As the new year is approaching, Wu Xiangdong, the helmsman who has worked for China Resources for 25 years, is once again rumored to be leaving the company.
As early as October 17, there were rumors that Wu Xiangdong, assistant general manager of China Resources Group and executive director of China Resources Land Co., Ltd., would be entrusted by Ma Mingzhe, chairman of Ping An Group, to take over China Fortune Land Development. There is the company’s CFO Yu Jian.
At that time, China Resources Land responded quickly: "The company's management is performing its duties normally and the company's board of directors has not changed." Subsequently, a piece of news about Wu Xiangdong’s participation in the event was posted on the company’s official WeChat public account. At the same time, a reporter from Times Weekly called China Resources Land regarding Wu Xiangdong's resignation, and the relevant person in charge said that the situation was not true.
However, on the evening of December 4, an announcement from China Resources Land made things clear. The announcement stated that Yu Jian, the company’s executive director, senior vice president and chief financial officer, resigned as executive director and executive committee member of China Resources Land due to personal career development plans. In the new company's board of directors, there are six executive directors, namely Wu Xiangdong, Tang Yong (CEO), Li Xin (president), Zhang Dawei (vice chairman), Xie Ji and Shen Tongdong.
Two days after China Resources Land released Yu Jian’s resignation report, China Land Development immediately announced that Yu Jian was appointed as the company’s co-president in charge of finance and financing. Yu Jian officially joined China Fortune Land Development, which coincides with previous rumors. An internal personnel appointment and dismissal notice obtained by the media directly showed that Wu Xiangdong will no longer serve as the CEO of China Resources Land, and Tang Yong will be appointed as the CEO of China Resources Land, removing him as vice chairman of the board of directors and chief operating officer of China Resources Land. position.
Over the past 25 years, Wu Xiangdong, the soul of China Resources Land, had moments of glory and also fell to the bottom. With the adjustment of China Resources Land's power structure, the post-Wu Xiangdong era may be coming. Where China Resources Land will go is arousing people's imagination.
Representative work MixC
Joined China Resources Group in 1993 and officially entered China Resources Land in 2005. Wu Xiangdong, now 51 years old, has worked in China Resources Group for 25 years.
In 2000, this young marshal was ordered to establish China Resources (Shenzhen (Real Estate)) Co., Ltd., and the MixC Shopping Center with an investment of more than HK$4 billion became the largest deal after the establishment of the Shenzhen company. Project investment.
At that time, commercial real estate was still a new thing. Faced with this huge and unfamiliar project, Wu Xiangdong seemed a little at a loss, and then went to Europe and the United States for inspection.
In 2005, Vientiane City opened and became extremely popular. According to Wu Xiangdong, the occupancy rate of Luohu Vientiane City has reached 97% on the first anniversary of its opening, and the occupancy rate of China Resources Tower has reached 100%.
Since then, the Mixc project has begun to be replicated in various cities across the country, and the commercial real estate with Mixc as the core has become an important commercial asset of China Resources Land.
As of the end of June this year, China Resources Land has 27 shopping malls in operation, covering 20 cities across the country, including 16 Mixc and 11 Colorful City Mixc, with total investment property assets reaching 106.7 billion yuan. Accounting for 19% of the company's total assets.
In 2013, Wu Xiangdong succeeded Wang Yin, the former chairman of the board of directors of China Resources Land. At this point, Wu Xiangdong's career ushered in a highlight moment, and he set a goal of exceeding 100 billion in sales in 2015.
On March 21 of the following year, Wu Xiangdong handed over his first report card after becoming chairman of the board of directors. In 2013, China Resources Land’s sales reached HK$71.389 billion and net profit was HK$14.696 billion. Compared with the previous year, they increased by 60.9% and 39.1% respectively.
Soul Figure
However, just a year and a half after taking charge of China Resources Land, in November 2014, Wu Xiangdong resigned as chairman of the company's board of directors for personal reasons due to his involvement in the Song Lin case. Since then, he has rarely appeared in the public eye.
Frequent personnel changes and management instability have had an inevitable impact on China Resources Land's operating environment.
In 2014, China Resources Land achieved sales of 69.2 billion yuan, failing to achieve the sales target of 70 billion yuan, with gross profit margin continuing to drop to 30.6%.
In April 2015, Wu Xiangdong returned to China Resources in a low-key manner and served as the assistant general manager of China Resources Group, in charge of China Resources Land and served as executive director.
