The company’s stock rocketed 25.8% to HK$0.61 on its first day of trading after a nine-month suspension.

Country Garden, once China’s largest property developer, reported losses of US$24.3 billion in delayed 2023 financial results last week.

That is a huge jump from the US$825 million loss it recorded in 2022 as China’s real estate sector slumped.

Country Garden has said it had “attributable interest-bearing liabilities” of approximately US$16.4 billion in relation to offshore debts as of year-end 2023.

The firm also said it had lost US$1.8 billion in the first half of 2024, according to interim results.

The Guangdong province-based company said this month that it had proposed a debt restructuring plan that would cut its offshore debt by US$11.6 billion.

At a winding-up hearing in Hong Kong yesterday relating to non-payment of a US$205 million loan, a judge adjourned a petition to liquidate the firm to May 26.

That was despite the petitioner’s lawyer arguing that it was “doubtful” whether a deal could be reached between the firm and its creditors.

China’s property sector experienced dazzling growth for two decades before a debt crisis and housing slump in recent years – fanned by a government crackdown on excessive lending – left several developers in financial trouble.

Evergrande, another real estate giant, was ordered liquidated in January 2024.