The capital drama of legendary businessman Lu Zhiqiang comes to an end. On January 27, Oceanwide Holdings announced that the company received the "Decision on Termination of Listing of Oceanwide Holdings Co., Ltd.'s Stocks" (Shenzhen Stock Exchange [2024] No. 76), and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange decided to terminate the listing of the company's stocks.As one of the most important listing platforms of the "Oceanwide Group", Oceanwide Holdings is mainly engaged in financial business and real estate business. Its predecessor, Guangcai Construction, has been listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 1998, with a market value of more than 100 billion yuan at its peak.
While Oceanwide Holdings is sadly delisting, the "Oceanwide System", which was founded more than 30 years ago and started in the real estate industry and has a full financial license, is also falling apart step by step.
As for the helmsman, Lu Zhiqiang himself, the former richest man in Shandong and once regarded as the "big boss among the big bosses" has now become an executive and has put on the hat of restricting high consumption.
Hundreds of billions of market values were wiped out
Radar Finance noticed that Oceanwide Holdings’ “past and present lives” are full of stories.
In the 1990s, riding on the favorable policies, the "Oceanwide Group" completed initial capital accumulation in the real estate industry, and Lu Zhiqiang began to extend his tentacles to the capital market.
In 1995, Guangcai Investment Management Co., Ltd. was born in Beijing. The company was funded and established by Shandong Oceanwide Group, Legend Holdings, Sitong Group and other parties.
In 1998, Guangcai Investment increased its capital and shares and changed its name to Guangcai Investment Group Co., Ltd. In October of the same year, the company went public through a backdoor transaction with Nanyou Properties, and the listed company was referred to as Guangcai Construction.
"Nanyou Property" was formerly known as Nanhai Petroleum Shenzhen Development Services Corporation Property Development Company, which was invested and established by Shenzhen Nanyou (Group) Co., Ltd.
Later, the property development company of Nanhai Petroleum Shenzhen Development Services Corporation was reorganized into "Nanhai Petroleum Property", and relying on real estate development and property management, it landed on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1994.
In September 2005, Oceanwide Construction Holdings Co., Ltd. acquired 28.17% of the company's shares held by Guangcai Engineering and became the company's controlling shareholder. Soon, Oceanwide Construction Holdings injected its entire real estate business into the listed company.
In February 2010, Oceanwide Construction Holdings transferred all its shares in the company to China Oceanwide, and China Oceanwide became the company's controlling shareholder. With the development of the above-mentioned capital operations, the securities abbreviations of listed companies have been changed to Oceanwide Construction and Oceanwide Holdings.
As one of the earliest listed companies in China's real estate industry, real estate was once the main business of Oceanwide Holdings.However, compared with its leading peers, which can generate tens of billions or even hundreds of billions, Oceanwide Holdings’ real estate business is limited in scale, and its revenue at its peak was only 18.5 billion yuan.
Since 2014, Oceanwide Holdings has gradually transformed into the financial field, integrating financial assets such as trusts, insurance, securities, futures, pawns, and asset management through acquisitions.
In the A-share bull market that followed, the company's market value once exceeded 100 billion in 2015, ranking third among A-share real estate stocks after Vanke and Poly.This year, Lu Zhiqiang's wealth also increased, becoming the richest man in Shandong with a net worth of 83 billion yuan.
In terms of performance, Oceanwide Holdings achieved revenue of 24.67 billion yuan in 2016, a year-on-year increase of 79.4%, setting a historical record. However, the good times did not last long. With the real estate industry experiencing a downturn and the investment scandal "Wuhan Golden Phoenix 80 tons of fake gold", Oceanwide Holdings went downhill.
Flush iFinD shows that from 2020 to 2022, Oceanwide Holdings’ net profit attributable to the parent company suffered losses of 4.62 billion yuan, 11.25 billion yuan, and 11.54 billion yuan respectively, and the amount of losses increased year by year.