In July 2016, Vice Chairman Tang Yong took charge of the company's overall work and established a joint-president management structure. Co-presidents Zhang Dawei and Li Xin assisted Tang Yong in his work, forming a three-person core team of China Resources Land. The position of chairman of the board of directors has been vacant for a long time.
Since then, China Resources Land has adjusted its regional structure, officially adjusting from nine regions to six regions. Among them, the Beijing (real estate) region will be merged with the Shandong region, and the Shanghai (real estate) region will be merged with the Shandong region. The region will be merged with the Jiangsu region, and the Shenzhen region will be merged with the Fujian region. The remaining Chengdu, Shenyang and Wuhan (real estate) regions will remain unchanged.
The completion of the regional structure integration and the reorganization of senior management power have brought the company's performance back to the accelerated track. In 2016, China Resources Land successfully entered the 100-billion-dollar army with sales of 108.04 billion yuan.
Having avoided the limelight for a long time, Wu Xiangdong seems to be playing the role of a behind-the-scenes strategist. The outside world is also quite curious about Wu Xiangdong's status in the company. Tang Yong, vice chairman of the board of directors, responded that Wu Xiangdong is the party secretary and executive director of China Resources Land, and is also the assistant general manager of China Resources Group. He is in charge of the real estate business and plays an important role in the development of China Resources Land. According to the reporter's understanding, Wu Xiangdong still ranks first in the management introduction of China Resources Land.
In fact, Wu Xiangdong’s dominant position can also be seen from the adjustment of China Resources Land’s organizational structure. In June this year, China Resources Land separated its commercial real estate division from the development business and adjusted it to a first-level organizational structure, forming a three-level management and control of commercial real estate projects in the headquarters region, with Vice President Yu Linkang fully responsible. This move is regarded as the first step in the spin-off and listing of commercial real estate, and this decision is closely related to Wu Xiangdong's plan.
In April this year, Vanke’s independent director Liu Shuwei published an article that pushed Wu Xiangdong into the whirlpool of public opinion about the “Baowan Controversy,” which was eventually refuted by China Resources Land.
System adjustment
With Yu Jian’s resignation statement and Wu Xiangdong’s departure rumors, China Resources Land’s new power system is also being further adjusted.
In the announcement issued by China Resources Land on December 4, Tang Yong was appointed as the CEO of China Resources Land Co., Ltd. and was relieved of his duties as vice chairman of the board of directors and chief operating officer of China Resources Land Co., Ltd.; Li Xin is the president of China Resources Land Co., Ltd. and is relieved of his position as co-president of China Resources Land Co., Ltd.; Zhang Dawei is the vice chairman of the board of directors of China Resources Land Co., Ltd. and is relieved of his position of co-president of China Resources Land Co., Ltd.
The current senior vice president and chief information officer of China Resources Land Shen Tongdong will replace Yu Jian and become a member of the executive directors.
After this adjustment, Tang Yong will officially become The organizational structure of the helmsman and co-president will also withdraw from the historical stage of China Resources Land. As each position is settled, new problems also arise.
“Sail against the current, and if you don’t advance, you will retreat.” The real estate industry is accelerating in its reshuffle. In this round of scale competition among real estate companies, there are endless discussions about China Resources Land falling behind.
In the 2017 interim investor conference call, Tang Yong reviewed the less than ideal report card. 2018 is about to end. CRIC statistics show that in November 2018, the group achieved a cumulative contracted sales amount of approximately 195.02 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 56.4%, exceeding the sales target of 183 billion yuan. At this time, Country Garden's sales have exceeded 600 billion yuan, Evergrande and Vanke have exceeded 500 billion yuan, and China Resources Land is not even as good as Sunac and Xincheng Holdings.
Although China Resources Land has always been questioned by the outside world for being conservative, China Resources Land also has its own performance "bottom line" - it strives to be among the top ten in the industry in terms of scale. As far as the current results are concerned, China Resources Land is on the verge of being tenth. If it does not want to be overtaken, the management needs to work harder.
In the scale competition among real estate companies, China Resources Land’s real estate development and sales business has gradually lagged behind Vanke, Evergrande, and Country Garden. The company has pinned its hopes on diversified businesses. China Resources Land proposed in its 2016 annual report that it insists on The business model of “sales properties + investment properties + X”. Among them, the commercial real estate business as an investment property is becoming increasingly important.
However, according to its annual reports for the past five years, commercial real estate revenue has always been lower than expected, accounting for less than 10% of the total annual revenue.
How to increase the revenue contribution of commercial real estate has also become a difficult problem that new management needs to solve.