Business
Evergrande: Chinese property giant delisted after spectacular fall
Business reporter, BBC News
AFP via Getty ImagesChinese property giant Evergrande’s shares were taken off the Hong Kong stock market on Monday after more than a decade and a half of trading.
It marks a grim milestone for what was once China’s biggest real estate firm, with a stock market valuation of more than $50bn (£37.1bn). That was before its spectacular collapse under the weight of the huge debts that had powered its meteoric rise.
Experts say the delisting was both inevitable and final.
“Once delisted, there is no coming back,” says Dan Wang, China director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
Evergrande is now best-known for its part in a crisis that has for years dragged on the world’s second-largest economy.
What happened to Evergrande?
Just a few years ago Evergrande Group was a shining example of China’s economic miracle.
Its founder and chairman Hui Ka Yan rose from humble beginnings in rural China to top the Forbes list of Asia’s wealthiest people in 2017.
His fortune has since plummeted from an estimated $45bn in 2017 to less than a billion, his fall from grace as extraordinary as his company’s.
In March 2024, Mr Hui was fined $6.5m and banned from China’s capital market for life for his company overstating its revenue by $78bn.
Liquidators are also exploring whether they can recover cash for creditors from Mr Hui’s personal property.
At the time of its collapse, Evergrande had some 1,300 projects under development in 280 cities across China.
The sprawling empire also included an electric carmaker and China’s most successful football team, Guangzhou FC, which was kicked out of the football league earlier this year after failing to pay off enough of its debts.
AFP via Getty ImagesEvergrande was built on $300bn (£222bn) of borrowed money, earning it the unenviable title of the world’s most indebted property developer.
The rot set in after Beijing brought in new rules in 2020 to control the amount big developers could borrow.
The new measures led Evergrande to offer its properties at major discounts to ensure money was coming in to keep the business afloat.
Struggling to meet interest payments, the firm soon defaulted on some of its overseas debts.
After years of legal wrangling, the Hong Kong High Court ordered the company to be wound up in January 2024.
Evergrande’s shares had been under threat of delisting ever since because they were suspended from trading after the court order.
By that point the crisis engulfing the firm had wiped more than 99% from its stock market valuation.
The liquidation order came after the company was unable to offer a workable plan to shed billions of dollars of overseas liabilities.
Earlier this month, liquidators revealed that Evergrande’s debts currently stand at $45bn and that it had so far sold just $255m of assets. They also said they believe a complete overhaul of the business “will prove out of reach”.
The “delisting now is surely symbolic but it’s such a milestone,” Ms Wang says.
All that remains is which creditors are paid and how much they can get in the bankruptcy process, says Professor Shitong Qiao from Duke University.
The next liquidation hearing is due to take place in September.
How was China’s economy impacted?
China is facing a number of major problems, including US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, high local government debt, weak consumer spending, unemployment and an ageing population.
But experts say Evergrande’s collapse, along with the serious problems faced by other developers, has hit the country hardest.
“The property slump has been the biggest drag on the economy, and the ultimate reason why consumption is suppressed,” Ms Wang says.
Getty ImagesThis is particularly problematic as the industry accounted for about a third of the Chinese economy and was a major source of income for local governments.
“I don’t think China has found a viable alternative to support its economy at a similar scale,” Professor Qiao says.
The property crisis has led to “massive layoffs” by heavily-indebted developers, Jackson Chan from financial markets research platform Bondsupermart says.
And many real estate industry employees that kept their jobs have seen big pay cuts, he adds.
The crisis is also having a major impact on many households as they tend to put their savings into property.
With housing prices dropping by at least 30%, many Chinese families have seen their savings fall in value, says Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at French bank Natixis.
This means they are less likely to spend and invest, she adds.
In response, Beijing has announced a raft of initiatives aimed at reviving the housing market, stimulating consumer spending and boosting the wider economy.
They range from measures to help new home owners and support the stock market to incentives to buy electric cars and household goods.
Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars Beijing has poured into the economy, China’s once-blistering growth has eased to “around 5%”.
While most Western countries would be more than happy with that, it’s slow for a country that saw growth of more than 10% a year as recently as 2010.
Is the property crisis over yet?
In short, probably not.
Even as Evergrande continues to grab headlines, several other Chinese property firms are still facing major challenges.
Earlier this month, China South City Holdings was handed a winding up order by Hong Kong’s High Court, making it the biggest developer to be forced into liquidation since Evergrande.
Meanwhile, rival real estate giant Country Garden is still trying to secure a deal with its creditors to write off more than $14bn of outstanding foreign debt.
After a series of postponements, its next High Court liquidation hearing in Hong Kong is due to take place in January 2026.
