Zeng's monthly salary was 1 million yuan, and Vanke's senior executives voluntarily cut their salaries: 10,000 yuan per month before tax!

On March 28, Vanke A (SZ000002, share price of 9.24 yuan, market value of 110.24 billion yuan) released its 2023 annual performance report.

According to the announcement, Vanke Group's operating income in 2023 will be 465.74 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.6%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be 12.16 billion yuan, a decrease of 10.53 billion yuan, or 46.4%, from 22.69 billion yuan in 2022.

In this context, 8 senior executives of Vanke Group voluntarily gave up their 2023 bonuses, and in addition, from the date of disclosure of the report, Yu Liang, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Zhu Jiusheng, President, and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors unfrozen and voluntarily received a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan before tax.

Yu Liang voluntarily reduced his salary to 10,000 yuan per month before tax

According to the annual report, 8 directors, supervisors and senior managers who worked full-time in Vanke Group in 2023 voluntarily waived their 2023 bonuses, and received a total of 7.661 million yuan of pre-tax remuneration from Vanke Group during their tenure in 2023, and 4 independent directors received a total of 1.5 million yuan of pre-tax remuneration from Vanke Group during their tenure as directors in 2023.

So far, the total pre-tax remuneration of Vanke Group's management in 2023 has dropped to 9.16 million yuan, a decrease of 73.6% from 34.66 million yuan in 2022.

In addition, from the date of disclosure of the report (March 28, 2024), Yu Liang, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Zhu Jiusheng, President, and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors will voluntarily receive a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan before tax.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Vanke Group's management has cut salaries. In 2021, Vanke Group's net profit attributable to the parent company fell from 41.5 billion yuan to 22.5 billion yuan, a decrease of 46%, and Vanke faced the third profit decline in the past 30 years since its listing. Two years have passed, and in 2023, Yu Liang's salary in Vanke Group will drop again to 1.27 million yuan, with a monthly salary of about 100,000 yuan.

As a leading enterprise in the industry, Vanke Group's management has not been paid a low salary in the past. According to the statistics of the wind platform, Yu Liang's annual pre-tax remuneration was about 9.8 million yuan during his tenure as president of Vanke Group in 2014~2016, and since he became the chairman of Vanke Group in 2017, Yu Liang's annual pre-tax remuneration in Vanke Group was higher than 11 million yuan in the four years from 2017~2020, and the highest remuneration in 2018 was 12.53 million yuan, with a monthly salary of about 1 million yuan.

Pre-tax remuneration does not include dividends from the company. Since 2014, Yu Liang has been holding about 7.3 million shares of Vanke Group, and Vanke Group has maintained dividends every year from 2014 ~ 2022, with dividends per share ranging from 0.41 yuan ~ 1.25 yuan. In 2023, Vanke Group decided not to pay dividends, not to give bonus shares, and not to convert capital reserve into share capital, which is the first time since 1992 that Vanke Group will not pay dividends.

Vanke: Resolutely do not lie flat

In addition, on the morning of March 29, Vanke held the 2023 annual performance recommendation meeting to answer questions of concern from the outside world.

Vanke Yu Liang: The market is obviously over-falling in the short term

Yu Liang said that the market is obviously over-falling in the short term, the pivotal value of future residential construction is 1 billion square meters, and the current support policies have been introduced in large numbers and the intensity is more than in the past, with the effect of the policy, I believe that the market will gradually recover.

Yu Liang believes that housing demand needs to be dynamically observed, and the future space is still broad. On the one hand, the standard of living life is constantly improving, whether it is per capita living area, housing facilities, community environment, etc., there is room for improvement. On the other hand, the urbanization process has not ended, and the demand for new housing still exists, with 11.96 million new urban population added to the mainland in 2023. Less than 700 million square meters of new residential construction started in 2023, down 59% from the 2019 high. Therefore, in the short term, the market is clearly over-falling.

In Yu Liang's view, the current policies to support the real estate market have been introduced in large quantities, more than in previous years, with the effect of the policy, I believe that the market will gradually recover. At the same time, he pointed out that the construction of the "three major projects" of the new real estate development model proposed by the central government last year will promote the economic rebound and provide more development space for real estate enterprises. Vanke has projects in the fields of urban village renovation and affordable housing, and will continue to give full play to its capabilities and advantages in the construction of small apartments and agent construction in the future, and actively participate in it.

