Wen/Leju Finance Fan Huiru, Xu Jiumian
The real departure may be silent, and those without signs of farewell are the most impressive.
"It is hoped that the initial stage of high-quality development will be successfully concluded in 2025" At the Shimao service performance conference at the end of March, Ye Mingjie reviewed the past and looked forward to the future without any sign of leaving his post.
At that time, Ye Mingjie, as the executive director and president of Shimao Services, was able to output energy in the whole process and answer three on-site questions in a row. Ye Mingjie is familiar with the whole strategy, market expansion and specific business.
In less than a month, Ye Mingjie resigned from many positions in Shimao. On April 26, Shimao Service announced that Ye Mingjie resigned as executive director, president and authorized representative of the company.
Ye Mingjie left his post thoroughly. In addition to the relevant position of Shimao Service, he also resigned as a non-executive director of Shimao Group. Ye Mingjie, who joined Shimao Group in 2004, said goodbye to his old employer without taking away a cloud.
It takes a lot of courage to leave after 20 years of trial and error to become the top leader of listed companies. At the middle age, Ye Mingjie, 45, has come to another fork in his life.
"Due to personal career development and the need to spend more time on their personal affairs and family." This is the official explanation.
In the past two years, with the downturn of the real estate market and the sharp contraction of the cyclical business of real estate, the physical enterprises lost the potential of rapid development in the past, and some of them even suffered from bad debts of related real estate receivables, and fell into a loss situation.
In the face of some "real estate fathers" 'overt and covert wool pulling behavior, the situation of professional managers of property enterprises is also quite embarrassing. They are carrying performance appraisal, accept the wrong, rigid and lack of voice. "It's hard for the president of the property enterprise to work" sighed some insiders.
Since 2022, a large number of CEOs of property enterprises who have left the country have been checked, including those who have explicitly expressed retirement and those who have voluntarily returned to their families. However, the reasons for most CEOs leaving their jobs are mostly personal affairs.
Their departure, while leaving opportunities for newcomers to develop, also represents the curtain call for a generation of veteran property managers. Since the beginning of this year, a new phenomenon has emerged, that is, more entry and less exit. At the same time, many founders began to collect property rights, increasing the granularity of property management.
01
thirty-five Family property enterprises change leaders
Reviewing the development history of the property management industry, since the second half of 2021, the property industry has entered a rapid callback stage due to the deep adjustment of upstream real estate and other factors. The depressed market sentiment continues, and the development of the industry is under test.
Changes in the capital level have also accelerated the turnover of executives of listed property enterprises.
According to the statistics of Leju Finance's "Property K Line", since 2022, at least 30 key "top leaders" such as the chairman of the board of directors, chief executive officer or chief executive officer of listed property enterprises have changed or adjusted. In this process, there are both professional managers and actual controllers and their family members.
Behind the seemingly simple personnel changes, there are actually various struggles. Performance pressure, concept conflict, high salary temptation, friends invited or left for the sake of ideals. However, whether it is progress or retreat, it is difficult for the president of the physical enterprise to work, which may be their most profound experience in the last two or three years.
In 2023, the performance will be handed in, and the key figures of "top leaders" of several property enterprises will be adjusted. Among them, Wang Zhongwu resigned as the executive director, chairman and general manager, while Lu Shang Service has not yet arranged a suitable person to take over. It is worth noting that Wang Zhongwu only took over the post from Bao Song on November 30 last year, which is less than 5 months.
In fact, among a large number of listed property enterprises, Shandong Merchants, which are crowned as "the first share of property services in Shandong", change of chairman is particularly frequent. Bao Song succeeded the former Zhao Yanfeng as the chairman of Shandong Merchants Service on August 31, 2022. The listing of Lushang Service will be on July 8, 2022.
In other words, less than two years since the listing, the chairman of Lushang Service has changed three people. As a state-owned property enterprise, the top management of Shandong merchants' services are frequently mobilized, which is interesting.
In addition, Jinmao Service and Yuexiu Service, two central state-owned enterprises, also replaced their "top leaders" after their performance.
On April 1, Xie Wei, Executive Director, CEO and member of the Strategy and ESG Committee, resigned due to personal affairs, and Li Yulong was appointed by the Board of Directors of Jinmao Services to take over. On April 24, Lin Feng resigned as the non-executive director and chairman of the board of directors of Yuexiu Services, and Zhu Huisong took over.
