Article | Sina Technology is strict
This month, Lu Zhiqiang, the former richest man in Shandong, was 70 years old.
In his rare years, he has always regarded "stepping on the waves and walking on the plains" as his entrepreneurial vision. Now it seems that this expectation has finally come to naught - the millionaire who created the Oceanwide giant ship "stranded", whose Minsheng Trust and Minsheng Wealth products are overdue for payment, financial institutions' loan lawsuits have followed, the share price of listed companies has hit a record low, and pledged shares have been frozen for auction.
An entrepreneur once commented on Lu Zhiqiang like this: "Boss Lu almost never lacked money in the past, and I don't know what it's like to lack money.".
Time has changed. In the Hurun 2022 Hurun Rich List recently released by the Hurun Research Institute, Lu Zhiqiang has been excluded from the top 100 list. In 2020, Lu Zhiqiang ranked 66 in the Top 100 list, but he has long been invisible in the latest 2022 list.
The Oceanwide Empire he built has already been "exhausted".
On the last day of October this year, Oceanwide Holdings released its financial report for the first three quarters of 2022. During the reporting period, Oceanwide Holdings' operating revenue was 8.873 billion yuan, down 37.06% year on year. Net profit loss attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 154 million yuan, down 87.7% year on year. The loss reached 2.24 billion yuan, down 25.05% year on year.
Not only that, China Minsheng Bank, which is owned by Oceanwide, also suffered a double decline in revenue and net profit. Since this year, the shares of Minsheng Bank held by Oceanwide Group have been frozen for three times
Lu Zhiqiang, who was supposed to enjoy his life, did not seem to give up. He was once on the front line of debt repayment, but unfortunately he failed to write the myth of "turning the tide".
In April this year, Oceanwide Holdings issued an announcement. Due to contract disputes and bond trading disputes, Oceanwide was sued by Shanghai Zhenyan, Minsheng Trust and Rongchuang Group, with a total amount of 5.217 billion yuan. At the same time, Sun Hongbin, also a real estate tycoon, took action: Rongchuang sued Lu Zhiqiang and Oceanwide Holdings to the court.
Lu Zhiqiang, who is "in danger of death", can only opt out. In May this year, with an announcement by Oceanwide Holdings, Lu Zhiqiang withdrew from the Board of Directors.
Since then, he has "disappeared" from the media.
Through the livelihood crisis in recent two years, we can still see how this late rich man is trapped in a debt black hole? How to miss the best opportunity to "survive by breaking the arm"?
Mystery caused by overdue products
One year ago, the Second Intermediate People's Court of Beijing listed Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. and its chairman Lu Zhiqiang as the persons to be executed, with a total execution target of about 4.999 billion yuan.
However, China Oceanwide Holdings Group (hereinafter referred to as "China Oceanwide"), which he actually holds, has just transfused 8 billion yuan of blood to the listed company platform Oceanwide Holdings in the name of "borrowing", but this may be a drop in the bucket. According to the 2020 annual report, as of the end of last year, the monetary capital balance of Oceanwide Holdings was 19.388 billion yuan, but the amount of short-term borrowings was 18.265 billion yuan, the amount of non current liabilities due within a year was 29.257 billion yuan, and other current liabilities were 365 million yuan. There was a huge pressure on short-term debt repayment, and this part of the gap was nearly 28.5 billion yuan. Not to mention the restricted monetary capital of 4.74 billion yuan in the balance of monetary capital.
China Oceanwide is also a mud bodhisattva crossing the river. By the end of March last year, of the 3.559 billion shares held by Oceanwide Holdings, 3.399 billion shares had been pledged and 294 million shares had been frozen. At the same time, China Oceanwide's total liabilities had reached 228.643 billion yuan. "Oceanwide has always been robbing Peter to pay Paul, and the real debt ratio may be higher," said an insider close to Oceanwide.
The reason why Oceanwide is eager to dispose of assets is that its financial products are suffering from the risk of delayed redemption.
Previously, Minsheng Trust and Minsheng Wealth series products of "Oceanwide" have been overdue. According to previous data, Minsheng Trust currently has an outstanding existing trust scale of 193.04 billion yuan, and the trust scale due within one year is 134.539 billion yuan, which is very large.
Minsheng Wealth is a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of Oceanwide Investment Group Co., Ltd., which is wholly-owned by Oceanwide Holdings; The largest shareholder of Minsheng Trust is Wuhan CBD Company, which is also controlled by Oceanwide Holdings. After equity penetration, Lu Zhiqiang's Oceanwide Holdings actually controls Minsheng Wealth and Minsheng Trust.
