Latest news updates: Evergrande’s property services unit says it expects buyout offer

China Evergrande’s property management division said it had halted trading in its shares on Monday pending a possible takeover offer as the country’s most indebted developer sought to sell assets to ease its rolling debt crisis

Evergrande Property Services Group announced the trading halt on Monday morning pending a release related to a possible takeover or merger and a “general offer for the shares of the Company”.

Evergrande, the property services unit’s parent company, also announced a share trading halt on Monday in anticipation of “a major transaction”.

A buyout of its property services division would mark the latest move by Evergrande, which faces more than $300bn in total liabilities, to relieve its liquidity crisis as it faces what could become the biggest debt restructuring in Chinese history. The developer raised Rmb10bn ($1.5bn) from state-backed buyers last week for its stake in a bank.

Evergrande’s woes roiled global markets last month over concerns it would default on offshore bond payments. Uncertainty over its fate deepened after the Shenzhen-based group failed to meet a deadline for an $83.5m interest payment on a dollar-denominated bond on September 23.

The missed payment triggered a 30-day grace period before a formal default.

Evergrande has not made an official announcement about that payment, nor about whether it made another coupon payment of about $45m that was due last week. Bondholders said they had not received either coupon payment.

Governments and private investors have only come up with one quarter of the investment required by 2030 to make hydrogen energy align with global net zero carbon goals, the International Energy Agency said on Monday.

The IEA called on governments to act “faster and more decisively” to realise the potential of the alternative energy source in its annual report on hydrogen production in G20 countries.

The report noted that, while 17 countries had released plans for the use and development of hydrogen power, up from three in 2019, government and private actors had invested just over $300bn into the development of the required technology. The IEA estimates that $1.2tn of investment will be needed by 2030 to bring the technologies in line with targets for global net zero by 2050.

“Governments need to take rapid actions to lower the barriers that are holding low-carbon hydrogen back from faster growth, which will be important if the world is to have a chance of reaching net zero emissions by 2050,” said Faith Birol, IEA executive director.

Asian markets fell again today on the news that China Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, halted trading in its shares in the morning. Markets in mainland China are closed for the national week holiday.

• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 2 per cent on morning trading. The Hang Seng property index dropped on the Evergrande news, falling 0.6 per cent despite initial gains.

• Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.9 per cent and the Topix dropped 0.7 per cent.

• Australian shares bucked the trend, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index up 1 per cent in morning trading.

North Korea restored its communication lines with South Korea on Monday morning, in a move that follows a period of intensive missile testing and megaphone diplomacy on the Korean peninsula.

The North’s intention of restoring the inter-Korean hotlines, which were severed in August ahead of joint military exercises between South Korea and the US, was announced by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a policy speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly last week.

Kim was reported by North Korean media as declaring that re-establishing contact formed “part of the efforts to realise the expectation and desire of the whole nation who wants the present tough inter-Korean relations to be rehabilitated as soon as possible and wants lasting peace to be settled on the Korean peninsula”.

“We have no purpose or reason to provoke South Korea, or any idea of hurting it,” said Kim, according to North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun. “South Korea should quickly get out of the wild dream that it must deter North Korea’s provocations and of its serious crisis consciousness and victim mentality.”

South Korea’s unification ministry confirmed on Monday that North Korea had answered a call made at 9am local time, saying that the resumption of contact “lays the foundation for stabilising the situation on the Korean peninsula and restoring inter-Korean relations”.

Trading of shares of China Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, and its property management unit was halted on Monday in Hong Kong, the city’s stock market said.

“All structured products relating to the Company will also be halted from trading at the same time,” the notice said. No reason was given for the halt.

Evergrande roiled markets last month over concerns that it would default on its bonds. Shares of the company, which has more than $300bn of liabilities, have plunged more than 80 per cent this year.

Evergrande has been trying to sell assets in recent weeks, with state-backed buyers paying Rmb10bn ($1.5bn) for its stake in a bank on Wednesday.

Uncertainty over Evergrande’s future deepened after the Shenzhen-based group failed to meet a deadline for an $83.5m interest payment on a dollar-denominated bond on September 23, triggering a 30-day grace period before a formal default.

Evergrande has since made no announcement about that payment, nor whether it made another coupon payment of about $45m that was due last week. Bondholders say they have not received either coupon payment.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down more than 2 per cent following the news.

A Facebook whistleblower on Sunday accused the company of placing “profit over safety”, as it emerged that she had complained to US securities regulators that it was misleading investors.

Speaking on the news programme 60 minutes, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, unmasked herself as the whistleblower who has leaked a trove of internal company documents to the Wall Street Journal. Her revelations have plunged the social media company into its deepest crisis since the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Haugen suggested that the company had lied to the public, exaggerating the progress it had made around tackling hate, violence, and misinformation on its platform, presenting “tens of thousands” of pages of documents as evidence.

“There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,” Haugen said in the interview. “And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimise for its own interests, like making more money.”

Read more here.

China and its markets remain on holiday for national week until Thursday.

Markets in Hong Kong reopen today, after taking Friday off for the same holiday.

Japan’s parliament will officially select Fumio Kishida, the former foreign minister seen as a moderate “Mr Status Quo”, as the country’s prime minister.

Rishi Sunak, chancellor, will on Monday set aside £500m to help UK-based people find jobs, as the government grapples with a post-Brexit “period of adjustment” that has seen acute labour shortages in some sectors.

Speaking at the start of a Conservative conference in Manchester overshadowed by fuel shortages and warnings of Christmas supply disruption, Sunak will insist the government has a plan to bolster the workforce.

The £500m package of support — targeted at those leaving the furlough scheme and older workers — comes after prime minister Boris Johnson refused to fill labour market holes by pulling “the big lever marked uncontrolled immigration”.

Johnson insisted shortages of lorry drivers and butchers were part of a “period of adjustment” to an economy with better pay and conditions. He agreed with Sunak that disruption could “last for months”.

Read more here.

One of HSBC’s longest-serving executives is stepping down from a full-time position at Europe’s largest lender to become a senior adviser to $50bn technology investor, General Atlantic.

Samir Assaf, who ran the investment bank for a decade, will retain a role counselling HSBC’s chair Mark Tucker and chief executive Noel Quinn. He will also continue to be non-executive chair of HSBC’s Middle Eastern subsidiaries.

Alongside an advisory role at General Atlantic, Assaf will join the board of a new climate change fund, BeyondNetZero, established by the US private equity firm. Run by Lord John Browne, the former BP chief executive, the fund aims to provide growth equity for new companies with technology that can help reduce carbon emissions.

HSBC and General Atlantic both confirmed the appointments. General Atlantic described Assaf’s role as “sourcing, developing relationships with entrepreneurs around the world and portfolio company support”.

Read more here.