Nantong Sanjian has been exposed as being owed 36 billion yuan by Evergrande, with overdue debts now exceeding 7.4 billion yuan. Despite receiving a gold medal construction enterprise award from local government earlier this year, the company appears unlikely to collapse immediately.
On September 16, according to the latest ruling by Hong Kong's High Court, Evergrande's liquidators have taken control of Xu Jiayin's global assets, prohibiting him from disposing of these assets valued at approximately 54.7 billion yuan.
Compared to the "fortunate" liquidators, other creditors dragged down by Evergrande can only struggle alone.
On JD Asset Trading Platform, all shares in Jingyi Shares held by Nantong Sanjian Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Sanjian Holdings") are awaiting auction.
Perhaps because controlling stake in a listed company can be acquired for 800 million yuan, as of September 17, this auction has attracted over 300 followers and more than 57,000 viewers.
Nantong Sanjian (core subsidiary of Sanjian Holdings), dubbed the "largest creditor," is reportedly owed approximately 36 billion yuan by Evergrande and has been living hand-to-mouth while repaying debts. Valuable assets have been sold successively, and now even the controlling stake in Jingyi Shares acquired at a premium cannot be retained.
After losing this final trump card, Nantong Sanjian, which has been undergoing debt restructuring for over three years, will likely find it even harder to escape the debt quagmire.
According to Tianyancha, as of September 16, Nantong Sanjian is involved in thousands of lawsuits, with over 1,200 final execution cases involving unfulfilled amounts exceeding 3.9 billion yuan. Sanjian Holdings is involved in dozens of lawsuits with unfulfilled amounts in final execution cases exceeding 2.2 billion yuan. Additionally, both companies have been repeatedly listed as enforcement targets by courts and restricted from high consumption.
Key Assets Under Auction
On the evening of September 4, according to Jingyi Shares' announcement, the controlling shareholder Sanjian Holdings' 75.1847 million shares will be publicly auctioned by Nantong Haimen District People's Court from 10:00 on October 9 to 10:00 on October 10 (excluding extensions).
These shares represent all of Sanjian Holdings' holdings, accounting for nearly 30% of Jingyi Shares' total share capital. The announcement stated this could lead to a change in company control.
JD Auction Platform shows these shares have a market value of approximately 800 million yuan, with a starting price of about 725 million yuan. Jingyi Shares demonstrates sustained profitability, making controlling stake in such a company quite attractive, especially when potentially acquirable for several hundred million yuan.
Therefore, as of 4 PM on September 17, although no one has registered, over 300 people are following, with viewer numbers continuously growing to over 57,000.
Losing Jingyi Shares must be painful for Sanjian Holdings.
In May 2019, several months after acquiring Jingyi Shares, and again in October 2021, Sanjian Holdings pledged all its Jingyi Shares holdings twice to Jiangsu Hairun Urban Development Group Co., Ltd. ("Hairun Group"), which has state-owned background in Nantong Haimen District.
According to Jingyi Shares' announcement in July last year, the second pledge was because Hairun Group provided credit guarantees for Sanjian Holdings' subsidiaries, with these shares pledged as counter-guarantee.
For Sanjian Holdings, Jingyi Shares has played an important role not only in capital maneuvering but also in boosting performance.
Jingyi Shares' revenue has fluctuated in recent years, but last year's income still exceeded 3.7 billion yuan. Net profit declined but was still 27 million yuan last year. In the first half of this year, revenue was approximately 2.38 billion yuan with attributable net profit exceeding 10 million yuan.
In comparison, Nantong Sanjian's situation is much worse.
According to Shanghai Stock Exchange's corporate bond annual report released in May, in 2024, Nantong Sanjian's equity attributable to parent company owners was -294 million yuan, with annual attributable net profit loss of 811 million yuan. Revenue from Jingyi Shares is relatively low, but at least helps offset some losses.
