A real-name report letter once again pushed Vanke to the forefront, and the news of "tax evasion exceeding 100 billion yuan" came, and Yantai Bairun Real Estate Co., Ltd. reported Vanke in real name for suspected serious tax evasion, and the two parties "fought" for many rounds. A series of rumors such as "non-standard debt extension negotiations" and "sale of the equity of Boyu" have made Vanke the focus of attention in the industry.
Since the end of March, Vanke has released its earnings briefing, and in just half a month, Vanke has responded to relevant topics three times, and some issues have been repeatedly mentioned by investors, and Yu Liang, chairman of the board of directors of Vanke, has personally appeared to respond.
"Does Vanke have the ability to repay its debts, especially those due within the year?" "Public opinion about Vanke is boiling, and the market is also waiting to see how this real estate "top student" will continue to write the legendary script.
Previously, Vanke said that the Yantai whistleblower reported to the Yantai public security organ in 2023 on the issue of Vanke's misappropriation of funds, and it was accepted. After three months of investigation and evidence collection, the Yantai public security organs made a decision in November 2023 not to file the case.
01
Vanke sells assets to save itself
According to the annual report, in 2023, Vanke will achieve operating income of 465.739 billion yuan and net profit attributable to the parent company of 12.163 billion yuan.
Following the sale of a 50% stake in the Shanghai Qibao Vanke Plaza project, Link will become the sole owner of Shanghai Qibao Vanke Plaza upon completion of the acquisition, and Vanke will fully exit.
At the investor relations meeting on April 14, Yu Liang said: "The transformation business exceeds our ability to match resources, occupies too much development business funds, and the scale is too large, which also leads to the inability of management capabilities to keep up."
It should be noted that Shanghai Qibao Vanke Plaza is one of the best commercial assets under Vanke's umbrella.
In 2023, Vanke will recoup 12.3 billion yuan through large asset transactions, and Vanke will turn real estate into movable property, transfer some projects, and reduce excessive non-core business investment through transactions, so as to save itself.
In addition, Vanke also sold some of its hotel assets. On December 8 last year, Banyan Tree Holdings announced that it would buy the shares of three subsidiaries including Banyan Tree Services (China) held by Vanke for 480 million yuan.
With the advent of the era of asset management, the fate of real estate hotels has been rearranged and frequently traded, and the property model that is suitable for a variety of financial methods is the way out, but only a few can survive. If Vanke wants to increase the possibility of independent listing, it needs to sort out the hotel assets and brand clearly.
02
No company wants to make wedding dresses for other brands all the time
Most of the domestic real estate developers cooperate with international hotel brands through cooperation, introduction and joint ventures, and then incubate their own brands. The most important part of Vanke's hotel industry is the cooperation with Banyan Tree Group, and the other part is its own brands "Zhanyun" and "Youxiong".
Compared with a number of developers such as Country Garden, Shimao, and Wanda, who have entered the independent hotel business development owner model as early as a few years ago, Vanke Hotel's autonomy is slightly slower than that of other real estate companies.
In 2017, Vanke and Banyan Tree formed a 50:50 joint venture in Singapore between Banyan Tree Group and Vanke to consolidate its ownership of Banyan Tree Group's branded hotels and assets in China.
Vanke injected a total of approximately S$72 million into Banyan Tree Asset Management China to subscribe for 50% of the new shares in Banyan Tree Asset Management China, and further injected a total of approximately S$18 million into Banyan Tree Management China and Banyan Tree Services China to indirectly acquire equity interests in Banyan Tree Management China and Banyan Tree Services China.
At the same time, Banyan Tree Asset Management China in turn invested in and held 40% of the shares of Banyan Tree Hotel Management (China) Limited and Banyan Tree Services (China) Limited, the operating companies incorporated in Singapore.
Vanke will acquire a 5% stake in Banyan Tree Group, for which Vanke will pay S$24 million. Since then, nearly 20 Banyan Tree hotels in China have been managed by Vanke Hotels.
Vanke's official entry into hotel management began at the end of 2021 when Vanke established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Vanke Hotel Management Co., Ltd., when under the fluctuation of the epidemic, domestic hotels had rapidly entered the stock market, and Vanke gradually developed its management brand to obtain management fee income.
Six years have passed, Banyan Tree's hotel brand has successfully settled in China, Vanke Hotel brand has not yet tasted the sweetness, "Banyan Tree China" in the field of hotel, elderly care, health care, began to gradually develop cultural tourism projects, design some hotels and apartment facilities, and the new output of wine management + property management model, for the current management era to add bricks.