As time goes on, there will be a big change in the president of the property management circle in 2023. It is typical that Li Changjiang and Pan Jun announced their retirement almost at the same time. Both of them are "soul figures" in the property management industry.
Pan Jun is one of the key figures who led Colorful Life to attack the "first share of property", and can be said to be the founder of property capitalization. Since then, the property management industry has stood at the forefront of capital, moving from behind the scenes to the front. Li Changjiang pushed the Country Garden service to the capital market, took advantage of the financing advantages, opened the road of large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and set the number one in many industries, which may still be unmatched in the short term.
plant trees for the benefit of posterity. However, the property management industry is in a critical period of transition, losing the support of real estate and the favor of capital. How to go in the future is full of challenges. Fortunately, Li Changjiang and Pan Jun's successors are still very young. Xu Binhuai and Zhu Jindong are both in their early 40s.
In 2022, the president of the property management circle will be shocked. Evergrande Property's 13.4 billion yuan deposit will disappear. The "case in case" will lead to a major personnel earthquake, which will set off no small waves in the industry. Among them, Zhen Litao was asked to resign as executive director and chairman of the board of directors, and Duan Shengli took over.
Evergrande Property's gaping holes spread to Xinyuan Service. Affected by the illegal pledge of more than 400 million deposits, Zhang Yong and Wang Yanbo resigned as the chairman of the board of directors and non-executive director, chief executive officer and executive director respectively on August 29, 2022. A few days later, Shen Yuanqing, an independent non-executive director and vice chairman, was transferred to take over.
At almost the same time, Zheng Wei, the former president of Aoyuan Health, who also lent money to the real estate in violation of regulations, also resigned.
02
Several founders' rights collection property
In addition to the frequent changes in the president of the physical enterprise, since this year, especially before and after the performance release, the personnel changes of the physical enterprise executives have intensified. However, what has changed is that since this year, there has been more progress than output.
According to incomplete statistics of Leju Finance's "Property K Line", as of April 27, 2024, there were 24 listed property enterprises and 62 senior executives moving, an increase of 26 compared with 36 in the same period last year. Among them, 21 resigned, 11 transferred or retained, and 30 appointed.
Since this year, there has been another obvious change in the personnel changes of the senior executives of the property enterprises, that is, the founders have shown a trend of power collection or return. Such as Tian Ming of Landsea's green life, Guo Yingcheng of Jiazhaoye, and Li Wei of New Hope Service.
On March 28, Landsea Green Life released a personnel change announcement, and the founder Tian Ming was transferred from the non-executive director to the executive director and still served as the chairman of the board. "Invest more time and energy in the management of the company." Landsea Green Life expresses its feelings without concealing its intention to take power.
At the same time, the two executive directors resigned together. Zhou Qin said, "Put more time and energy into developing other business divisions of Landsea Group." Liu Chao was "focusing on the capital market, listing compliance and investor relations of the Group."
Jiazhaoye's wonderful personnel changes are quite similar. On April 16, Jiazhaoye Meihao announced the personnel change, and Guo Yingcheng, the founder, was appointed as the executive director. With the entry of Guo Yingcheng, another executive director Xie Binhong also resigned on the same day, "devoting more time to other private affairs."
Tian Ming and Guo Yingcheng both hold power in the real estate company. While both serve as executive directors, one serves as chairman and the other as chairman.
Coincidentally, Li Wei, the co-founder of New Hope Services, joined the Board of Directors in March this year as a non-executive director. As the wife of founder Liu Yonghao, 72 year old Li Wei went out again, and instantly set off a wave of discussion in the industry.
With the entry of Li Wei, the board of directors, which has been entrusted to professional managers, has also injected the "blood" of the Liu family.
In the past two years, although the real estate industry was under pressure and downward impact, the growth of property enterprises slowed down. However, as an industry closely related to people's livelihood and light on asset operation, its nature has not changed.
With the gradual clearing of industry risks, the valuation of property enterprises is gradually returning to the cash flow logic. According to the statistics of Leju Finance and Economics, in 2023, nearly 70% of the 57 listed property enterprises will achieve positive growth in cash on hand.
Many real estate tycoons once said that property is the "future". It is not difficult to see some affirmation of this statement from the founder's personal involvement. However, for real estate enterprises in liquidity crisis, surviving the past is the "future", and failing to survive may be the "future" of others.
