(Yicai) Aug. 16 -- Debt-ridden real estate giant China Evergrande Group said it had no news to report following rumors that founder and Chairman Xu Jiayin had divorced, according to Shanghai Securities News.

Xu’s wife Ding Yumei was defined as a “third party independent of the company and its affiliates” in a stock exchange filing on Aug. 14. In previous company statements she was always referred to as his spouse.

The pair married in 1983 and have two sons. With a personal fortune of CNY17 billion (USD2.3 billion), she was 26th in the The Hurun Richest Self-Made Women rankings for 2019 published by Hurun Research Institute.

The announcement two days ago also said that money previously lent to China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group by a number of people, including Xu and Ding, will be converted into shares in the company as part of a restructuring proposal.

Evergrande NEV, which warned in March that without new funding it might have to suspend operations, will also receive about USD500 million of strategic investment from Dubai-based green energy firm NWTN, its parent company said in a separate statement on Aug. 15.

According to the financial report released by the firm in July, the total liabilities of its three main business units exceeded CNY2.6 trillion (USD360 billion), while total assets were only worth about CNY1.96 trillion.

Editor: Tom Litting