(Bloomberg) -- A Hong Kong court’s ruling Monday to liquidate China Evergrande Group marked a new milestone in the nation’s unprecedented property debt crisis.

Below is a summary of comments in and outside of the court:   

Linda Chan, Judge, High Court of Hong Kong:

• “It’s appropriate to give a wind-up order. This has been dragging on for over one and a half years. At the last hearing, I said that I expect to see a fully formulated proposal and the company has acknowledged that and said it will discuss with the creditors and to produce a revised proposal in line with the authority. None of that has happened”
• “If liquidated, management will switch to be taken over by someone else. Can still negotiate restructuring after wind-up”

Shawn Siu, Evergrande Chief Executive Officer: 

• “The company has made all efforts possible and is sorry about the winding-up order. The company will ensure home deliveries and steadily promote normal operation of the group”
• Evergrande will actively communicate with the liquidator and push forward with resolving debt issues

Fergus Saurin, a partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP which advises an ad-hoc group of creditors: 

• “The outcome is a product of the company failing to engage with the ad-hoc group. We’ve been working in good faith, we’ve been ready, willing and able for the entire process to reach a deal with the company. The company has failed to engage with us. There has been a history of last-minute engagement which has gone nowhere. And in the circumstances the company only has itself to blame for being wound up”

Zerlina Zeng, senior credit analyst at Creditsights Inc.: 

• “Following the liquidation order, Evergrande would likely be required to liquidate the assets of the entity that will be wound up. Evergrande has not disclosed exactly what assets would be included in this scenario, but as most of the company’s assets are onshore, I doubt its offshore creditors would receive substantial recovery proceeds from the liquidation order”

Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis SA: 

• “The macroeconomic impact should be limited as the liquidation itself is unlikely to exert more pressure on the battered property sector. However, it will worsen sentiment as investors will be worried that there is a snowball effect on other pending cases”
• “It is probably not an end but a beginning of a prolonged tug-of-war between developers and creditors, and the situation can be even more challenging for offshore bondholders and shareholders”

Lance Jiang, restructuring partner at law firm Ashurst LLP: 

• “If Evergrande is put into bankruptcy administration by a PRC court, international investors will need to see whether the PRC court-appointed administrator can work with the liquidators appointed by the Hong Kong court to achieve a transparent, cooperative and fair restructuring or liquidation of Evergrande”

Jenny Zeng, chief investment officer for Asia fixed income at Allianz Global Investors: 

• “The market should focus on the good companies that have weathered through this worst-ever credit down cycle. We should focus on the survivors”
• “We’re still in the downturn and it’s likely the market will continue to adjust to the new equilibrium of the physical market. The most important policy is to stop the liquidity crunch that the market has experienced and it will be successful. There aren’t many survivors left but there are still dislocations in the market that will generate future alpha”

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