China Evergrande’s liquidators initiate legal action against PwC, FT reports

(Reuters) – Liquidators of troubled property giant China Evergrande (HK:) Group have started legal action against PricewaterhouseCoopers, accusing it of “negligence” and “misrepresentation” in its work for the group, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Lawyers for the liquidators started the court proceedings against PwC Hong Kong and PwC Zhong Tian in March, the report said, citing court documents obtained by the FT.

The liquidators have also started court proceedings against commercial real estate services company CBRE Group (NYSE:) and investment banking advisory firm Avista (NYSE:) Advisory Group over valuation reports they produced for Evergrande and its subsidiaries in 2018, the report added.

Evergrande, PwC, CBRE and Avista did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Evergrande, once China’s largest property developer, was ordered to be liquidated by a Hong Kong court in January, after it failed to deliver a concrete restructuring plan for its $23 billion worth of offshore debt deemed to be in default.

PwC, Evergrande’s auditor for almost 14 years until it resigned in early 2023, has been under a lot of pressure lately as a result of its work for the company and the Chinese authorities have been probing PwC’s role in auditing Evergrande.