The chairman of the board of directors was arrested overseas, and the deputy general manager resigned

Titanium Media APP

2024-04-08 18:12Posted on the official account of Beijing Titanium Media APP

The chairman of the board of directors was arrested overseas, and the deputy general manager resigned

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Three days after Chairman Guo Baichun was arrested abroad, Potassium International (000893. SZ) announced on the evening of April 3 that its deputy general manager Tong Yongheng applied for resignation from the company's deputy general manager and all positions in the company's subsidiaries for personal reasons.

Therefore, at the historic moment of the successful commissioning of the concentrator plant of the third 1 million tons potash fertilizer project of Asia Potassium International on April 7, Tong Yongheng did not come forward publicly. A few days earlier, he had attended and delivered a speech at the signing of the "Cooperation Agreement" between Laos-Vietnam International Port Joint Stock Company (VLP) and Potassium International on April 1 for the establishment of a dedicated terminal, when he was still the deputy general manager of Potassium International and the head of the Laos potash fertilizer production base.

Tong Yongheng delivered a speech at the Vietnam base of Asia Potassium International on April 1, source: Zhongnong International Potash Official Account

Tong Yongheng's intersection with Guo Baichun is not limited to listed companies: the original text of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said, "Guo Baichun was the deputy mayor of Yinchuan City, Ningxia, and was suspected of serious crimes abusing public office." His term of office was from June 2013 to October 2018. At the same time, Tong Yongheng also served as the director and deputy general manager of Yinchuan Tonglian Capital Investment and Operation Co., Ltd. - under the tenure of Guo Baichun as vice mayor of Yinchuan, Tonglian Capital is one of the main forces in promoting the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises and the transformation of urban investment companies into the "Yinchuan model", and is the most important infrastructure investment and financing and state-owned asset management entity in Yinchuan City.

On the same day that Tong Yongheng resigned, Li Yongning, former secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee, was arrested by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. It is worth mentioning that he is also Guo Baichun's colleague during his tenure.

In the past two years, Jiang Zhigang, the former secretary of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee, who worked with Guo Baichun, Wang Yong, the former chairman of the Yinchuan CPPCC, and Xu Qing, the former member of the party group and deputy mayor of the Yinchuan Municipal Government, have all been dismissed one after another. Therefore, the personnel earthquake of Asia Potassium International is also one of the achievements of Ningxia's continuous consolidation of the "overwhelming victory of the anti-corruption struggle in the new era".

After the chairman was arrested, the deputy general manager resigned

On the evening of April 3, Potassium International announced that Tong Yongheng, deputy general manager of the company, applied for resignation from the position of deputy general manager of the company and all positions of the company's subsidiaries for personal reasons, and he no longer held any position in the company and subsidiaries after his resignation. In accordance with the relevant provisions of relevant laws, regulations and normative documents, Tong Yongheng's resignation report will take effect when it is delivered to the board of directors.

Source: Potassium International announcement

As of the disclosure date of the announcement, Tong Yongheng held 768,000 shares of the company, accounting for 0.08% of the company's total share capital, all of which are shares granted by the company's 2022 stock options and restricted stock incentive plan.

Not long before that, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission disclosed on March 29 that with the overall coordination of the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group's International Pursuit of Fugitives and Stolen Goods Work Office and the assistance of relevant departments, and through close cooperation between the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Supervision Organs and public security organs and relevant state law enforcement agencies, Guo Baichun, a suspect in the crime of public office, was recently arrested abroad and repatriated.

Source: The website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission

According to the report, Guo Baichun, male, born in October 1965, was the deputy mayor of Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and was suspected of serious crimes abusing public office. In January 2024, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Supervision Commission opened a case for investigation. The case-handling organs actively carried out international law enforcement cooperation, and finally arrested him.

On the evening of March 30, in response to the detention of Chairman Guo Baichun, Potassium International announced that the company received the "Notice of Retention in Custody of the Supervision Commission of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region" on March 29, 2024. The investigation is a personal investigation of Chairman Guo Baichun and has nothing to do with the company.