In the first three quarters of 2023, Oceanwide Holdings' net profit attributable to its parent company was a loss of 6.89 billion yuan. As of the end of September 2023, Oceanwide Holdings' unaudited net assets attributable to shareholders of the parent company were -12.054 billion yuan.
While it is insolvent, *ST Oceanwide has been suspended from trading on the secondary market since December 28 last year. Before the suspension, the company's stock price closed at 0.38 yuan per share, with a final total market value of approximately 1.975 billion yuan.
On January 26, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange stated that the daily closing price of *ST Oceanwide's stock had been below 1 yuan for 20 consecutive trading days, triggering the termination of stock listings stipulated in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's stock listing rules.In accordance with the relevant regulations of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the deliberation opinions of the Listing Review Committee of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange decided to terminate the listing of *ST Oceanwide shares.
It is worth mentioning that China Oceanwide, the previous controlling shareholder of *ST Oceanwide, planned to increase its stake in the company by 100 million to 200 million yuan. However, as of the expiration of the shareholding increase plan on January 4 this year, China Oceanwide has only increased its holdings of 1,100 shares of the company, and the total increase in holdings is only 2,889 yuan.
Abandoned officialdom and entered business to build a business empire
*The actual controller of ST Oceanwide is Lu Zhiqiang. According to Flush iFinD, as of October 9, 2023, Lu Zhiqiang held 47.09% of the company's shares through China Oceanwide.
Lu Zhiqiang’s first pot of gold is still a mystery. But one thing is certain, after he resigned and went to work, he relied on the real estate industry to make a fortune.
Public information shows that Lu Zhiqiang was born in Weihai, Shandong Province in November 1952 and graduated from Fudan University. In 1985, Lu Zhiqiang gave up his "iron rice bowl" job as deputy director of the Weifang Technology Development Center Office and chose to go into business.
Rumor has it that the first career he chose was the education and training industry. However, insiders of the "Oceanwide Department" told the media that Lu Zhiqiang's real first pot of gold came from real estate, but how exactly he obtained it has always been unclear.
Three years after "going to sea", Lu Zhiqiang no longer settled in the Shandong Peninsula and chose to go north.In Beijing, he founded China Oceanwide Holdings Group in 1988 with a registered capital of 4 billion yuan.
In just three years, from a grassroots civil servant to a registered capital of 4 billion yuan, how did Lu Zhiqiang do it? The outside world has no way of knowing.
It was also in Beijing that Lu Zhiqiang established a huge network of relationships, made friends with many veterans of the "Taishan Society", and formed Guangcai Business Investment with Lenovo Liu Chuanzhi, Sitong Duan Yongji and others, and then set foot in the capital market.
In terms of industrial layout, in addition to the main real estate business on which he started, Lu Zhiqiang is also flexing his muscles in the field of financial investment. In January 1996, Minsheng Bank, of which Oceanwide was one of the shareholders, was formally established with a registered capital of 1.38 billion yuan.
In December 2000, Minsheng Bank was listed, with Lu Zhiqiang as the second largest shareholder. Relying on the "ammunition depot" of China Minsheng Bank, Oceanwide has accelerated its expansion.
In 2002, Oceanwide acquired Huanghe Securities, a securities company in Henan Province, and changed its name to Minsheng Securities. After 2014, Oceanwide Holdings expanded its shareholding proportion by increasing its holdings and capital, and once accounted for 87.65% of Minsheng Securities’ equity.
According to the Beijing News, in 2015, Oceanwide Holdings acquired Min'an Property & Casualty Insurance (renamed Asia Pacific Property & Casualty Insurance in 2016), Hong Kong stock company CASH Financial, and participated in the establishment of Asia Pacific Reinsurance and Asia Pacific Internet Life.
In 2016, Oceanwide Holdings acquired the equity of China Minsheng Trust from its major shareholder China Oceanwide, and at the same time established Minsheng Financial Services. Through Minsheng Holdings, it holds shares in Minsheng Insurance Brokerage, Minsheng International Investment, and the previously established Minsheng Futures. The "Oceanwide Group" was once one of the few private capital groups in China with a full financial license.