“The whole property sector has been in trouble. More Chinese property firms will collapse,” Professor Qiao says.
AFP via Getty ImagesWhile the Chinese government has taken a number of measures to help shore up the property market and support the economy as a whole it has not swooped in to directly bail out developers.
Mr Chan says these initiatives seem to be having a positive impact on the property market: “We think the bottom [has been reached] and it should be in a slow recovery. However, we probably don’t expect the recovery to be very strong.”
Wall Street investment giant Goldman Sachs warned in June that property prices in China will continue to fall until 2027.
Ms Wang agrees, and estimates that China’s stricken property market will “hit the bottom” in around two years when demand finally catches up with supply.
But Ms Garcia-Herrero puts it in starker terms: “there is no real light at the end of the tunnel.”
Beijing has sent a “clear message on its intention of not bailing out the housing sector,” Ms Wang adds.
The Chinese government has been careful to avoid the kind of measures that could encourage further risky behaviour by an already heavily indebted industry.
And while in the boom times, the property market was a key driver of China’s economic growth, the ruling Communist Party’s priorities now lie elsewhere.
President Xi Jinping is more focussed on high-tech industries like renewable energy, electric cars and robotics.
As Ms Wang puts it, “China is in a deep transition to a new age of development.”
Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), arrives to testify for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on June 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images
The White House on Thursday said President Donald Trump has fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez after she refused to resign, and that a new replacement will be named soon.
“The president fired her, which he has every right to do,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing.
She said Trump has “the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission,” and that he or Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will announce a new CDC director “very soon.”
In a statement, lawyers for Monarez said they were “not aware of anything new happening.”
Earlier Thursday, Monarez’s attorney Mark Zaid said Monarez would remain in the role because she is a presidential appointee and only Trump can fire her. Zaid said White House personnel had tried to fire her, not the president.
“Receiving an email from an HR staffer simply saying ‘you’re fired’ is insufficient as a matter of law to constitute the termination of a federal employee, especially one appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate,” Zaid said.
He also said she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts” and that “she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda.”
“For that, she has been targeted,” he said.
Monarez and Kennedy were at odds over vaccine policy, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing an anonymous administration official.
Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, has taken several steps to change immunization policy in the U.S.
Monarez was sworn in on July 31. A longtime federal government scientist, she is the first CDC director to be confirmed by the Senate following a new law passed during the pandemic that required lawmakers to approve nominees for the role.
Trump’s move to oust her is the latest in a leadership upheaval at the CDC.
At least four other top health officials announced Wednesday that they were quitting the agency shortly after HHS said Monarez was “no longer” the director of the CDC in a post on X.
In a Fox News interview Thursday morning, Kennedy declined to comment on “personnel issues.” But he said the agency “is in trouble, and we need to fix it, and we are fixing it, and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”
Kennedy said Trump has “very, very ambitious hopes for the CDC right now.” But he said the CDC “has problems,” claiming that the agency took the “wrong” approach when it came to social distancing, masking and school closures during the Covid pandemic.
“We need to look at the priorities of the agency, if there’s really a deeply, deeply embedded … malaise at the agency, and we need strong leadership that will go in there and that will be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions for this agency, the gold standard science and to what it was when we were growing up, which was the most respected health agency in the world,” Kennedy said.
The leadership departures come at a tumultuous time for the agency, which is reeling from a gunman’s attack on the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters on Aug. 8. A police officer died in the shooting.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the correct day the White House said Trump fired Susan Monarez after she refused to resign, and to reflect the correct wording of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s last quote.
— CNBC’s Angelica Peebles contributed to this report.
Logo of Best Buy displayed outside a Best Buy store in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on March 22, 2025.
Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Best Buy surpassed Wall Street revenue and earnings expectations for its most recent quarter on Thursday, but stuck with its full-year forecast, citing tariff uncertainty.
On the company’s earnings call, CEO Corie Barry said the retailer is “increasingly confident about our plans for the back half of the year.” She said the company is “trending toward the higher end of our sales range.”
Yet she said, “given the uncertainty of potential tariff impacts in the back half, both on consumers overall as well as our business, we feel it is prudent to maintain the annual guidance we provided last quarter.”
The consumer electronics retailer said it expects revenue of $41.1 billion to $41.9 billion and adjusted earnings per share in a range of $6.15 to $6.30 for its full fiscal year 2026. In May, Best Buy had cut its full-year profit guidance from a prior range of $6.20 to $6.60.
