HONG KONG — Evergrande Group built a real estate empire on a mountain of debt. Now the Chinese property giant is in trouble — and there are fears it might take the global economy down with it.
The uncertainty fueled a market sell-off this week and has raised concerns of a crisis similar to the one set off in 2008 by the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers. Experts say such comparisons are overblown, not least because the Chinese government exerts a much greater degree of control over even private companies like Evergrande.
But the developer’s predicament could deal a serious blow to the world’s second-biggest economy as Beijing faces what may be one of its largest defaults.
