the lawyer said. 

In a further twist, Hui’s wife Ding Yumei was listed as