China Evergrande Says Audit Work Not Yet Completed

China Evergrande Group said on Tuesday the embattled developer would not be able to publish its financial results for last year by March 31 as required by stock listing rules, as audit work has not yet been completed.

Its two Hong Kong-listed units, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group and Evergrande Property Services Group , also said the publication of their financial results will be delayed.

Evergrande said in a stock exchange filing that due to the "drastic changes" in its operations since the second half of last year, the auditor has added a large number of additional audit procedures.

The developer will publish the audited annual results "as soon as practicable" after the audit procedures have been completed, it said, adding as per rules a trading suspension in its shares will remain in place until it publishes the latest results.

Shares of the three companies were suspended from trading on Monday. Trade in onshore bonds issued by Evergrande's flagship unit Hengda Real Estate Group was also suspended.

In a separate filing, Evergrande Property Services said around 13.4 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) of its bank deposits that had been pledged as security for third party guarantees had been claimed by the relevant banks.

The property management company said it will set up an independent investigation committee to investigate the pledge guarantees. (Reuters)