Indebted Chinese property developer Evergrande said on Tuesday that global accounting firm PwC had resigned as its auditor, citing different views on financial statements under investigation by Hong Kong regulators.The development casts further doubt on the fate of Evergrande, which has $300bn in liabilities and has repeatedly missed deadlines to provide a restructuring plan following a default in late 2021 that was part of a broader property sector crisis in China.
The resignation letter was sent to the company’s board on Monday, Evergrande said in an exchange filing. International auditors have been resigning from Chinese developers that defaulted, as a wave of unreleased financial results increased uncertainty over the full scale of debts.
Evergrande has been meeting with creditors in Hong Kong since last week to update them on its progress. They include international investors who hold around $20bn of its debt and have been frustrated by the lack of concrete developments in the restructuring.