Before the share auction, Sanjian Holdings and Chairman Huang Yuhui had already lost partial control over Jingyi Shares due to debt troubles.
On the evening of June 24 this year, Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued regulatory letters to Jingyi Shares Chairman Huang Yuhui and other executives, citing that Huang Yuhui was included in the dishonest enforcement target list by multiple people's courts, but the listed company failed to disclose this truthfully.
The next day, Jingyi Shares announced receipt of Huang Yuhui's written resignation, stepping down from positions including director, chairman, and chairman of the board's strategy and investment committee.
Nantong Sanjian began debt restructuring in April 2022 but has not resolved the crisis. Once Jingyi Shares' controlling stake is auctioned, Nantong Sanjian will not only lose a quality asset but also lose a key "bargaining chip" in debt restructuring.
Hit Hard by Evergrande
Nantong's construction industry is renowned nationwide, and as a local leader, Nantong Sanjian's current predicament is widely attributed to its relationship with Evergrande Group.
Nantong Sanjian's relationship with Evergrande was once very close.
According to a 2018 article on Nantong Sanjian's official website, on March 31 that year, Evergrande Group held its 2018 Strategic Partner Summit, where Nantong Sanjian was again awarded "Outstanding Strategic Partner." Evergrande Group Chairman Xu Jiayin presented the award to Huang Yuhui.
At that time, Huang Yuhui mentioned in his summit speech that Nantong Sanjian established strategic cooperation with Evergrande in 2012, "ranking among the top in Evergrande Group's comprehensive evaluation of over 100 partners for five consecutive years." He also stated that Evergrande was a strong driving force for Nantong Sanjian to achieve its 100 billion yuan target.
Nantong Sanjian was once sluggish before 2012, when Huang Yuhui became the company's sixth leader. Possibly due to cooperation with Evergrande, Nantong Sanjian gradually emerged from its trough and reached its peak, giving Huang Yuhui confidence in 2018.
According to Nantong Sanjian's website, in the ENR China Top 80 Contractors list announced in late November 2017, Nantong Sanjian ranked 8th with engineering contracting revenue of 67.57 billion yuan (2016); 2017's total economic volume exceeded 80 billion yuan.
However, danger soon arrived. As Evergrande fell into crisis, Nantong Sanjian's liquidity crisis began showing in 2020, with Evergrande's arrears becoming the fuse igniting the crisis.
In September 2021, credit rating agency United Credit announced that as of the end of June that year, Nantong Sanjian's outstanding contract amount with Evergrande Real Estate was 8.577 billion yuan, with inventory involving Evergrande real estate projects totaling 3.742 billion yuan at the end of 2020.
In cooperation with Evergrande, Nantong Sanjian, like other construction companies, received many commercial bills from Evergrande and advanced considerable funds. According to media reports, information at that time showed Evergrande owed Nantong Sanjian overdue commercial bills and undue project payments (advances) totaling over 36 billion yuan.
Evergrande Group has numerous creditors, but when this amount was exposed, the outside world viewed Nantong Sanjian as Evergrande's largest single creditor.
Nantong Sanjian has struggled to support itself over the years but remains deeply mired in debt crisis, with debt defaults beginning years ago.
In July this year, Shanghai Stock Exchange criticized Nantong Sanjian and related responsible persons. While the company's bonds are still trading, multiple debt defaults occurred during periods covered by 2022 annual report and 2023 interim and annual reports without disclosure.
In July this year, Nantong Sanjian issued an announcement explaining that inability to repay due debts was mainly due to real estate downturn and difficulty in project payment collection, especially the impact of Evergrande Group.
Data shows that as of the end of March this year, Nantong Sanjian's overdue interest-bearing debt totaled 7.416 billion yuan, accounting for -2736.53% of 2024 net assets.
With continuous losses, what can Nantong Sanjian use to solve debts without external investors?
What to Repay Debts With?
