Written by / Zhang Wenjing
Edited by / Tian Yanlin
"I have all my wealth invested in it, and if the old man in the family hears this news, he must not be sick urgently!" Now the hospital is not easy to enter. On March 25, Mu Jing, an investor in Hongkun Financial Services, panicked when he learned that the wealth management products he bought could not be redeemed.
Six years ago, in a small talk with a friend, Mu Jing learned about the financial platform launched by the "Beijing" housing enterprise Hongkun Group - Hongkun Financial Services. Seeing that the platform often engages in interest rate hikes and the speed of payment is also fast, he occasionally invests the flow of daily money on hand to obtain short-term gains and subsidize the family. Gradually, he also became an old customer of Hongkun Financial Services.
Before the Spring Festival this year, he also bought a number of short-term financial products in an interest rate hike. However, Mu Jing did not expect that after just two months, his principal plus interest of more than 1.5 million yuan would be "lying" in the account of Hongkun Financial Services for a long time, and he could not withdraw cash.
Hongkun Group, which originated in Xihongmen, Nancheng, Beijing, was established in 2002. At present, the company includes four sectors: Hongkun Capital, Hongkun Industry, Hongkun Cultural Tourism, and Hongkun Real Estate. In the "cold winter" of the real estate industry, like all housing enterprises with financial difficulties, Hongkun also started from the redemption crisis of wealth management products, exposing more problems at the operational level.
Recently, some media reported that the funding gap of Hongkun Financial Services' wealth management products is 3 billion yuan. Although this figure is far less than evergrande, Kaisa, Sunshine City and other housing enterprises up to tens of billions of yuan of lightning explosions, but as an annual sales of only 10 billion yuan of enterprises, Hongkun's financial crisis this time may be more dangerous.
"Finance and Economics" Weekly learned that most of the investors of Hongkun Financial Services are the owners who bought Hongkun's houses, and the proportion of Hongkun employees and their relatives and friends is also quite large. Before the Qingming Festival, Hongkun Financial Services updated the redemption plan, but until now, many investors still said that they could not accept it.
"The old man cries at home every day, it is a lifetime of hard money!" A family member of an investor said they did not know how likely the redemption plan given by Hongkun was to be realized.
These days, Mu Jing is active in various rights protection groups and online platforms, always paying attention to the progress of the incident. He didn't dare tell his family, but no one could give a definitive answer to his anger, anxiety, and questions.
(Source: Visual China)
"Good retreat" or "cutting leeks"?
For the reasons for the closure and payment of Hongkun Financial Services, the explanation given by Hongkun Group is that the real estate situation is becoming increasingly severe, the company's operating cash flow is affected, and taking into account the epidemic situation and cash flow, it takes the initiative to shut down related investment businesses.
But as soon as this statement came out, investors became even more angry. Mu Jing said that Hongkun Financial Services knows that the operation is not good, why should it push various welfare activities before exiting the business to induce investors to buy? In his view, Hongkun Financial's motives are not pure.
"Finance and Economics" Weekly learned that in addition to the "New Year &Lantern Festival" interest rate hike benefits launched during the Spring Festival, Hongkun Financial Services also launched a short-term wealth management product 4 days before the cessation of payment, with a product term of 48 days and an expected annualized yield of 10%. The owner of Hongkun said that because of this product, she and her mother invested another 180,000 yuan.
On March 8, Hongkun Financial Services also launched the Goddess Day benefit "0.88% Interest Rate Hike Coupon", while telling investors that if new users are recommended to register and invest in the standard, they can also get 52 yuan in cash red envelopes.
Liang Honggang, director of Beijing Tiandou Law Firm, said that although Hongkun Financial Services, as a financial service intermediary platform, only provides platform services to issuers and subscribers, and only charges service fees, the platform has the obligation to disclose truthfully. "If the actual controller knows that the financial service platform is about to close, and before the closure, it launches a wealth management product that is difficult to redeem and earns a high service fee, it is suspected of fraud."
"Knowing that the management is not good, he cut a wave of leeks before quitting." Investors directly called for being deceived, but Hongkun Financial Services said that it was affected by the industry situation and the epidemic situation that it decided to take the initiative to stop the relevant investment business, which was a "benign exit".
