At least nine developers have announced that they will be unable to produce audited financial results for 2021 before the 31 March 2022 deadline required by Hong Kong listing regulations. In addition to Ronshine and Sunac, these include Shimao Group Holdings Limited (CCC), Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. Ltd. (CC), China Evergrande Group (RD), China Aoyuan Group (RD) and Kaisa (WD).
The companies have generally blamed the impact of Covid-19 outbreaks hindering audit work for the delay, and most will publish unaudited results as a temporary measure.
Some developers have changed auditors. PricewaterhouseCoopers recently resigned as auditor of Hopson Development Holdings Limited (B+/Stable), Ronshine and Shimao, while Ernst & Young resigned as auditor of Yuzhou Group Holdings Limited (RD). Hopson has appointed Ernst & Young as a replacement, and will announce audited results on 31 March 2022. The other developers have instead hired local auditors, with only Yuzhou likely to announce audited results by the deadline. Where auditor changes involve switches between reputable firms they represent less of an issue, but we are more cautious when a company switches to smaller, less well-known auditors.
https://www.fitchratings.com/resear...problems-raise-financing-pressures-29-03-2022