(Yicai Global) Nov. 25 -- China Evergrande is fighting back after a district government in Wuhan city, central Hubei province, repossessed 11 parcels of land owned by the embattled Chinese real estate developer without offering to pay any compensation.

The Jiangxia district government has seized 1.4 square kilometers of land that is part of Evergrande’s Science and Technology Tourism City project, an entertainment and tourism complex still under construction, the Guangzhou-based real estate developer said yesterday.

Evergrande is in talks with the local government and will file an appeal to protect its legitimate rights and interests, it said.

The planning and natural resources bureau in Jiangxia district has rescinded the land use rights to 11 out of the 24 plots sold to Evergrande unit Evergrande Tourism Group for its Science and Technology Tourism City and will not pay compensation, it said on its website on Nov. 18. The move will not affect the construction already underway on the other land parcels, it added.

According to the law, if a developer has not developed the land to which it has acquired the rights within two years, the government can take it back.

Evergrande bought 24 parcels of land covering 3.3 square kilometers for CNY5.6 billion (USD782 million) in December 2017 to build an entertainment, residential, business and leisure complex. The developer has already invested CNY2.1 billion (USD293.4 million) in the project and has constructed around 242,000 square meters of supporting projects on 1.2 square kilometers of land, it added.

Evergrande, which is estimated to have liabilities of over USD300 billion, has been selling assets in recent years in order to recoup funds, including the return of land use rights but it has always received payment before. In August it handed back the rights to a piece of land in southern Guangdong province where it had planned to build a football stadium. The provincial government refunded CNY5.5 billion (USD815 million), resulting in a loss of CNY1.3 billion for Evergrande.

Editor: Kim Taylor