The middle of Best Buy’s expected full-year revenue range would be roughly flat to its revenue of $41.53 billion in the previous year. Best Buy said it expects full-year comparable sales, a metric that tracks online sales and sales at stores open at least 14 months, to range between a 1% decline and a 1% increase.
Chief Financial Officer Matt Bilunas said the company’s full-year guidance reflects that some shoppers could hold off on purchases in the third quarter. He said the retailer could see a slowdown in the business in October “as people are waiting for those holiday deals to come.”
For Best Buy, back-to-school season is a crucial time as families and students come to the store for laptops, tablets and more. Barry said the company has seen “a strong customer response” to its sales events during the season.
“These results demonstrate an important aspect of our thesis: Our model really shines when there is innovation,” she said.
Shares of Best Buy were down about 4% in afternoon trading.
Here’s how the retailer did for the three-month period that ended August 2 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.28 adjusted vs. $1.21 expected
- Revenue: $9.44 billion vs. $9.24 billion expected
Best Buy’s net income for the fiscal second quarter of 2026 fell to $186 million, or 87 cents per share, from $291 million, or $1.34 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusting for one-time items, including restructuring charges, Best Buy reported earnings per share of $1.28.
Revenue increased from $9.29 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Best Buy has been navigating a challenging trifecta of factors. Customers have bought fewer kitchen appliances as they put off home purchases and projects because of higher interest rates. Some have hesitated to splurge on pricier items because of tariff-related uncertainty or held out on tech replacements as they wait for new or eye-catching items. The company’s annual sales have declined for the past three years.
To spur growth, Best Buy launched a third-party marketplace earlier this month to offer shoppers a wider selection of consumer electronics, accessories and more. On the marketplace, sellers who apply for the platform can list their own brands and items on Best Buy’s website and app.
The company already increased prices on some items because of tariff-related higher costs, Barry said on a mid-May call with reporters. She did not specify which items now cost more and described price increases as “the very last resort.”
Still, tariffs did not have a material impact on fiscal second-quarter financial results, Barry said on the company’s earnings call Thursday.
Shopping patterns
Barry said that shopping patterns at Best Buy have not changed from previous quarters. She said customers are “resilient, but deal-focused” and have been attracted to the company’s sales events like the one it held in July.
“In the current environment, customers continue to be thoughtful about big ticket purchases and are willing to spend on high price point products when they need to, or when there is technology innovation,” she said.
Best Buy’s comparable sales rose 1.6% in the fiscal second quarter compared to the year-ago period. That marked the company’s highest growth in three years, Barry said on the company’s earnings call.
In the U.S., comparable sales increased 1.1%, as customers bought mobile phones, video gaming equipment and items from its computing category. However, those sales trends were partially offset by weaker sales of appliances, home theaters, tablets and drones, the company said.
Investors have looked for signs that the replacement cycle is picking up about five years after consumers stocked up on laptops, kitchen appliances, computer screens and more during the Covid pandemic.
There were some indications of that rebound in Best Buy’s second quarter. Barry said the retailer’s computing category marked its sixth consecutive quarter of sales growth. It also recorded the highest number of second-quarter laptop unit sales in 15 years, she said.
Gaming in particular had stronger-than-expected sales in the quarter, thanks to the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, Barry said. The retailer capitalized on the highly anticipated launch by offering a way for customers to pre-order and opening stores at midnight when the gaming console dropped on June 5, so customers could line up and get it right away.
In the back half of the year, Barrie said Best Buy will try to rev up sales in slower categories like appliances and home theater by sharpening price points, adjusting the merchandise it sells and expanding the staffing devoted to them. The retailer has increasingly leaned on its vendor partners to staff stores, bringing in employees of Apple and Samsung for example, to support sales in different parts of its stores.
Barry said the retailer expects brands to ramp up those staffing contributions in the back half of the year.
Along with adding more dedicated brand experts to its stores, Best Buy has added new experiences to attract and engage customers. It’s testing mini-showrooms with Ikea that feature kitchen and laundry room appliances and merchandise from both retailers in 10 stores in Florida and Texas. It is also rolling out new experiences with Breville and SharkNinja to show off trendy coffeemakers, beauty items and more, Barry said. And it has areas in stores where shoppers can try out Ray-Ban and Oakley sunglasses with Meta AI technology.
For the Nintendo Switch 2 launch, Best Buy worked with Nintendo to double the space in stores ahead of the June launch. Nintendo also brought game trucks to select stores, physical trailers where customers could play with the new system and try out the latest videogames.
Best Buy’s fiscal second-quarter online sales in the U.S. rose 5.1% year over year and accounted for about a third of Best Buy’s total U.S. revenue in the quarter.
