He tried to flee the United States.
Source: Bank of Jinzhou official website
On December 19, 2019, according to Caixin, Zhang Wei, the former chairman of Jinzhou Bank Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jinzhou Bank"), died in Beijing on the 19th due to illness. Almost at the same time, a number of media reported that the qualifications of Wei Xuekun, the new chairman of Jinzhou Bank, were approved.
According to the data, Zhang Wei became the chairman of Jinzhou Bank in 2002 and held this position for 17 years. However, in July 2019, Zhang Wei tried to flee the United States and was intercepted at Beijing's capital airport immediately before takeoff, according to the Economic Observer Network. It is reported that after this "attempted flight" incident, the relevant departments immediately took border control measures against Zhang Wei.
According to the report, Zhang Wei was charged with or related to the loss of assets of Jinzhou Bank. According to a number of Jinzhou financial circles close to Zhang Wei, In addition to controlling the appointment and dismissal of personnel in the Jinzhou banking system and the direction of large amounts of credit, Zhang Wei even intervened in the appointment of personnel of some local government functional departments."
Bank of Jinzhou was established on January 22, 1997, headquartered in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 7, 2015 (stock code: 0416), with 15 branches nationwide and more than 6,000 employees.
Before 2018, the financial report of Jinzhou Bank has always been very good, and it can be regarded as the leader of the city commercial banks. According to its financial report, in the five years from 2013 to 2017, the bank's revenue increased by 3.79 times, and the scale of net profit increased from 1.355 billion yuan in 2013 to 9.09 billion yuan, an increase of about 5.7 times. However, in 2018, it suddenly took a sharp turn, with a loss of 4.538 billion yuan a year; by the first half of this year, the loss was still unstoppable, and the performance in the first half of 2019 continued to lose to 868 million yuan.
Since March this year, Bank of Jinzhou's stock price has fallen off a cliff. As of press time, the company's stock price was quoted at HK$2.42 per share, a cumulative decline of 68.47% this year. On December 12, Zheshang Securities decided to withdraw the filing of the counseling record for the A-share listing of Jinzhou Bank due to the "significant changes in the bank's directors and operating performance".
The bank's management team has also undergone a major change of blood recently. On December 16, Bank of Jinzhou ushered in a new "leader", and two "veterans" of ICBC, Wei Xuekun and Guo Wenfeng, were approved by the Liaoning Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau for their qualifications, and served as chairman and vice chairman of Jinzhou Bank respectively, after Guo Wenfeng had served as the president of the bank in August. It is worth mentioning that the Liaoning Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau also intensively approved the qualifications of 10 directors of Jinzhou Bank, including Wei Xue, and 4 independent directors of Jinzhou Bank in November. However, according to the data of Tianyan, the legal person of Bank of Jinzhou is still Zhang Wei, and other natural persons actually control 0.5% of the shares of Bank of Jinzhou.
Image source: Sky Eye Check
As of press time, Time Finance has contacted Jinzhou Bank several times and has not received a reply.
Sustained loss of $5.4 billion
On October 31 this year, Zhang Wei appeared in the announcement for the last time with Jinzhou Bank, when the sixth board of directors of Liuzhou Bank was approved. In the announcement of Liuzhou Bank, it expressed its gratitude to the fifth board of directors headed by Zhang Wei for its contributions to Liuzhou Bank, and appointed Wei Xuekun and Guo Wenfeng as the sixth chairman and vice chairman of the board of directors, and after obtaining the qualification approval of the relevant regulatory authorities, they began to perform the duties of chairman and vice chairman respectively.
Source: Liuzhou Bank Announcement
Zhang Wei, 61, born in Liaoyang in 1958, joined the work force in 1973 and worked for many years at the Jinzhou Railway Bureau. In 1997, Zhang Wei became the vice president of Jinzhou Bank. After becoming chairman in 2002, he held the position for 17 years, accounting for nearly half of his career.
According to 21st Century Business Herald, during Zhang Wei's 17-year "reign", he had "the power to say one thing or even the supreme power" at Jinzhou Bank, and he could choose shareholders at will to "serve each other". In addition to the shares held by the Jinzhou Municipal Finance Bureau, most of the remaining shareholders are various private enterprises, and the equity of the largest shareholder of Jinzhou Bank does not exceed 9%.
In fact, as early as 2015, the Times Weekly also reported that Bank of Jinzhou had a close relationship with the solar energy company Hanergy Group. On May 20, 2015, The share price of Hanergy Thin Film Power Fell by 46.95%, and the market value evaporated by HK$144.3 billion. In this regard, the report said that Bank of Jinzhou provided a large loan of 8 billion yuan to Hanergy Thin Film Power Generation in 2014, of which Hanergy Group was also included in the targeted debt financing tools of Bank of Jinzhou's wealth management products. According to the statistics of the 2008-2010 annual report published on the official website of Jinzhou Bank, the bank's major shareholders have changed frequently more than 30 times in the past three years. In recent years, Baota Petrochemical and Huatai Automobile, which have continuously exploded, are the top ten shareholders of the bank.