Obviously, this is not convincing enough. Some investors asked, if it is a benign exit, but now it can not be paid on schedule, how can it be considered benign?
A former employee of Hongkun Group told Caijing Tianxia Weekly that Hongkun Financial Services carried out national marketing around 2018, and Hongkun Group, from the chairman to the grass-roots employees, was promoting the platform and financial products, and advocated that everyone forward the circle of friends.
He remembers that at that time, every investor had an invitation code and marketing copy, and after recommending a successful new customer, there was a small reward of about a few hundred yuan. Although there is no mandatory requirement, from the grass-roots employees to the department director, they have invested in many financial products for half a year to one year.
In 2016, Hongkun Financial Services signed a strategic cooperation with Hongkun Property to enter the field of community finance and promote the financial services platform and sell wealth management products to a large number of owners of Hongkun Group's real estate development and property services accumulated for more than ten years.
"Hongkun Financial Services has been vigorously promoted in the community, including lamp poles, road flags, etc., and even the garbage can has a two-dimensional code of Hongkun Financial Services." Mu Jing said that in addition to the preferential interest rate hike, investing on the platform can also accumulate points to offset property fees.
Hongkun Group has been deeply involved in Beijing Xihongmen for many years, and its subsidiary Hongkun Real Estate has invested in many real estate projects here, including many relocated houses. And the owner can see the headquarters of Hongkun Group when he goes out, which also increases the owner's trust in Hongkun Financial Services.
But how much trust investors used to have, how much impact has it suffered now.
(Source: Courtesy of the interviewee)
There is a loophole in the redemption scheme
According to media reports, the capital hole of Hongkun Financial Services is about 3 billion yuan. Although the staff of Hongkun Financial Services denied it, saying that it was "not up to 3 billion", according to investors, many customers have invested seven or eight million or even tens of millions of yuan.
At present, Hongkun Financial Services has stopped operating, and app and official website have removed all wealth management products. The latest redemption scheme of enterprises is divided into two types: one is cash payment; the other is physical asset redemption.
The cash redemption scheme is based on the amount of principal and interest in the account. Investors of 100,000 yuan and below can sign a contract directly online on the Hongkun Financial Services APP and pay in full within 10 working days. It is reported that some investors' principal and interest funds have arrived. Investors of more than 100,000 yuan, if they agree to the plan, need to wait 3 to 4 years to get all the funds back from the account.
The plan shows that investors of 100,000 yuan (exclusive) to 200,000 yuan (inclusive) will complete the redemption within 3 years after signing the on-site contract, while investors of more than 200,000 yuan (exclusive) will complete the redemption within 4 years. The first payment is made within 3 months after the signing of the contract, and the payment is made in equal amounts every 3 months thereafter.
But that won't calm the anger of high investors. "When buying wealth management products, there is no difference in the amount, everyone is equal, why is it divided into grades when it comes to redemption?" Mukhin felt it was unfair. For investors of more than 100,000, he really can't accept the three- to four-year redemption cycle.
A hongkun financial service user distribution map provided by investor Wei Wen shows that the amount of customers above one million yuan accounts for 63.3%, the amount of 100,000 to 1 million accounts for 36.3%, and the amount of customers below 100,000 accounts for only 0.4%. Wei Wen said that the picture came from the owner's appreciation meeting in a certain year, and when the executives of Hongkun Financial Services were preaching, the scene was photographed by investors with mobile phones.
"Three or four years is too long, and without a large sum of money to come back, there is no guarantee." Wei Wen said, "And in four years, who knows what will happen?" ”
Another payment scheme for physical assets is that Hongkun Group gives investors the houses, villas, shops, apartments, parking spaces, etc. for sale. According to a list of projects obtained by Caijing Tianxia Weekly, parking spaces are mainly located in Beijing's Xihongmen and East Third Ring Guomao and other places, while residences, villas and shops are mainly located in Jingxi, Jingbei, Hebei Zhuozhou, Chengde, Tianjin Wuqing, Jizhou, Baodi and other ring Beijing areas, and other sporadic distribution in Guangdong, Hubei, Hainan and other places.
