At the end of the year, the story of building ups and downs is happening to the national brand Huiyuan Juice.

In 2018, juice king Zhu Xinli ranked on the Hurun Rich List with a net worth of 3.5 billion yuan. A year later, he was repeatedly enforced by the court and restricted from high consumption, and was even listed as a person subject to execution for breach of trust. The latest news is that 4.1 billion yuan of assets of a company under Zhu Xinli's name has been frozen due to the inability to repay the debt of China Merchants Bank.

Same as his destiny, Huiyuan Juice, a national juice brand that “drinks Huiyuan during the Chinese New Year”, is also facing the fate of being delisted.

4.1 billion yuan of assets have been frozen, and the founder has repeatedly been involved in disputes

Since 2019, Zhu Xinli, the founder of Huiyuan Juice, has been enforced by the court 5 times and included in the height limit twice A consumer employee was once listed as a breach of trust person. Since December 2019 alone, financial institutions have taken action one after another, and Zhu Xinli has frequently appeared in various dispute cases.

On December 2, in a financial leasing contract dispute with Minsheng Financial Leasing Company, Zhu Xinli was listed as the "person subject to execution" because he failed to perform the payment obligations specified in the effective legal document within the specified period. , received a consumption restriction order.

On December 11, a civil ruling disclosed by the China Judgment Documents Network once again revealed the embarrassing current situation of the "Juice Empire" and its founder. The ruling shows that China Deyuan Capital (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Deyuan Capital) actually controlled by Zhu Xinli was seized by the court and 4.1 billion yuan of assets were frozen.

This case originated in 2015. At that time, Zhu Xinli’s Deyuan Capital invested 3 billion to participate in the mixed reform of Sinopec Sales Company. In the same year, Deyuan Capital pledged the company's equity to China Merchants Bank. As Deyuan Capital is unable to repay China Merchants Bank's debts, the loan lawsuit will be heard on May 13, 2020. In order to preserve assets, China Merchants Bank applied to completely seal up Deyuan Capital.

Affected by the debt crisis of the entire group, Huiyuan Juice, which Zhu Xinli is most proud of, is in trouble. In 2007, Huiyuan Juice was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, setting a record for the largest IPO that year. In 2018, this company suddenly issued a suspension announcement and has been suspended for more than 20 months.

At the brightest moment, Coca-Cola once threw an olive branch

Shandong man Zhu Xinli was once called the "watchman" of agriculture.

In 1992, Zhu Xinli, a county-level civil servant, resigned and took over a fruit canning factory that was about to close down. This led to the creation of Huiyuan Juice, a brand that has since become familiar to Chinese families. After Zhu Xinli took over, he adjusted the original canning business of the factory to produce concentrated juice.

Zhu Xinli’s logic is not only to do the last step of juice processing, but also to open up the entire industry chain of fruit tree planting, processing and sales. By 2002, Huiyuan Juice, which meets the demand for fruit drinks among increasingly affluent Chinese families, had sales of 1.2 billion yuan, accounting for 23% of China's juice market share.

Later, Huiyuan Juice was listed in Hong Kong in 2007, raising a capital of HK$2.4 billion, becoming the largest IPO in Hong Kong that year. On the day of issuance, the closing price of Huiyuan Juice was 66% higher than the IPO price, greatly exceeding market expectations.

The next year, global beverage giant Coca-Cola extended an olive branch to Huiyuan: it planned to acquire all issued shares of Huiyuan Juice at a price of HK$12.2 per share, with a total amount of more than US$2.4 billion (approximately HK$17.92 billion). ).

This merger is in line with the respective business considerations of both parties: Coca-Cola wants to improve efficiency by acquiring mature juice brands; Zhu Xinli and Huiyuan Juice hope to take this opportunity to focus on the upstream industry chain.

Once the acquisition plan was announced, Huiyuan Juice’s stock price soared 164%. If Coca-Cola's acquisition is successful, Zhu Xinli, who holds 42% of the shares, will earn HK$7.4 billion. In order to facilitate this acquisition, Huiyuan Juice reorganized and cut off the sales system that took 16 years to establish: the number of employees dropped from 9,722 to 4,935 in one year, and the sales staff was reduced from 3,926 to 1,160.

Unfortunately, in 2009, the acquisition was ultimately banned by the Ministry of Commerce in accordance with the Anti-Monopoly Law promulgated in 2008, and ultimately failed.

Unable to save itself, market value has shrunk, and debts are high

After the Coca-Cola acquisition failed, Huiyuan Juice fell into a quagmire that was difficult to get out of. First, two months after the acquisition failed, Huiyuan Juice's share price was cut in half. After announcing the suspension of dividends in 2011, the market value fell to HK$5 billion, a decrease of 80% from the HK$23 billion when it was listed.

The corporate restructuring carried out to cater for the acquisition also had an adverse impact on Huiyuan Juice's operations. Huiyuan Juice’s financial report shows that from 2009 to 2016, its revenue increased from 2.85 billion yuan to 5.76 billion yuan, but it was in the red after deducting non-net profits in seven of these eight years.

At the same time, high-level turmoil also followed. Since January 13, 2019, six senior executives of Huiyuan Juice have resigned, including CEO Wu Xiaopeng, who has only been in office for seven months.

According to media reports, Huiyuan’s management issues are closely related to the family business and Zhu Xinli’s absolute authority within Huiyuan. Zhu Xinli shifted the direction of self-rescue to operations at the capital level. In 2013 and 2014, Huiyuan Juice purchased billions of cash through the issuance of convertible preferred shares and bonds. After getting the money, Zhu Xinli intended to turn around through external investment. He participated in the merger and acquisition of Suntory Beverage's business in China, the joint venture with Tiandi No. 1, and the investment in Sinopec Retail Company.

These reckless investments and capital operations not only failed to bring new bargaining chips to Zhu Xinli, but also made the rolling snowball become more and more out of control. In August 2018, it was revealed that Huiyuan Juice was facing delisting, with 4.2 billion in illegal loans, and tens of billions of liabilities.

In September 2019, an announcement from Pioneer Group’s P2P platform Factory Weijian opened up the even larger debt chain under Huiyuan’s iceberg. Yichun Huiyuan Ecological Breeding Co., Ltd., Hulin Huiyuan New Ecological Dairy Co., Ltd., Hulin Huiyuan New Ecological Dairy Co., Ltd., and Yichun Yuanyuan Trading Co., Ltd. are unable to repay arrears of 4.185 million yuan and plan to sell Huiyuan juice series Products, etc. to pay off debts.

The actual controllers of the four companies that used Huiyuan juice to repay their debts are all Zhu Xinli, and the loan guarantees are all Huiyuan Group. It can be seen that under the pressure of debt, Huiyuan is willing to use P2P lending at high interest rates.

Under the huge debt, there is not much time left for Zhu Xinli and Huiyuan. The latest announcement shows that the hearing of Huiyuan Juice’s liquidation application has been postponed to March 13, 2020. If the resumption conditions cannot be met, Huiyuan Juice will face delisting.