Property developer Kaisa surges 70% after exiting two-year suspension

And like that – pfff – he’s back.

No, not Keyser Söze, but rather Kaisa Group, the first Chinese property company to default on its debts to foreign bondholders, which has resumed trading on the Hong Kong Exchange after a two-year hiatus.

Kaisa this morning released its accounts for the year ended December 31 and said conditions for the resumption of trading had been fulfilled. The company’s shares have been suspended since March 31, 2015.

Shares were up 71.2 per cent in mid-morning trade on the HKEx, and had been up by as much as 87.2 per cent.

The Shenzhen-based property developer has trod a tortuous path over recent years. Trouble started in December 2014 when the local government imposed a sales ban on some of its projects in Shenzhen. The following month, it confirmed it had missed a coupon payment on its US dollar bonds and had several of its bank accounts frozen. In May 2015, sector peer and anticipated white knight Sunac decided against its controversial proposed acquisition of the property developer.

But since then, Kaisa has restructured its debt and is now of the view it has sufficient working capital for operations for at least the next 12 months. It also said it has put in place revamped financial reporting procedures and internal control systems to meet the exchange’s listing rules obligations.

In the 12 months ended December 31, Kaisa increased profit before tax by 44.7 per cent to Rmb3.3bn ($480m) on a 62.6 per cent rise in revenue compared to the previous year.