The unfinished "tallest tower in the northwest" and anti-corruption aftershocks

On the same day that Tong Yongheng resigned, Ningxia's anti-corruption campaign achieved another success: Li Yongning, former secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee, was arrested by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

In March 2017, Li Yongning served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee, Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, and Director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and since January 2019, he has been a member of the Standing Committee of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee.

This overlaps with Guo's tenure as deputy mayor of Yinchuan, Ningxia, from June 2013 to October 2018.

In the past two years, among the important achievements of Ningxia's anti-corruption struggle, a number of high-ranking officials who have worked with Guo Baichun have been dismissed:

In February 2022, Xu Qing, a former member of the party group and deputy mayor of Yinchuan Municipal Government, who served as deputy mayor of Yinchuan from August 2015 to August 2018, was "double-opened" in accordance with the law.

In April 2022, Wang Yong, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Chairman of the Yinchuan CPPCC, was suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and was subject to disciplinary review and supervision investigation. He served as the Deputy Mayor of Yinchuan from January 2018 to November 2018.

During Guo Baichun's tenure as deputy mayor of Yinchuan, his boss was Jiang Zhigang, secretary of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee, who has served as secretary of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee since June 2017 and was named and investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in March 2023.

In Jiang Zhigang's "double opening" circular, "illegal use of financial funds to build buildings, halls, and halls" is a rare reference, and it is also one of the fuses for his downfall.

In 2017, Jiang Zhigang was transferred to the secretary of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee, and six months later, the "Government Work Report" of Jinfeng District proposed to build Ningxia Silk Road Pearl Tower and other special tourism projects. The tower is designed to be 448.2 meters tall and is known as "the tallest tower in the northwest". In December 2018, Yinchuan City decided to jointly fund the construction by China Railway Urban Development Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Yinchuan Tonglian Capital. The actual funds in place for the project are 520 million yuan, of which 300 million yuan contributed by Yinchuan Tonglian Capital are all financial funds.

Source: Potassium International's 2022 annual report

According to the titanium media APP, Tong Yongheng's tenure in Yinchuan Tonglian Capital may be from the end of 2017 to the beginning of 2019, not only as the deputy mayor of Yinchuan as Guo Baichun, but also involved in the Silk Road Pearl Tower project.

Source: Yinchuan State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission

At that time, Tong Yongheng served as the director and deputy general manager of Yinchuan Tonglian Capital Investment and Operation Co., Ltd., as the main force in promoting the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises and the transformation of urban investment companies into the "Yinchuan model", Tonglian Capital is the most important infrastructure investment and financing and state-owned asset management entity in Yinchuan City, and undertakes the tasks of urban infrastructure construction, comprehensive environmental treatment projects and resettlement housing construction in Yinchuan City.

Due to the doubts about the main body of construction and the source of funds, the Silk Road Pearl Tower quickly failed. In October 2021, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Circular on the Illegal Construction of Buildings, Halls and Halls" in Some Heavily Debted Areas, and named three major issues in Ningxia: "Ningxia Minning Conference Center", "Ningxia Minning Town Hotel Management and Service Vocational Skills Training Center" and "Ningxia Silk Road Pearl Tower".

Jiang Zhigang, then secretary of the Yinchuan Municipal Party Committee, was also dismissed soon after. The Shuangkai circular pointed out that he "interfered with the personnel arrangements of the original management unit in violation of regulations, and sought benefits for others in the selection and appointment of cadres", "used his power to buy houses at low prices for himself and his relatives and friends", and "was greedy and engaged in power-for-money transactions on a large scale".

In 2022, the "tallest tower in Northwest China" funded by Tonglian Capital was demolished, and 15 senior officials in Yinchuan officialdom were held accountable, mainly including the "Silk Road Pearl Tower Project Promotion Leading Group" led by the then deputy mayor, deputy secretary-general of the government, and heads of housing and construction and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

At the beginning of 2023, Tonglian Capital, as the "largest urban investment in Yinchuan", was once overwhelmed by 7.4 billion yuan of maturing debt, and all ratings were placed on the negative rating watch list, which once again attracted market attention. (This article was first published on the Titanium Media APP, by |.) Huang Tian)

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