Earlier this year, Banyan Tree and Vanke Banyan Tree Holdings acquired Vanke's stake in a Chinese hotel management company for RMB490 million. At the same time, Vanke will also spend RMB30 million to purchase the relevant shares of Banyan Tree Holdings. Between the purchase and sale, Banyan Tree Holdings successfully won the management rights of Banyan Tree Assets (China).
The reason behind Vanke's cooperation with Banyan Tree is that Vanke itself does not have its own brand matrix, and the process of forging a brand is very complicated. By partnering with Banyan Tree, Vanke has accelerated the integration of its hotels with the Banyan Tree brand.
Opened in Xi'an in January 2023, Xi'an Chanba Yueyuan Hotel is the first hotel project developed and promoted by Vanke in the Northwest Region. As well as Vanke hotel projects in Chengdu, Xichang in southwest China, Dongguan in southern China, etc., Banyan Tree series brands have been introduced.
Shenzhen Vanke Langqi Yacht Club Hotel The picture comes from the Internet
At present, Vanke is still incubating its own brands such as Zhanyun and Youxiong, and Vanke itself has formed the "Zhanyun" brand with high-end business positioning and the "Youxiong" brand with urban humanities as the connotation. With the transfer of the management rights of the Banyan Tree series of hotels, the business of Vanke Hotels & Resorts will be significantly reduced. Today, Vanke has a total of 16 hotel projects, of which 6 are retained by Banyan Tree and 10 are self-owned hotel brands Zhanyun and Youxiong.
03
In the era of stock, how can Vanke Hotel save itself?
As a veteran real estate group, Vanke has a lot of hotel assets, but its hotel business is not as well-known as the long-term rental apartment "Boyu", and its hotels are mainly owners.
After the "breakup" with Wanda, the management of hotel assets was changed from a large-scale hotel management group to the establishment of a joint venture company, and a joint venture company Yongle Huazhu was established with Huazhu to lay out the high-end hotel market.
Looking at the real estate companies that have done better, Country Garden established its own Fengyue Hotel, signed a cooperation agreement with Hilton Group, and jointly introduced the Hilton Homewood Hotel brand to China, and later reached a strategic cooperative relationship with Minor Hotel to form a hotel management joint venture company, which is jointly responsible for the business development and hotel operation of 7 brands of Minor Hotel. Now the development momentum of Fengyue series high-end, mid-to-high-end brands is good.
The picture of Fengyue Hotel comes from the Internet
Several other real estate bosses have basically embarked on the road of selling themselves to the savior, and Wanda's "white knight" R&F Real Estate acquired 73 Wanda's hotel assets in one go, and now it has also entered the stage of debt reduction.
As Vanke, the leader of the real estate industry, the capital chain should be considered very good, the "three red lines" are very safe, and it will take time to verify whether Vanke's golden sign can shine on the hotel, but it must be very difficult.
In this case, what does Vanke rely on to export its own brand? There is a big difference between hotel management genes and property management and long-term rental apartment management, which requires attention, investment, professionalism and time.
The "latecomer" Vanke, whose brand core competitiveness has not yet been recognized by the market. Vanke needs to use its own real estate to build its own flagship store of its own independent brand, reflect the attractiveness of the brand with a good market image, and gradually develop from managing its own hotels to managing hotels with other corporate real estate.
04
How to do a good brand in real estate hotels
It has always been very difficult for domestic real estate developers to take the road of independent hotel brand development, and a large reason is the confusion between real estate and hotel concepts. Hotels have always been a vassal of the real estate industry, and real estate developers have been faltering in developing hotel brands independently, and the fundamental reason is that the concept of real estate and hotels is confused, and hotels have not received due attention.
If you want to develop the brand under the new cycle, there is still a long way to go, and you have to be hard to make iron, and consolidating your own brand matrix is the road to benign and lasting development. Just like Xiaomi makes cars to learn the appearance of Porsche, excellent hotel brands at home and abroad are also a way out, learn from each other's excellence, learn management experience, and gradually improve and surpass.
Second, we must take the road of stock management. China's urbanization has now exceeded 60%, and after a rapid development cycle, it will enter a gradual and slow upward process in the future. With the gradual completion of land development in the core areas of core cities, the new market will gradually shrink, and real estate stock management will become the main line of development in the future.
Finally, asset-light is the way out. In the next ten years, the real estate developers who can survive must be enterprises with huge stock property management, and enterprises that no longer rely on increments to achieve growth and survival, and enterprises that still rely on development and growth will be eliminated by history. The same is true for the hotel industry, in the future, brands that rely on growth to survive will be integrated or disappear, relying on stock to survive and develop again.
The fate of real estate hotels will be rearranged, the advent of the era of asset management, real estate hotel properties will be frequently traded, suitable for a variety of financial methods of property model, light assets is the way out, but this long road, opportunity and courage are equally important.