As early as 2020, Oceanwide Holdings has begun to face liquidity crisis. By the end of September 2020, Oceanwide Holdings' total liabilities had reached 144.5 billion yuan, with an asset liability ratio of 79.06%. The company's short-term borrowings and non current liabilities due within one year amounted to 25.04 billion yuan, and long-term borrowings amounted to 29.13 billion yuan. In the same period, Oceanwide Holdings' book monetary capital was 18.87 billion yuan, and the short-term debt service fund gap was 6.17 billion yuan.
In the second half of 2020, Minsheng Trust began to fall into the payment crisis, and in the first half of 2021, Minsheng Wealth series products defaulted. Among them, Shanghai Securities News once reported that Minsheng Trust Zhixin No. 828 was referred to as "an associated self financing project that uses an associated or allied company as the financier to raise funds to acquire Oceanwide's own property". It is worrying that there may be more than one project for blood transfusion to Oceanwide Holdings.
Previously, according to the report of Global Finance, a person close to Oceanwide said that Minsheng Fortune Zun series products held private bonds of Oceanwide Group through a private fund of Warm Current Asset Management Company, accounting for up to 80%. That is to say, the bottom layer may eventually be invested in Oceanwide Private Placement Bonds.
Mr. Chen, an investor who bought a series of products in Minsheng Wealth, told Caile that the product he bought was mainly invested in Minsheng Trust. Now Minsheng Trust has "stepped on the thunder" and is overdue, they can't get money. "I called the financial manager (Minsheng Wealth) and said that 1 billion yuan would be cashed at the end of July, and 19 billion yuan would be cashed in the whole Minsheng Zun series," he said.
Cailai received a previous Announcement on Major Issues of Oceanwide Zun Series Products, which said that Oceanwide Investment Xinrui No. 1, Xinrui No. 2, Xinrui No. 5, Zunxiang No. 1, Zunxiang No. 3, Ruichi No. 1, Zunyi No. 5, Zunyi No. 6, Zunyi No. 7, Zunyi No. 8 and other privately raised securities investment funds, as well as Oceanwide Zunding Zuntai series products had major issues disclosed. The underlying assets of the above products, "China Minsheng Trust - Zhongmin Yongfeng No. 1 Collective Fund Trust Plan" and "China Minsheng Trust - Zhongmin Yongfeng No. 2 Collective Fund Trust Plan", are overdue, with a total principal of 693 million yuan. "Our company plans to take positive measures, including but not limited to administrative and judicial means to claim rights and recover assets," the announcement wrote.
In fact, these two products are just the tip of the iceberg of Minsheng Trust's large-scale overdue redemption projects in recent two years.
According to the description of investors and incomplete statistics of Caili, the current delayed products include Minsheng Zun series, Oceanwide Zun/Rui/Xin series, Minsheng Trust Zhongmin Yongtai products, Minsheng Trust Zhongmin Yongfeng products, Dragon series invested in Wuhan CBD, Minsheng Zhixin (797, 862, 873, 875, 877, 914, 1029), Minsheng Trust Huitian, Minsheng Trust Huixin, etc.
As a result, investors put rights protection on the agenda. Mr. Chen, the above investor, revealed that in a communication in March 2021, Oceanwide executives had replied that because of regulatory requirements for Oceanwide to clear the Minsheng Zun series of products, Oceanwide has developed a mechanism that will, by the end of each month Minsheng Trust and others held a joint meeting to study the fund cashing arrangements for the next month.
Mr. Chen told Caili that the above executives described the situation of Oceanwide in this way: "The overall capital flow is very tight now."
"Capital diabetes"
Indeed, "Oceanwide" is stepping into the debt abyss due to financial anxiety. In February 2021, Oceanwide Holdings was sued to the court for failing to repay the CNY1.3 billion loan of China Yingyi in time; On March 22 of the same year, Oceanwide Holdings San Francisco project was sued, claiming 26.46 million dollars; Then in April, Wuhan Central Business District was sued to freeze relevant assets on the grounds that the loan of 2 billion yuan from Shandong Expressway had not been repaid; In May, Oceanwide Holdings also announced that a foreign debt was about to default.
Caili According to Tianyan, up to now, the total executed amount of the listed company Oceanwide Holdings has reached 8.915 billion yuan. Among them, on July 1 last year, a new target of 4.999 billion yuan was added, and Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. and its chairman Lu Zhiqiang were listed as the executors. At the same time, as of last March, the total liabilities of Oceanwide controlling shareholder China Oceanwide had reached 228.643 billion yuan.