The FTSE 100 closed lower on Thursday, despite gains elsewhere in Europe, held back by a number of stocks trading ex-dividend.
The FTSE 100 index closed down 38.68 points, 0.4%, at 9,216.82. The FTSE 250 ended 60.63 points lower, 0.3%, at 21,744.40 and the AIM All-Share finished down 1.16 points, 0.2%, at 761.21.
On the FTSE 100, insurer Aviva topped the fallers, 3.1% lower as it traded ex-dividend, while LondonMetric Property, down 2.0% and Auto Trader, down 1.6%, also lost ground as they traded without entitlement to their payouts.
Among the risers was sports retailer JD Sports Fashion, up a further 2.8%, building on Wednesday’s gains which followed a well received trading update.
Berenberg raised its share price target to 155 pence from 128p.
“We believe that the 8.5x PE valuation fails to reflect the company’s potential for moderate growth, margin recovery and strong free cash flow,” the broker said in a research note.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, the S&P 500 was 0.1% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.1%.
Nvidia was down 1.1% in New York at the time of the London close as concerns over China took some of the gloss off strong results and guidance.
The chip maker has not included any sales from China in its guidance as it grapples with the fallout from its trade war with the US.
Chief executive Jensen Huang said Nvidia is talking to the Trump administration about the “importance of American companies to be able to address the Chinese market”.
Data showed the US economy grew at a stronger pace than expected in the second quarter of the year.
According to the latest reading from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US economy rose 3.3% quarter-on-quarter on an annualised basis in the three months to June, upwardly revised from the first estimate which showed 3.0% growth.
The first quarter saw the US economy shrink 0.5%.
The annualised calculation shows how much the economy would expand if that quarterly pace of growth continued for a whole year, according to the BEA.
Friday sees the release of the monthly personal consumption expenditures inflationary gauge. An acceleration in the annual growth rate of core PCE prices to 2.9% is expected for July, from 2.8% in June, according to consensus cited by FactSet.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was at 4.22%, trimmed from 4.26% on Wednesday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was 4.89%, narrowed from 4.91%.
The pound climbed to 1.3513 dollars late on Thursday afternoon in London, compared to 1.3469 at the equities close on Wednesday. The euro rose to 1.1668 dollars.
In Europe, the Cac 40 in Paris ended up 0.2%, while the Dax 40 in Frankfurt closed little changed.
Back in London, Drax fell 7.5% as it said the UK’s financial regulator had started a probe over the UK energy company’s sourcing for biomass pellets.
The Yorkshire-based power generator said it was notified on Tuesday that the Financial Conduct Authority has commenced an investigation into the company covering the period January 2022 to March 2024.
In a brief statement, Drax said the probe relates to certain historical statements regarding biomass sourcing and the compliance of Drax’s 2021, 2022 and 2023 annual reports with the listing rules and disclosure guidance and transparency rules.
Drax said it will co-operate with the FCA as part of their investigation.
In August 2024, Drax paid £25 million after industry regulator Ofgem found there was an absence of adequate data governance and controls in place that had contributed to the firm misreporting data in relation to the period April 2021 to March 2022.
Elsewhere, Hunting fell 2.9% as it reported increased revenue but lower profit in the first half of 2025 against a “volatile” market backdrop.
Looking ahead, Hunting said oil and gas demand has remained “steady and is likely to remain at a consistent level in the medium to long term”.
But in the near term, the geopolitical and macro-economic outlook remains “choppy”, it added.
PPHE Hotel shares sank 16% as the hotelier lowered full-year earnings guidance, alongside half year results.
The Amsterdam-based operator of Park Plaza and Art’otel hotels, among other brands, expects its full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be “similar” to that of 2024.
A barrel of Brent traded at 67.51 dollars late Thursday afternoon, down slightly from 67.55 on Wednesday. Gold pushed higher to 3,407.04 dollars an ounce against 3,387.91 on Wednesday.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Anglo American, up 64.00 pence at 2,265.00p, JD Sports Fashion, up 2.74p at 100.10p, Weir, up 42.00p at 2,496.00p, Rio Tinto, up 67.00p at 4,637.00p and DCC, up 56.00p at 4,696.00p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Aviva, down 21.00p at 656.20p, Land Securities, down 12.50p at 559.00p, Endeavour Mining, down 52.00p at 2,492.00p, Relx, down 70.00p at 2,492.00p and LondonMetric Property, down 3.70p at 186.40p.
There are no major events scheduled in Friday’s local corporate calendar.
The global economic calendar on Friday has US personal consumption expenditures data, Canadian GDP numbers, German retail sales figures and CPI prints in France and Germany.
– Contributed by Alliance News
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