Nantong Sanjian's predecessor was Haimen County Construction Engineering Company, established in 1958. Huang Yuhui's father worked at this company in the 1970s. Like his father, Huang Yuhui was skilled and academically excellent, joining the company after technical secondary school graduation.
Nantong Sanjian once developed rapidly, participating in Beijing Olympic venues, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai Jinmao Tower, Europe's tallest building - Russia's Federation Tower, and winning the Luban Award, the highest honor in construction. However, development stagnated after 2004 restructuring.
In 2012, Huang Yuhui took charge of Nantong Sanjian. With the real estate upswing and leveraging Evergrande's strength, Nantong Sanjian reversed its decline and began thriving.
Subsequently, Nantong Sanjian accelerated diversification, extending business tentacles into finance, investment, real estate, property services and other fields, consuming considerable funds.
Particularly in 2018, when Nantong Sanjian's development prospects looked bright, around terminating New Third Board listing in October, Nantong Sanjian initiated two acquisitions.
In May that year, Huang Yuhui spent 700 million Hong Kong dollars acquiring 29.99% of Shanghai Zendai shares, becoming its largest shareholder. Shanghai Zendai was founded by Huang Yuhui's fellow townsman Dai Zhikang, once a Shanghai capital tycoon who had to sell the company due to funding issues.
When Huang Yuhui acquired Shanghai Zendai, outsiders speculated he wanted to layout commercial real estate and possibly seek capital market entry for Nantong Sanjian.
Six months later, Huang Yuhui's backdoor listing intentions became more obvious. Sanjian Holdings acquired 30% of Jingyi Shares, mainly engaged in copper processing, for 1.2 billion yuan, representing approximately 1.3 times premium over pre-announcement closing price.
After acquisition completion, Sanjian Holdings expressed intentions to inject quality assets quickly and complete backdoor listing application by 2021, which ultimately came to nothing.
After falling into financial crisis, Nantong Sanjian's quality assets have been disposed of successively.
Shenzhen Tefahua Service Co., Ltd. is a state-owned property service enterprise with steady revenue growth in recent years, reaching 2.864 billion yuan in 2024 with stable net profit around 120 million yuan. Nantong Sanjian once held 20% equity in this company, but these shares have been judicially auctioned in batches since 2021.
Currently, Nantong Sanjian is not among Tefahua Service's top ten shareholders, while its tenth largest shareholder holds 0.17%, indicating Nantong Sanjian's shares have been essentially auctioned off.
Additionally, in December 2012, Nantong Sanjian transferred its 9.5% stake in Haimen Zhongyin Fudeng Bank to Hairun Group. Since Nantong Sanjian received no dividends, Hairun Group paid Nantong Sanjian over 9 million yuan in equity investment plus corresponding premium.
Hairun Group has provided financing and guarantees for Nantong Sanjian, so the above bank share transaction might represent Hairun Group extending help.
Now, with Jingyi Shares being put up for auction, Nantong Sanjian's remaining presentable asset is Shanghai Zendai.
However, Shanghai Zendai also sold projects in Nanjing and other locations in 2022. The company's revenue last year was 205 million yuan with net loss of 809 million yuan. In the first half of 2025, revenue was approximately 51 million yuan with loss of about 16 million yuan. As of the first half of this year, company assets were 900 million yuan with total liabilities of 500 million yuan.
Shanghai Zendai still has some commercial real estate projects, but truly alleviating Nantong Sanjian's debt crisis is at least temporarily beyond its capability.
With Evergrande's 2 trillion yuan debt burden, recovering arrears from Evergrande is extremely difficult for Nantong Sanjian. The success timeline for debt restructuring remains unknown, but Nantong Sanjian on the cliff edge continues living earnestly. In February this year, Nantong Sanjian was awarded annual Gold Medal Construction Enterprise Award and Advanced Collective for Scientific and Technological Progress by Haimen District Committee and Government.
As long as it doesn't collapse, debts can be repaid slowly.
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