In order to alleviate the "thirst for funds", Oceanwide's approach is to conduct asset disposal and introduce strategic investors: sell off real estate projects, sell off Oceanwide's equity, liquidate shareholding companies, etc.
"The overall cash flow is being actively promoted at present due to the impact of asset disposal and the war plan. Domestic real estate projects and our related equity projects are in the process of negotiation with interested parties." Mr. Chen said that Oceanwide executives said in their communication last March that the funds for asset disposal and the introduction of strategic investment will be used for product cashing.
Shortly after this communication, at the end of March 2021, a Letter to Investors suddenly circulated on the Internet. The signature of the document was Lu Zhiqiang, Chairman of Oceanwide Holdings, but soon after the communication, it showed "deleted".
Cailai obtained the pictures in this letter, which showed that Lu Zhiqiang spoke for the overdue payment of Minsheng Wealth, Minsheng Trust and other "Oceanwide" systems, and mentioned the need to increase asset disposal, introduce strategic investors, and instruct relevant enterprises to accelerate capital accumulation, and make unified arrangements and cashes. He also set three cashing time points - plans to complete cashing in July, October and December.
"I have been in business for more than 30 years, but I have underestimated the difficulties I have encountered in the past two years, and I also have many reflections and summaries on the problems and challenges I have faced," said Lu Zhiqiang in the above letter.
Regardless of whether the letter is true or false, Oceanwide's liquidity problem and payment time are indeed very urgent.
Cailai obtained a Letter of Explanation on Redemption of Oceanwide Zun, Rui and Xin Series Products stamped by Oceanwide Group, which shows that since January 27, 2021, Oceanwide Zun series products have triggered a huge redemption clause, and Oceanwide Investment Fund will take measures to delay the redemption. Meanwhile, the redemption will be suspended from April 27, 2021.
"The company is actively taking measures to dispose of fund assets, and actively paying the fund redemption money after the fund collection. If the asset realization and collection are not as expected, China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. will also complete the redemption of the above series of products through the support of the group's overall repayment plan." The letter shows that partial redemption will be completed before June 30, 2021, And promised to complete all redemption of Oceanwide Zun's underlying bonds by June 30, 2022.
For liquidity, Oceanwide has sold a piece of land in Wuhan CBD, Wuhan Wanyi Hotel and some shares of Minsheng Securities, and is also selling the most valuable IDG.
By last June, Oceanwide's asset disposal news had become increasingly intensive. On June 15, 176 million shares of Oceanwide Holdings were auctioned off, obtaining 398.1 million yuan; On June 25, Oceanwide Holdings announced that it planned to transfer 100% of the equity of Zhejiang Oceanwide Construction Investment Co., Ltd. after divesting assets to Rongchuang Real Estate. The divested assets include 10.7143% of the equity of China Minsheng Trust Co., Ltd. held by Zhejiang Oceanwide.
Recently, according to Alibaba Judicial Auction Online, Oceanwide Holdings will auction another part of its equity on July 29, totaling 331 million shares. This target will be split into five auctions, with the total price of 179 million yuan, 155 million yuan, 174 million yuan, 155 million yuan and 155 million yuan, respectively, totaling about 819 million yuan.
But now that it is July, how about Oceanwide's payment? Mr. Guo, an investor of Dragon series products of Minsheng Wealth, told Caile that the products he bought had only been cashed 1.35%. In this regard, Mr. Guo said that Minsheng Wealth Investment Company replied to him that it is expected to be able to deal with 10% of the balance held by customers due from March to July by the end of July because of the instability of external factors. "This is different from the original expectation," Mr. Guo said.
A "murder case"
When it comes to the liquidity crisis of the "Oceanwide System", we have to mention Minsheng Trust.
As early as Oceanwide spent tens of billions of yuan to win all kinds of financial licenses, the radical hidden danger was already buried. A "fake gold case" that shocked the financial circle completely opened the weak protective film of the "Oceanwide System".
According to public media reports, since 2015, Jia Zhihong, the actual controller of Wuhan Golden Phoenix Jewelry, has been financing from financial institutions by means of "gold mortgage+insurance policy credit enhancement", using Au999.9 as collateral.
On May 22, 2020, Minsheng Trust received the test results of the pledged gold of Wuhan Jinhuang Jewelry, and the gold bars submitted for inspection were "gold plated on the surface, and the internal composition was copper alloy, not Au999.9 gold". The case of 83 tons of "fake gold" of Wuhan Jinhuang Jewelry was completely ignited.