At the same time, Lu Zhiqiang often joins hands with other business tycoons to do business with his vast network of contacts, so he is known as the "big boss among the big guys".
For example, during Lenovo's restructuring, Lu Zhiqiang's China Oceanwide took over 29% of Lenovo's shares from the Chinese Academy of Sciences for 2.755 billion yuan. In May 2016, Lu Zhiqiang spent about 2.5 billion yuan to acquire part of the equity of Wanda Film and Television Media and Qingdao Wanda Film and Television, and actively cooperated with Wanda Film and Television's listing.
Under the crazy expansion, the wealth of the Oceanwide Empire is getting bigger and bigger like a snowball.According to statistics, at its peak, the "Oceanwide Group" participated in dozens of listed companies, with total assets exceeding 300 billion yuan.
The “Pan-Ocean System” is in danger
Times have changed, and Ren Zhiqiang’s capital territory is shrinking at an accelerated pace.
Among them, *ST Minkong, also controlled by China Oceanwide, has been subject to a "delisting risk warning" because its net profit in 2022 is negative and its operating income is less than 100 million yuan. In the first three quarters of 2023, the company's revenue and net profit were 31 million yuan and 20 million yuan respectively, and the risk of delisting cannot be completely eliminated.
China Tonghai Financial and China Oceanwide Holdings, two Hong Kong stock listing platforms under the "Oceanwide Group", have been transferred to Huaxintong Co., Ltd. by exchanging shares for debts; the latter has a market value of only HK$400 million and has been ordered to be liquidated by the Hong Kong High Court and its stock trading has been suspended.
In addition, Minsheng Securities, a high-quality asset in the Oceanwide Financial sector, has also changed hands.
In March last year, the equity of Minsheng Securities held by Oceanwide Holdings was publicly auctioned. Guolian Group, with a state-owned background in Wuxi, finally won 3.471 billion shares of Minsheng Securities held by Oceanwide Holdings through a judicial auction, accounting for 30.30% of the total share capital, becoming the new largest shareholder.
On December 15, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the "Reply on Approving the Change of Major Shareholders of Minsheng Securities" and approved the above-mentioned transaction. Guolian Group received 3.471 billion shares of Minsheng Securities in accordance with the law.
After losing its position as the actual controller of Minsheng Securities, Oceanwide Holdings' financial "troika" is reduced to Minsheng Trust and Asia Pacific Property & Casualty Insurance.Among them, Minsheng Trust, which is indirectly controlled by Oceanwide Holdings, suffered losses of 449 million yuan, 3.833 billion yuan and 3.706 billion yuan respectively from 2020 to 2022, with the cumulative loss in three years reaching 7.988 billion yuan.
Tianyancha shows that Minsheng Trust currently has 52 pieces of equity freezing information, 9 of which have been added since 2024, with amounts ranging from several million yuan to nearly 4 billion yuan.
As for Asia Pacific Property & Casualty Insurance, its operating conditions are not optimistic either. According to the announcement of Oceanwide Holdings, its holding subsidiary Asia Pacific Property & Casualty Insurance will achieve operating income of 5.381 billion yuan and a net profit of -714 million yuan in 2023. The above financial data are not audited.
It is reported that Oceanwide Holdings holds a total of 71% of Asia Pacific Property & Casualty Insurance through its holding subsidiaries Wuhan Central Business District Co., Ltd. and Minsheng Trust.
It is not difficult to see that the financial business with poor profitability has been difficult to build blood for the "Ocean-wide System". After some of the equity shares of companies such as Minsheng Trust were frozen and seized by the court, Oceanwide Holdings' self-rescue has been unable to proceed smoothly to a certain extent.
In the era of rapid expansion, Lu Zhiqiang, who was good at dancing in the capital market, was the trend setter and wealth hero of the times. However, when the tide receded, he discovered that the defeat was irreversible. At present, this former big boss in the field of real estate and finance has become the person subject to execution, with the execution amount exceeding 8 billion yuan.