Source: 2019 Jinzhou Bank Interim Results Report
According to reports, in September 2017, Zhang Wei also took the internal song and dance troupe of Jinzhou Bank to perform at Baota Petrochemical. According to the external publicity draft of Baota Petrochemical at that time, the employees of Jinzhou Bank led by Zhang Wei went to Baota Petrochemical to give condolence performances, and Sun Hengchao, chairman of the board of directors of Baota Petrochemical Group, attended the event and presented Jinzhou Bank with a pennant flag and a long calligraphy scroll. On November 16, 2018, Sun Hengchao was arrested by the Yinchuan Municipal Public Security Bureau on suspicion of bill fraud.
Source Pagoda Petrochemical Promotional Draft
Zhang Wei himself may have a premonition about the coming storm. According to the Economic Observer Network, in July 2019, Zhang Wei tried to flee the United States and was intercepted immediately before the plane took off. On the night of the incident, Zhang Wei left the table early at a dinner party with Jinzhou city officials and arrived at Beijing Capital Airport. The news aroused the vigilance of Jinzhou officials and the airport public security officer Zhang Wei intercepted.
The incident that directly led to the problem of Liuzhou Bank was the resignation of Ernst & Young, which was employed for less than a year after the Bank of Jinzhou delayed the release of its annual report several times on the evening of May 31, 2019. According to the Bank of Jinzhou announcement, EY said in its resignation letter that EY noted indications that the actual use of certain loans issued by Bank of Jinzhou to its institutional customers was "inconsistent with the purposes" described in its credit documents, and that EY requested additional supporting documents "to prove the customer's ability to repay the loan and the actual use of such loans." ”
This is consistent with the previous media's description of the jinzhou bank assets being invaded. That is, the major shareholder borrows money from Jinzhou Bank through actual control of the shell company or affiliated company. Then pledge the assets of Jinzhou Bank to other institutions to obtain loans, and package other financial institutions as equity pledges into wealth management products and asset management products, so that Jinzhou Bank can pay the bill. When the borrowing enterprise is insolvent or the bank raises the credit threshold and is unable to renew the loan, the early loan will be presented in the bank's subsequent finance in a bad form.
Jinzhou Bank's 2018 financial report was finally released in September this year after several difficult births. The data is as "dismal" as the outside world expects. According to the financial report, at the end of 2018, Jinzhou Bank lost 4.538 billion yuan; until June 2019, the bank's performance continued to lose 868 million yuan, with a total loss of 5.406 billion yuan.
By the end of June 2019, the balance of non-performing loans of Jinzhou Bank was nearly 30 billion yuan, an increase of 11 billion yuan from the end of 2018. Non-performing loans rose to 6.88 percent from 4.99 percent at the end of last year, far exceeding the current banking average of less than 2 percent. From 2013 to 2017, the non-performing rate of Jinzhou Bank was less than 1.1%, and at the end of the first half of 2018, the non-performing rate was only 1.26%. In this regard, the explanation given by Jinzhou Bank is that it is mainly due to the macroeconomic downturn, the deterioration of the economic situation in the region where the Bank operates, and the difficulties in the operation of customers in some industries.
Reorganization has begun
On July 28, 2019, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Cinda Assets and Great Wall Assets announced their investment in Jinzhou Bank. Among them, the number of shares transferred by ICBC Investment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ICBC, accounted for 10.82% of the total number of common shares of Bank of Jinzhou. China Cinda acquired 6.49% of the total number of ordinary shares in Jinzhou Bank. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Cinda both said that this investment is a financial investment.
On the same day, the official website of Jinzhou Bank issued a document, and Sun Jing, secretary of the board of directors of Jinzhou Bank, said that at present, the bank's various businesses are handled normally. Due to internal and external reasons such as the postponement of the disclosure of the annual report due to EY's resignation in the early stage, the interbank business was affected to a certain extent, which put pressure on liquidity management. With the support of local governments and financial management departments, through their own efforts, the bank's interbank business has gradually returned to normal, and other business operations have been stable.
Subsequently, on September 29, Jinzhou Bank issued an announcement that in view of the change in the bank's equity structure, a shareholder holding more than 3% of the total share capital suggested that the board of directors have passed the early retirement of the fifth board of directors before the expiration of the board of directors to re-elect the board of directors.
The new board of directors consists of 15 people, including Wei Xuekun and Guo Wenfeng, including 5 independent directors. However, a total of 7 of the newly nominated board candidates are from ICBC, 2 from China Cinda and 1 from China Great Wall, in other words, all 10 executive directors and non-executive directors are from the three newly entered institutions. (Beijing Time Finance Wu Shan)