This matter affected more than 10 trust financial institutions, and more than 20 billion loan products fell into the crisis of redemption. Minsheng Trust was the largest one involved, with a total amount of 4.074 billion yuan. Under pressure from all parties, Minsheng Trust decided to advance capital to investors first.
If it is limited to this, perhaps there is still room for struggle against the Oceanwide Trust for People's Livelihood, but the continuous stepping on the thunder can only be inadequate.
As early as the beginning of 2020, Minsheng Trust applied to the Third Intermediate People's Court of Beijing for enforcement of the yet to expire trust loan of 2.68 billion yuan from New Hualian, but New Hualian itself was in debt crisis and was difficult to repay.
In the same year, Minsheng Trust was involved in the "Turnip Seal" incident of China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau. At that time, China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau found that two fictitious "Profile Sales Contract" were the asset packages of the "Zhixin 1095 China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau specific asset usufruct collective fund trust plan" issued by Minsheng Trust. China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau said that the contract embezzled the name of its subsidiary, the Third Construction Co., Ltd. of China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau, fabricated the transaction facts and secretly carved the seal of the subsidiary, so they chose to report the case.
In response to the "crackdown on fraud" of China Construction Fifth Engineering Bureau, Minsheng Trust said at that time that Zhixin 1095 project was based on business transactions between factoring companies and asset management companies, and the underlying assets under the project were the receivables' usufruct transferred by the company according to the Agreement on the Transfer of Receivables' usufruct signed with the asset management company. The company has contacted the asset transferor at the first time to request it to verify the authenticity and legality of the transferred asset, and immediately terminate the transfer of the usufruct of the accounts receivable.
Minsheng Trust also said at that time that it would end the trust project in advance and distribute it to investors in accordance with the trust contract after receiving the relevant transfer funds.
More than that, the chain of "thunder" has not ended, and Minsheng Trust has also been involved in the cashing crisis of Kaidi Ecology and Hanergy Group. Basically, Minsheng Trust has played a role in all the pits in that year, and it is also known as the "king of stepping on the pit" in 2020.
"In the past two years, trust has expanded rapidly, and more or less risk control has been lax. In particular, the target of trust investment is mainly real estate. In recent years, the regulation of real estate has been strict, the golden period has passed, and the probability of risk outbreak has also increased." A person studying bonds and financing in Shanghai told Caile, but institutions such as Minsheng Trust have continuously stepped on the thunder, There should be obvious loopholes in risk control.
Minsheng Trust also decided to change the current situation by changing the leadership urgently. In February 2021, the new president, Lin Deqiong, was approved. However, the situation of Minsheng Trust is still very serious. Caile inquired about the 2020 annual report issued by Oceanwide Holdings, and we can see the performance of Minsheng Trust. In 2020, Minsheng Trust realized an operating revenue of 2.243 billion yuan, down 4.31% year on year; The net loss attributable to the parent company was 390 million yuan, down 143.33% year on year.
The bitter fruit of these "pits" will eventually be reflected in the products, and the capital turnover and cashing are particularly difficult. Minsheng Zhixin 516 Securities Investment Collective Fund Trust Plan, Zhixin 681 CIMC Vehicle IPO Investment Collective Fund Trust Plan and other products are all overdue. At that time, Shenzhen Stock Exchange also required Minsheng Trust to explain the situation of overdue and related self financing.
Oceanwide Holdings, a major shareholder of Minsheng Trust, said in reply to the inquiry letter on the annual report of Shenzhen Stock Exchange that in 2020, the accrued credit impairment losses of Minsheng Trust's accounts receivable projects had exceeded 2.1 billion yuan.
An insider said that for a private financial holding group like Oceanwide Holdings, Minsheng Trust had obvious license advantages. Although trust is not a bank, it can lend, finance and carry out a lot of capital operations, providing a lot of space for capital appropriation. Nowadays, Minsheng Trust's thunderbolt projects are frequent, and Oceanwide Holdings itself has fallen into a liquidity crisis, which can be said to be a case of house leakage.
Huge loss and danger
Huge debts are worrying, and business performance is not optimistic.
On April 30 last year, Oceanwide Holdings released its annual report. In 2020, the company realized an operating income of 14.057 billion yuan, up 12.17% year on year. The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 4.622 billion yuan, down 522.15% year on year.