An industry insider who studies the real estate market in North China said after reading the list that these are "not very ideal assets." However, compared with the quality of assets, investors are now more concerned about whether the supervision and protection mechanisms in this payment plan and agreement are real and effective.
"What if they say the repayment time, but they don't say they can't pay it back?" The redemption plan agreement provided by Mujing includes Party A, Party B, the remaining amount of the account, the redemption method, the redemption time and so on. However, in the view of legal personnel, the terms of the agreement are not perfect, there is no reasonable breach clause to bind the other party, and the default cost of Hongkun Financial Services is almost zero.
Many investors said that if Hongkun Group can designate some assets or a fixed part of the funds after the disposal of the project for the redemption of the principal and interest of wealth management products, and set up a special account for repayment supervision, supervised by banks or other authoritative departments, it is not unacceptable to have a longer payment time.
At present, Hongkun Financial Services has set up a reception center to accept investor consultation and contract signing. But for Hongkun Group, the most urgent thing at present is how to save the credit crisis and show the greatest sincerity to face investors.
(Source: Courtesy of respondents)
Self-melting puzzle
Hongkun Group has been engaged in financial business since the establishment of Yirun Investment Group in 2007. In that year, Yirun successfully launched the first limited partnership fund in the northern region, and up to now, it has invested in more than 30 enterprises with an asset management scale of more than 10 billion yuan. Among them, the more well-known enterprise that Yirun has invested in is the Ucommune Workshop founded by Mao Daqing.
In 2015, Hongkun Group integrated all the previous finance-related businesses into Yirun Investment Group, and the specific business was divided into equity investment, Internet finance, wealth management, real estate funds, etc. In the same year, Hongkun Group and Yirun jointly invested in the launch of China's first platform focusing on community-based in-depth financial services, "Qiankun Bag", which is the predecessor of Hongkun Financial Services.
Caijing Tianxia Weekly noted that Hongkun Financial Services and Hongkun Group are not related in terms of equity structure. Industrial and commercial information shows that The actual controller of Hongkun Financial Services Operating Company, Holgus Hongkun Ideal Technology Development Co., Ltd., is Liu Shougao, accounting for 99% of the shares.
However, the company's legal representative, Zhu Xiaoting, is also the legal representative of Beijing Herun Asset Management Co., Ltd. The latter is the majority shareholder of Hongkun Group, accounting for 65% of the shares. The shareholders of Beijing Herun Asset Management Co., Ltd. are Zhao Weihao and Wu Hong, the sons and wives of Zhao Bin, the founder of Hongkun Group, accounting for 99% and 1% of the shares respectively.
Lawyer Liang Honggang has handled similar real estate enterprise wealth management product explosion cases. According to him, this is a common operation of housing enterprises. "Most of the financial management platforms under the housing enterprises initially belonged to the housing enterprises, and later changed the legal persons and shareholders, and the equity relationship was not directly related to the housing enterprises."
Although the enterprise said that these wealth management products are filed in all financial transactions, and are raised from individuals through normal fixed financing, funds, trusts and other forms, the financial management platform is only used as an intermediary information platform, not a financing institution for housing enterprises, and is not suspected of self-financing. However, in many real estate wealth management products, the funds eventually flow to real estate projects.
After the Hongkun Financial Services platform was stopped, the payment collection plan of all products was cleared, and the issuer and financing party of the product were cleared. However, according to the recollection of the departing employees of Hongkun Group, for two consecutive months, a lot of the financing funds raised by wealth management products flowed to real estate projects, but he was not sure whether they were all Hongkun's own projects.
Earlier, some media exposed that Hongkun Group has borrowed financing from the "fake gold exchange" in the past two or three years. More than 70 registered companies across the country have built an underground financing channel for the illegal issuance of "wealth management products" for real estate and other industries under the banner of "gold exchange". For example, Guangxi Jiesuan, a subsidiary of Hongkun Group's Hongkun Wealth Wealth Management Products, is such a "pseudo-gold exchange".
The wealth management products issued by Hongkun are used as financing parties and guarantors through its two subsidiaries to supplement the company's working capital, and ultimately for the development and construction of real estate projects.
