On the "2023 Hurun Report" just released not long ago, a young figure aroused people's curiosity.
37-year-old Yan Hao ranks first on the list of the richest people in Jiangsu Province with a value of 150 billion, that is, the new richest man in Jiangsu.
Yan Hao once said in public that he can have today's achievements only because he was "born well".
Indeed, as the second generation of the richest man in Jiangsu, Yan Hao's starting point may be an end that is difficult for others to reach in their lives, and this is thanks to his founding father, ---- Yan Jiehe.
As the founder of Pacific Construction, Yan Jiehe is known as China's "best contractor".
From a small contractor, he has grown all the way to the richest man in the construction industry, and has grown from a net worth of 1 billion to 12.5 billion in one year.
His counterattack confirmed a truth, stepping on the node of the times can change fate.
In 1960, Yan Jiehe was born in Huai'an, Jiangsu.
In that special historical period, the Yan family, as a scholarly family, was as poor as most families.
In childhood, Yan Jiehe had no extra money to buy cloth shoes, so he could only go out in straw sandals. When it rains, he has to go out barefoot, otherwise his straw sandals will rot when they soak in water.
In 1977, the national college entrance examination was resumed, and Yan Jiehe was admitted to Huai'an Normal School through his own efforts, and became a middle school teacher after graduation.
However, even with the "iron rice bowl", it did not bring much improvement to the family, and the problem of "poverty" still plagued the young Yan Jiehe.
In the early 80s, the mainland gradually liberalized its economy and introduced a policy that allowed individuals to do business. It was also at this time that Yan Jiehe began to show his keen business acumen.
He opened a small workshop and led his family to weave straw hats, hats, dustpans and other agricultural supplies for sale.
Due to the gradual expansion of the scale of production, Yan Jiehe also hired workers to help, and soon made a lot of money, becoming the only "10,000 yuan household" in the village.
Just when Yan Jie and Zhi were complacent, his life ushered in the first turning point.
In 1986, because his wife was pregnant with a second child in violation of national policy, Yan Jiehe not only lost his iron rice bowl, but also faced a huge fine of 18,000 yuan.
However, the house leaked and rained overnight, and his weaving factory was forced to close due to trumped-up charges.
At this time, Yan Jiehe not only had no savings, but also owed 60,000 yuan in debt.
In order to support his family, Yan Jiehe could only go to the factory to find work first. Even so, in his spare time, he will pay close attention to every detail of his work and learn the management aspects of the factory.
Three months later, Huai'an Cement Products Factory was facing bankruptcy due to poor management, and the relevant government departments hired talented people to the public in order to save the factory.
Yan Jiehe realized that the opportunity had come, so he immediately signed up for the election and took over the cement products factory with his absolute strength.
Unexpectedly, in 3 months, Yan Jiehe revitalized the cement products factory that had suffered serious losses and began to make a profit.
After that, he took over seven state-owned factories that were on the verge of bankruptcy, so that more workers could be re-employed.
The rich management experience of the state-owned factory has laid a good foundation for his independent entrepreneurship.
In 1992, Deng Xiaoping toured the south and truly opened up the policy of opening up.
Yan Jiehe had 120,000 yuan in his pocket and founded a construction company that really belonged to him.
At that time, Nanjing was building a ring road, and small companies like Yan Jiehe, who had no background, had no chance of undertaking such a national-level project.
But Yan Jiehe didn't believe in evil, and went to Nanjing again and again to find projects.
On the 11th encounter, he finally picked up a culvert project of less than 300,000 yuan.
There were three culverts in the project, but no one was willing to take over. The reason why no one did it was because no matter who did the project next, they would lose money, and the loss would be at least 50,000 yuan.
Even so, Yan Jiehe was willing to take on the project. In his view, this is an opportunity to get in touch with the government.
"A loss of 50,000 is better than a loss of 80,000", Yan Jiehe thought about doing a good job of the project and leaving a good impression on the government.
So, after signing the agreement, Yan Jiehe led the workers to be stationed on the construction site and rushed to work day and night.
In this way, the project, which was originally expected to last for 140 days, was completed by the engineering team led by Yan Jiehe in only 72 days.
When the person in charge of the project came to the site for acceptance, it was found that the three completed culverts were not only exquisite in craftsmanship, but also in terms of material quality and labor.
After the completion and settlement, I learned that Yan Jiehe had paid 80,000 yuan.
In Nanjing in 1992, the money could have bought a three-bedroom apartment in the downtown area.
