Chinese tycoon Chen Hongtian’s seized luxury apartment has been sold for HK$418 million (US$53.4 million or RM250.02 million) as the businessman struggles to repay his creditors amid China’s property crisis.

The full-floor condo is in Opus Hong Kong, one of the city’s most coveted projects located in the Mid-Levels. In February, Bank of Communications Co appointed a receiver to take over the property, documents lodged with the Land Registry show. It was then put up for sale by Savills plc a few months later.

The sale price is 39% lower than the previously reported valuation of HK$680 million. Chen and his wife, Chen Yao Li Ni, bought the asset for HK$387 million in 2015.

The fifth-floor apartment, spanning 5,154 sq ft (479 sq m), includes five bedrooms and two parking spaces. The 12-unit project at 53 Stubbs Road was famed architect Frank Gehry’s first residential project in Asia, breaking price records in Hong Kong when it opened in 2012. 

Chen, chairman of Hong Kong-based investment firm Cheung Kei Group, has had assets in the city seized by creditors in the past months over what he called “short-term liquidity issues”. These include a US$271 million mansion six minutes up the road and a commercial building, valued at US$892 million, which have also been put up for sale by creditors.

Now in his 60s, Chen founded Cheung Kei Group by combining businesses he owned in Hong Kong and Shenzhen in 1990 when China was pushing for market economy reform. The group soon pivoted to property development and financial investments after early success in the textile industry. Before the seizures, he had amassed 10 office towers and hotels across the world, according to the group’s website.

  - Bloomberg