According to the Securities Times, the wealth manager of Hongkun Wealth once said that Hongkun Wealth Fixed Income (wealth management products) invested in Hongkun's own real estate projects or industrial projects. In 2020, Hongkun Wealth raised 5 billion yuan through such fixed income wealth management products, and raised more than 3 billion yuan by August 2021.
"Finance and Economics" Weekly noted that on March 25, When Hongkun Group announced its withdrawal from the financial management business, the CSRC held a meeting and said that it would start the special rectification work of the "fake gold exchange".
Frustrated Hongkun
After the Hongkun Financial Services redemption incident, Zhu Can, executive director of Hongkun Group, reassured investors, "Now that the outside is under liquidity pressure, the company has so many assets, and then we will find a way to turn these assets into money and pay everyone." ”
Liquidity problems have been foreshadowed before. In November 2021, a bond resale of 344 million yuan under Hongkun Real Estate reached an extension, and the financial difficulties of Hongkun Group began to appear.
As of June 2021, Hongkun Real Estate had total liabilities of RMB45.55 billion, short-term borrowings and non-current liabilities due within one year of RMB1.02 billion and RMB2.58 billion respectively. However, the company's monetary funds on the account are only 3.04 billion yuan, which is not enough to cover short-term debt.
In addition to the redemption of financial investors, Hongkun Real Estate still has three bonds in existence, with a survival scale of 920 million yuan. Two of them will expire in October and December this year. Short-term debt servicing pressure is clearly not small.
In addition, since 2021, Hongkun Real Estate has been frequently listed as an executor and has been restricted from high consumption many times.
Five years ago, Zhao Bin, the founder of Hongkun Group, shouted out the "four hundred billion" goal, of which the real estate sector will reach a scale of 100 billion yuan in 2023. The original rhetoric is still in the ears, and now the goal of 100 billion is still far away, and Hongkun Group itself is in the quagmire of debt.
In August 2002, Zhao Bin entered Beijing from Hunan, cooperated with other investors to establish Beijing Hongkun Weiye Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., and won a 2 million square meter of land in Xihongmen outside the South Fifth Ring Road of Beijing through bidding, auctioning and listing.
Xihongmen has become the "kingdom" of Hongkun Real Estate, with real estate projects covering almost all property types such as high-end villas, ordinary residences, office buildings and shopping malls. After that, Hongkun also extended from real estate to cultural tourism, industry, capital and other sectors.
In 2017, Zhao Bin handed over the company to his son, and at the same time set an expansion target of "four hundred billion" for Hongkun. Now it turns out that this is a big gamble - in the following years, the sales scale of Hongkun Real Estate remained at about 20 billion yuan, basically stagnating.
In the eyes of industry insiders, Hongkun's predicament today may come from that "big gamble". Most of the land of Hongkun Real Estate is in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and with the increase of the regulation and control policy of The Ring Beijing, Hongkun, which belongs to the key layout of the Ring Beijing Belt, has suffered a head-on blow. Expansion not only did not bring scale, but increased the burden.
Under the background of industry regulation, Hongkun's diversified operation has not brought help to the main business. By the first half of 2021, the performance of Hongkun Real Estate has turned from profit to loss, achieving a net profit attributable to the mother of -61.954 million yuan, a sharp decline of 110%.
A wealth manager of Hongkun Financial once told the media that the biggest risk of the product is that Hongkun Group "fell down during your investment period". At present, the last thing that wants Hongkun's operation to continue to deteriorate is these investors who have bought wealth management products.
But the reality is very hard, and some projects of Hongkun Real Estate have stopped. At the end of March this year, a number of Hongkun Huayu owners in Tianjin's Jizhou District complained on the platform that the project had been stopped since October last year and could not be delivered on time. The relevant departments of Jizhou District replied that the project side said that it could not resume work temporarily due to financial problems.
If Hongkun can get out of the capital dilemma this time, investors still have the hope of getting their own funds back. "You die and the fish die and the net breaks is not the result that everyone wants to see." We want both sides to be okay. Wei Wen said.
(The interviewees Mu Jing and Wei Wen in the article are pseudonyms)