The owners were surprised and admired Yan Jiehe's personality and style of doing things. In the second year, the engineering headquarters handed over the 10 million Nanjing Ring Road project to Yan Jiehe's company.
This order not only allowed Yan Jiehe to earn 8.6 million, but also gave his company a good reputation, opened up the market to enter the construction industry, and laid a solid foundation for future career expansion.
In 1996, Yan Jiehe grouped his company, and Jiangsu Pacific Construction Group Co., Ltd. came into being.
At that time, the local government of Suqian City wanted to create a broad road from south to north. But the city's financial institutions couldn't come up with so much money, which made Yan Jiehe smell the business opportunity to make huge profits.
In order to alleviate the financial pressure on the government and avoid the risk of government projects being completed. Yan Jiehe proposed that the Pacific advance funds and take out 50 million yuan to invest in the construction of the project.
This move, which Yan Jiehe calls the BT (Build-Transfer) investment model, as the name suggests, is to first advance funds for the government to build infrastructure projects that cannot be launched.
When the project is completed, the government reimburses the contractor in installments, allowing the company to make a windfall profit.
After entering the millennium, Yan Jiehe began to adopt a large number of BT models, cooperating with many economically underdeveloped regions on infrastructure projects.
In 2003, ST Zongheng International was about to face a delisting crisis due to poor management. The Nantong government is bidding for public bidding and urgently needs private enterprises to lend a helping hand.
At this time, the Nantong government took a fancy to Yan Jiehe's ability to bring him back to life and wanted him to take over the project.
After Yan Jiehe took over the project, it took a year to increase the cost from 500 million yuan to 1 billion yuan, and finally lived up to expectations, so that ST Zongheng International was successfully restructured and resumed listing.
After this battle, Pacific Construction successfully signed a large project of 6 billion yuan in Nantong City and acquired 28.18% of the shares of ST Zongheng.
Since 2005, Yan Jiehe has successively acquired and managed 31 loss-making large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, and the number of member companies of the Pacific Group has reached 115.
After Yan Jiehe helped the government solve many social problems such as unemployment and layoffs, Pacific Group naturally won more favor from local governments, and successfully won many outsourcing projects for municipal infrastructure projects.
At that time, 75% of the profits of the Pacific Group came from government projects, involving total assets of 6 billion yuan, which made Yan Jiehe's value skyrocket.
It was also this year that Yan Jiehe jumped from the 66th to the second place on the Hurun List of China's Hurun Rich People with a value of 12.5 billion yuan, thus winning the title of "Dark Horse Rich".
However, in the second year, the media questioned Yan Jiehe's sudden increase in wealth, which attracted the attention of many banks, and quickly raised their awareness of risk prevention.
Coupled with Yan Jiehe's acquisition of too many state-owned enterprises on the verge of bankruptcy, Pacific Construction's liquidity has been tight.
As a result, nine banks, led by the Jiangsu branch of the Bank of China, jointly came to the door to collect 382 million debts from the Pacific Company, resulting in the rupture of the capital chain of the Pacific Group.
Due to the arrears of 32.83 million yuan, Yan Jiehe received a summons from the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court and was restricted from leaving the country and spending.
In less than half a year, Yan Jiehe's 12 properties were frozen, his personal wealth shrank rapidly, and the Pacific Group was also pushed to the forefront and encountered an unprecedented storm.
In an effort to appease public outrage, Mr. Yan diluted his company's stake to about 10 percent in 2007 and resigned as chairman.
In the following 6 years, Yan Jiehe never borrowed funds from the bank again, and he was low-key and silent for a long time.
However, in the years when Yan Jiehe disappeared, he was actually paving the way for his successor.
In 2011, Yan Jiehe initiated the "Hua Tuo Discussion on Arrows" forum in Shanghai, and invited former U.S. President Clinton, former Prime Minister of Ireland, former mayor of New York and other world celebrities to participate.
On the day of the forum, it was also the day of the wedding of Yan Jiehe's son Yan Hao, and he also announced in public that the 25-year-old Yan Hao would officially take over the position of president of Pacific Construction Group and take over the group with full authority.
However, Yan Hao, who was still young, was soon questioned by both inside and outside the group, worried that with his age and qualifications, it would be difficult for him to take on this important responsibility.
Yan Jiehe, who was only 51 years old at the time, tried his best to support his son on the throne; While retreating but not hiding, he helped his son.
At that time, Yan Hao, who had just taken office, took over a difficult project: the construction of Lanzhou New City in Gansu Province.
