(Sept 18): Private equity firms previously circling Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd are considering making fresh offers for the Hong Kong-listed real estate management business, people familiar with the situation said.

PAG, Warburg Pincus and Trustar Capital are among firms preparing bids, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. They’re coming back into the fray after China Evergrande Group’s liquidators failed to reach an agreement with Guangdong Provincial Tourism Holdings Co, which had been in exclusive talks, according to the people. 

Considerations are ongoing and might not lead to any offer, the people said. 

Representatives for Evergrande’s liquidators, PAG, Trustar and Warburg Pincus declined to comment. 

Evergrande Property Services said in June it was looking for potential buyers of a controlling stake after the talks with Guangdong Provincial Tourism fell apart. 

The liquidation of China Evergrande, once a poster child of the country’s real estate boom, has been further complicated following last month’s life sentencing of its founder, Hui Ka Yan. He was convicted of fraud that included inflating assets and concealing liabilities. The court ordered the confiscation of Hui’s assets and his companies were fined about 15.8 billion yuan (RM9.6 billion).

Evergrande’s offshore creditors are owed roughly US$45 billion (RM183 billion), and liquidators had been eyeing Hui’s estimated US$7.7 billion in assets to help repay the debts. 

Shares of Evergrande Property Services have risen about 2% this year in Hong Kong, giving the company a market capitalisation of US$1.6 billion. Its first-half revenue totalled 6.9 billion yuan and net income was 517 million yuan.

Uploaded by Evelyn Chan