(Yicai Global) March 10 -- Shares in Kaisa Group Holding plummeted as much as 41.6 percent today as investors took fright after the heavily indebted Chinese developer released its 2021 financial results, ending an 11-month trading suspension on the Hong Kong stock exchange and also revealing the scale of its liquidity crisis.

Kaisa’s share price [HKG:1638] closed down 21.4 percent at HKD0.66 (USD0.08). Earlier in the day it sank to HKD0.49.

Kaisa disclosed its 2021 annual results and its 2022 interim results yesterday, meeting the conditions to start trading on the Hong Kong bourse again. Trading in the firm’s stock had been halted since April 1, 2022 for the late submission of its 2021 earnings report.

However, the financial results showed that the Shenzhen-based company, which defaulted on CNY300 million (USD43.1 million) worth of wealth management products at the end of 2021 and has been struggling ever since, has been badly affected by the sluggish real estate market, and the firm’s stock was pounded.

Kaisa logged losses of CNY12.7 billion (USD1.8 billion) in 2021, the highest loss in a decade, and a huge drop from the net profit of CNY5.4 billion (USD775.7 million) it earned in 2020, the report said. Revenue for 2021 dived 35.3 percent year on year to CNY35.5 billion.

In the first half of 2022, Kaisa logged losses of CNY7.7 billion, versus net profit of CNY3 billion a year earlier, while revenue plummeted 55.3 percent to CNY13.4 billion.

Kaisa had amassed debts of CNY131.5 billion (USD18.9 billion) as of June 30, 2022, of which 80 percent, or CNY106.5 billion, needs to be paid back within a year. Another CNY8.2 billion requires repayment in one to two years, CNY6.3 billion in two to five years and CNY10.4 billion after five years. The company has cash and cash equivalents of CNY10.9 billion.

Since the second half of 2021, many Chinese property developers have had the trading of their shares suspended for failing to file their 2021 financial reports on time. Kaisa is the first such developer to resume trading on the Hong Kong bourse this year. And there are still 11 real estate giants, including China Evergrande Group and Sunac China Holdings, which remain suspended.

Editor: Kim Taylor