(Yicai) Oct. 24 -- The founder and chairman of Shenzhen Haida Decoration Group is selling part of his equity in the Chinese interior decoration company on social media platform Wechat Moments to help the struggling firm, which is a casualty of the downturn in the country’s real estate sector, pay off its debts, Red Star News reported.

A number of parties are in touch with Gao Feng about the equity sale, the news outlet under Chengdu Economic Daily reported yesterday, citing a leaked screenshot that Gao allegedly posted on WeChat Moments.

The company, which is owed large sums by cash-strapped developers such as Country Garden, has amassed CNY290 million (USD39.7 million) in overdue bank loans.

In the screenshot, which has been verified, Gao listed a number of developers that owe money to the company, including Agile Group, Excellence Group and Henghong.

Although the size of the share sale was not stated, Gao and his wife own 100 percent of Haida and the Shenzhen-based company has assets of almost CNY1 billion (USD136.9 million).

Demand for interior design services has plunged amid a stagnant real estate market, the report said, citing Li Yujia, chief researcher at Guangdong province’s housing policy research center. As a downstream supplier, Haida expanded rapidly when the property market was hot, accumulating many bank loans, he added.

Haida, which was set up in 1992, also provides office and home decoration and design services to tech giants such as Huawei Technologies, ZTE and Tencent Holdings and these projects are proceeding as normal, Gao said.
 

Editor: Kim Taylor