Closed doors, abandoned construction sites and a police cordon around the head office. Evergrande is not bankrupt yet, but the Chinese real estate giant is shaking to its foundations. For the second time in a week, the company appears to have missed an interest payment. Employees, suppliers and investors are holding their breath.
“We’ve come to get our stuff,” says one of the construction workers as he leaves the construction site, his cargo box loaded with drains. “The work has stopped, there is no more payment.” He worked on one of the 778 projects Evergrande is developing in China. Worked, because this project in Taicang, just above Shanghai, has come to a standstill like hundreds of other projects.
Evergrande has too little cash in hand to pay suppliers, and stated last month that it was ‘in talks’ with them about ‘resumption’ of projects. In any case, it is not that far yet in Taicang. “We are now taking the tools that are still there,” says a colleague.
It’s also quiet in Guangzhou
More than a thousand kilometers south, under the smoke of Guangzhou, it is not that far yet. But also at the gate of the factory where Evergrande wanted to make his move as a builder of electric cars, it is extinct, except for a few guards.
“This is not a public area, get out of here”, one of them asks when asked what is still happening in the factory. The manageress of a small restaurant around the corner is willing to talk. “Until recently, it was full of Henanese,” she says, referring to the province known for its large numbers of migrant workers. Now it is quiet. “Most of them have left recently. They were no longer paid.”
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