Oceanwide Holdings explained that this was mainly caused by five factors, namely, the provision for impairment of American real estate projects, Indonesian power plants and related goodwill, the provision for impairment of individual risk projects of Minsheng Trust, the holding subsidiary, a sharp decline in investment income, and an increase in financial expenses.
In short, cross-border finance is difficult to go, and traditional real estate is also sluggish.
Moreover, even the high-quality asset Minsheng Securities of "Oceanwide" was caught in the "Yefei Report Gate" last year. Private equity big V Ye Fei revealed that Zhongyuan Home Appliances, an A-share listed company, once found Ye Fei through an intermediary, hoping to drive up the share price by "sitting in the villa", while Ye Fei found the bid recipients Minsheng Securities and Tianfeng Securities through Hengtai Securities. It is worth noting that Minsheng Securities is indeed the top ten shareholders of Zhongyuan Home by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
In fact, the hidden troubles of Oceanwide will be revealed in 2017.
From 2017 to 2019, the operating revenue of Oceanwide Holdings has almost always been on the decline, respectively 16.876 billion yuan, 12.404 billion yuan and 12.502 billion yuan, - 31.59%, - 26.50% and 0.79% year on year; The net profit was 2.891 billion yuan, 931 million yuan and 1.095 billion yuan, with year-on-year changes of - 7%, - 67.81% and 17.62%, but a large part of the contribution was from investment, which was not stable.
Moreover, the improvement of financial situation in 2019 is also due to the withdrawal of funds from Oceanwide selling projects. In January 2019, Oceanwide Holdings transferred Beijing Oceanwide International Residential Area Lot 1 and Shanghai Dongjiadu Project under the name of its subsidiary to Rongchuang, with a total consideration of 14.887 billion yuan.
From 2020 to 2021, Oceanwide will still sell assets frequently. First, it sold the relevant overseas assets in San Francisco, the United States, with 1.2 billion dollars, then sold its core project, Wuhan CBD, with 3.06 billion yuan, and then transferred Wuhan Wanyi Hotel. Minsheng Securities, IDG and other high-quality assets were sold without exception. But even so, Oceanwide Holdings' business has not improved.
In 2021, Orient Jincheng rated Oceanwide Holdings as negative in its credit rating assessment. The reason is that the company's overseas US dollar bonds have been extended, and the bonds due and sold back in 2021 are concentrated. The debt repayment pressure is high. It is expected that the company's business and financial situation will continue to be under pressure in the future due to the negative factors such as tight liquidity, increased litigation and enforcement records.
Glow dark spot
Today, Oceanwide is tired of raising funds, but the former Oceanwide has been brilliant.
Near Chaoyang Park in Beijing, there is a famous luxury residential area called "Oceanwide International Residential Area". Built in 2008, it has become the choice of many stars and entrepreneurs for its excellent privacy. In the past two years, Jia Yueting, the founder of LeTV, has auctioned three properties, one of which was sold in this community with a total price of 24.2 million yuan, and the unit price per square meter exceeded 120000 yuan.
In 1985, at the age of 34, Lu Zhiqiang decided to abandon his official position and go to the sea to establish Shandong Tongda Technology Group, which earned the first barrel of gold from education and training. After perceiving the signs of the state starting housing reform, Lu Zhiqiang turned his ship around and entered the real estate field. In 1988, he took root in Beijing, and China Oceanwide Holdings Group also set sail. In the past few years when Oceanwide has made rapid progress in real estate, Lu Zhiqiang met a group of top Chinese entrepreneurs through the "Taishan Meeting". These contacts made him focus on the financial circle again.
In 1996, Oceanwide participated in the establishment of China Minsheng Bank, the first private joint-stock commercial bank in China; In 2000, Oceanwide became the second largest shareholder of Minsheng Bank. Since then, Oceanwide led by Lu Zhiqiang has been involved in banking, securities, insurance, funds, trust, futures, mutual
Online finance and other types of businesses, holding listed companies covering A shares, Hong Kong shares, US shares, etc.
In January 2020, with the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Oceanwide Holdings, the core listing platform of "Oceanwide", changed the industry classification from real estate to finance. Because the proportion of real estate income of Oceanwide Holdings has declined from 78.25% in 2013 to 22.39%, and this proportion will further decline to 15.19% in 2020.
Lu Zhiqiang once received an honorary title of "the most cross-border real estate developer", but now it has become and failed in finance. The bigger the step, the easier it is to fall. In retrospect, the former giant "HNA System" went bankrupt completely, and "Tomorrow System", "Anbang System", etc. also withdrew from the historical stage, which may be worth thinking about for the same huge "Oceanwide System".