The project not only has an investment of tens of billions of yuan, but also the project conditions are also very harsh, and the contractor who took over had to raze 700 soil mountains within half a year, and compensated the owner 22 million yuan for every day it was overdue.
At this critical moment, Yan Jiehe gave full play to the spirit of "Yugong" 20 years ago, led his son to "move mountains" together, and finally completed all the earthwork within the specified time.
After this battle, Yan Hao was tempered and established his prestige in the group, and Yan Jiehe could finally hand over the shift with confidence.
After entrusting the group to his son Yan Hao, Yan Jiehe set his sights on another track.
The storm a few years ago has always cast a shadow on Yan Jiehe for the bank. He is determined to build a comprehensive platform integrating financing, wisdom and capital.
He first founded Huatuo Lunjian, the only intelligent consulting company in China that connects with enterprises, in Beijing.
Three years later, in order to optimize the resources and capital in his hands with wisdom, Yan Jiehe established China Zheng He Fleet Capital International Group.
In addition, he has also successively established Blue, Yellow and Red Culture and Yarenhe Education, and entered the education industry, intending to cultivate more corporate reserve talents.
In 2013, he established Sushang Group in Shanghai to coordinate all projects of Pacific Construction.
So far, Yan Jiehe has made every effort to build the Sutaihua economic system, and the construction of a platform for gathering, nurturing, protecting, manufacturing and attracting investment has been completed.
In the second year, Su Taihua was selected into the Fortune Global 500 with a revenue of 365 billion yuan, ranking 166th, and was selected as one of the world's top 500 companies for four consecutive years, ranking first among private enterprises in the global infrastructure industry.
In 2014, Pacific Construction submitted an application for capital increase and change to the Jiangsu Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, increasing the registered capital from 205 million yuan to 10.5 billion yuan.
As a result, Pacific Construction entered the top 500 in the main world, ranking first among private enterprises in Chinese mainland.
In the same year, Yan Jiehe, Yan Hao and his son ranked seventh in the Hurun Report China Rich List with assets of 85 billion, becoming the richest man in Jiangsu, and the 28-year-old Yan Hao is also the youngest post-80s richest person on the list.
In 2016, in response to the national "One Belt, One Road" policy and the completion of the major strategic transfer to the northwest, Yan Hao registered Pacific Construction in Xinjiang, becoming the first Fortune 500 company headquartered in Xinjiang.
This move also allowed Pacific Construction to be once again selected into the Fortune Global 500 with a revenue of nearly 500 billion yuan, ranking 99th, becoming the first private enterprise in Chinese mainland to enter the "World Top 100".
In the following 10 years, under the leadership of Yan Hao, Pacific Construction has been continuously selected as one of the world's top 500 companies, ranking first among private enterprises in the global construction industry.
Despite being worth hundreds of billions, Yan Jiehe insisted that good companies do not need to be listed:
"There is no point in going public, and I don't need to prove the value of me and my company through listing and valuation."
Yan Jiehe not only made his son a rich man, but also let his daughter Yan Xin, who had just returned from studying abroad, directly take over the Sushang Group in Shanghai.
On the Hurun Wealth List in 2023, Yan Xin's assets are as high as 47 billion, making her the richest woman in Shanghai.
In the same year, Pacific Construction ranked 47th in China's top 500 list. And with a turnover of 79.478 billion US dollars, it ranked 157th in the world's top 500 list.
Despite his impressive achievements, Yan Jiehe is not just satisfied with this. He turned around and established Zhuangyan Think Tank Co., Ltd., preparing to build it into Yan's third Fortune 500 company.
From starting at a loss of money to taking off his career, and now worth hundreds of billions, Yan Jiehe has taken every step on the road of entrepreneurship with his extraordinary courage, and finally completed an all-round counterattack from career to family.
Every opportunity in life is fleeting, and only by being a down-to-earth person and doing things can we firmly grasp the opportunity and change the fate of ourselves and even our families.
I hope you and I will encourage you!
Resources:
1 Baidu Encyclopedia|"Yan Jiehe's Profile"
2 Sohu.com|"After a female college student came back from studying abroad, her father gave her the company, and now she has assets of 47 billion"
3 WeChat|"The No. 1 Chinese Maniac in the World", 80,000 in exchange for 100 billion net worth
4 Baidu|"Billionaire Yan Jiehe: Because of the superbirth, he "jumped into the sea to start a business", and wanted to challenge the Nobel Prize after being laid off twice"
The author of this article: Warm Spring Fish
Editor in charge: Lao Lu