Yu Liang: Resolutely do not lie flat, and have full confidence to overcome difficulties

Regarding the question of whether Vanke has the confidence to "survive", which is highly concerned by the outside world, Yu Liang said that Vanke's management team will resolutely not lie down and will definitely cross this stage threshold. The company will intensify efforts to revitalize the stock and change the real estate, and reduce the interest-paying debt by 100 billion yuan in the next two years to ensure the safety of the company. He believes that the company's capabilities in the development and operation of services over the past years will help Vanke become an excellent enterprise in the new development stage of the industry.

Yu Liang said frankly that in order to "survive", good business ability is only one aspect, and the company also needs to strengthen bottom-line thinking, do a good job of stress testing under extreme conditions, and make more adequate preparations. Although Vanke proposed to "survive" early on, it was not comprehensive enough. In the face of changes in the market, the robust standards of the past may not be able to fully guarantee the safety of the company, so it is necessary to strengthen the bottom-line thinking and make better preparations.

Major shareholders have taken four major measures to support Vanke

Vanke's management said that at the communication meeting with financial institutions on November 6 last year, Shenzhen State-owned Assets made a very positive statement, and after that meeting, Shenzhen State-owned Assets took four major measures to help and support Vanke in a market-oriented and legal manner.

First, it helped Vanke dispose of real estate and long-term equity investments with relatively low liquidity;

the second is a market-oriented approach to subscribe to Vanke's profitable consumer infrastructure;

Third, through the industrial synergy between Shenzhen state-owned enterprises and Vanke, a number of project cooperation has been promoted;

Fourth, Shenzhen State-owned Assets is also actively coordinating financial resources to support Vanke.

At present, some of the progress of these projects has been completed, some have paid sincerity money, and some are in the process of gradual implementation, if all these projects are completed, it is expected to help Vanke release liquidity of more than 10 billion yuan.

The downgrade does not have a major fundamental impact on Vanke

According to the Beijing News, Zhu Jiusheng said that the rating downgrade has an impact on Vanke, but there is no major fundamental impact, and the impact is relatively limited, "The company is indeed experiencing challenges and pressures in the short term, and it is constantly reviewing, and the company's capabilities and fundamentals have not changed fundamentally, and there will be no big problems." ”

In terms of bank loans, Zhu Jiusheng said that the company's cooperation with banks has always been based on good strategy and long-term cooperative relations, and there are 26 long-term cooperative banks, all of which support Vanke. "The industry is down, sales and collection are down, and banks are our allies in risk prevention. The bank frowned, gave advice, gave easing, and the cooperative bank gave us a conversion period of 1 to 3 years. ”

"In general, we will adopt a multi-channel financing strategy, work with financing institutions in the same direction and achieve mutual success, and appreciate the support of financial institutions when the industry encounters challenges. Yu Liang, chairman of the board of directors of Vanke, said.

Vanke's management responds to "no dividends"

According to Blue Whale Finance, the secretary of the board of directors of Vanke responded to this at the performance promotion meeting on March 29: "Vanke has always attached great importance to cash dividends to give back to shareholders, and has paid dividends of 103 billion yuan for 31 consecutive years, with a historical average dividend rate of 33.3%, which is also 2.8 times of Vanke's equity financing over the years, which is also what we have always been proud of." Based on this background, it was really difficult for the board of directors to consider canceling the 2023 dividend. ”

"At present, the industry is still in deep adjustment, the sales performance of the top 100 real estate companies fell by more than 50% from January to February, and Vanke's sales fell by more than 40%, the confidence of the entire market is still recovering, and the uncertainty of operation still exists. Zhu Xu said.

According to her, there are some differences among Vanke investors on dividends, such as debt investors hope that the company will not pay dividends or reduce dividends, and retain more cash reserves to cope with the repayment of future debts; equity investors are divided into two categories, one is understandable and hopes that the company will not pay dividends and retain more cash reserves to ensure the safety of operation, and the other group hopes that the company can continue the previous dividend policy.

"Based on the opinions of creditor investors and equity investors, the board of directors has decided to cancel dividends in 2023 based on very in-depth discussions, so as to help the company better cope with the uncertainty of the special period and ensure the safety of operation. We ask for our understanding from our investors. Zhu Xu said.

Editor|He Xiaotao Du Bo

Proofreading|Cheng Peng

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