The private enterprise giant, whose revenue once reached 600 billion, seems to be losing ground one after another.
Source丨Non-performing assets headlines, comprehensive Red Star Capital Bureau, China Times
Editor丨Zhang Yuan
Zhengwei Group is mired in debt. On May 9, Zhengwei Group and its subsidiaries added 370 million yuan to the implementation target, and on May 8, they were fined 40,000 yuan by the Futian District Human Resources Bureau for arrears of nearly 10 million yuan in wages for two months. The key point is: the human resources department ordered to make corrections within a time limit, and the corrections have not been made within the time limit. It seems that funding has indeed become an issue.
At the end of last year, Wang Wenyin stepped down as chairman and general manager of Shenzhen Zhengwei (Group) Co., Ltd. In an interview with China Times, lawyer Zhang Qi, a partner at Beijing Yingke (Shanghai) Law Firm, pointed out that there may be a variety of reasons for stepping down from his post, in addition to risk isolation, it may also include factors such as organizational structure adjustment and personal wishes. Regarding Wang Wenyin's resignation from the post of Shenzhen Zhengwei Group, if it is for the purpose of isolating risks in listed companies, it may be because the restriction of high consumption has caused certain pressure on personal property, and in order to reduce the impact on listed companies, Wang Wenyin chose to withdraw from the relevant positions of Shenzhen Zhengwei Group. According to general business practice, the purpose of adopting such a strategy is to share or mitigate the personal risk and to separate the business from the personal finances to ensure the normal operation and development of the company.
"World Copper King" was "limited in height" twice
Wang Wenyin, 55, is the founder of Zhengwei Group and the actual controller of Zhengwei New Materials. Because its enterprises have ultra-high copper ore reserves, it is known as the "World Copper King".
In the 2023 Hurun Global Rich List, Wang Wenyin ranks 108th with a wealth of 105 billion yuan.
On October 18, Zhengwei New Materials announced that Wang Wenyin, the company's legal representative, was restricted from high consumption because of his legal representative of Shenzhen Zhengwei. The cause of this matter was a contract dispute, and Shenzhen Zhengwei and its subsidiary, Zhengwei Southeast (Fujian) Holding Co., Ltd., were sued by Ningde Transportation Investment Group Co., Ltd.
On October 9, 2023, Shenzhen Zhengwei was listed as the person subject to execution, with an enforcement target of 60.0218 million yuan, and the enforcement court was the People's Court of Jiaocheng District, Ningde City. However, Shenzhen Zhengwei failed to perform the payment obligations determined by the effective legal documents within the period specified in the enforcement notice.
Although these two "height limits" were lifted a day later. However, since the beginning of this year, a number of companies under Shenzhen Zhengwei have been involved in contract disputes, including Zhengwei Huaneng (Shandong) New Materials, Chongqing Kuanwei Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., Fu'an Zhengwei New Materials Company, etc.
Tianyancha APP shows that up to now, the total number of risks of Shenzhen Zhengwei is as high as more than 9,000, and the equity of many subsidiaries has been frozen or executed. From September 1 to October 23, 2023, Shenzhen Zhengwei and its subsidiaries were executed and frozen, and the amount of equity frozen was close to 4 billion yuan. Among them, the frozen equity of its subordinate Hebei China Copper reached 1 billion yuan.
The "gold master" behind Xu Jiayin
The intersection between Xu Jiayin and Wang Wenyin began 6 years ago.
As early as 2017, Xu Jiayin led the wind and rain Evergrande to move its headquarters to Shenzhen, and it didn't take long for him and his executives to visit the Shenzhen headquarters of Zhengwei Group.
On November 6, 2017, about two months after the meeting between the two sides, China Evergrande announced that Evergrande Real Estate, Zhengwei Group, Suning Group, Shandong High-speed and other companies have become the third batch of Evergrande's investors, with a total investment of 60 billion yuan. Among them, Zhengwei Group is 5 billion yuan.
Group photo at Evergrande's 2018 Strategic Partner High-level Summit, second to fifth from left are Wang Wenyin, Sun Liang, Xu Jiayin, Zhang Jindong Source: Sina Finance
In 2020, Evergrande failed to go public through backdoor deep housing, and part of the 130 billion yuan strategic investment was converted into ordinary shares. At present, Zhengwei International Group still holds 1.18% of the equity of Evergrande Real Estate Group Co., Ltd.
Wang Wenyin's "selfless help" to Xu Jiayin has even reached the point of incomprehension.
Tianyancha shows that on December 6, 2017 and November 13, 2019, Zhengwei Group pledged a number of real estate companies in Yingkou and Yichun to Evergrande Real Estate Shenyang and Jiangxi companies. Even Wang Wenyin pledged the equity of Zhengwei Group to Evergrande, is this a problem that Zhengwei Group encountered a shortage of funds around 2017? But the strange thing is that Wang Wenyin mortgaged and resold a large number of assets to Evergrande, and at the same time transfused Evergrande in the form of investment.
Even when Evergrande was thunderous and Xu Jiayin was asked for debts by all parties, Wang Wenyin was still suspected of playing Xu Jiayin's "white knight" in a more secretive way to transfuse blood for Evergrande.
On August 14 this year, the investor Newton Group invested 500 million US dollars to help Evergrande, and another 600 million yuan of transitional funds will be received in three tranches. What everyone doesn't know is that before the predecessor of Newton Group, Tianjin Iconic, moved to the United Arab Emirates, this company jointly established Zhengwei Iconic (Shenzhen) New Energy Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. with Zhengwei Group in May 2021, with a registered capital of 100 million yuan and a 73-point equity. At present, the new energy vehicle company is still in existence, and the beneficial owners are Wang Wenyin and Wu Nan.
The world's copper king is unpredictable
The official account "Zhengwei International Group" once reprinted an article from another public account, "Huishang Media", which said that Wang Wenyin controls 5% of the world's copper ore reserves.
According to the National Business Daily, citing the 2016 "Micro Business" magazine, Zhengwei Group has a total copper ore reserve of about 30 million tons, equivalent to 30% of China's total copper ore reserves that year.
However, scholars from the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and the Key Laboratory of Metallogenic Interaction and Resource Evaluation of the Ministry of Natural Resources published a paper in Geology and Exploration in 2018, saying that China Metallurgical Science and Industry Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "China Metallurgical Group") and other "eight King Kongs" acquired by China's overseas copper mines, and Zhengwei Group was not mentioned in the full text.
This year, there have been people asking Zhengwei to show his background, but he has never given a clear answer.
According to the official website of Zhengwei Group, in 2022, the group will achieve a turnover of more than 600 billion yuan, ranking 124th in the world's top 500, 37th in the top 500 Chinese enterprises, 4th in the top 500 Chinese private enterprises, 8th in the top 500 Chinese manufacturing enterprises, and 2nd in the top 500 private manufacturing enterprises in China in 2023.
In terms of revenue, Wang Wenyin's plate is much larger than Xu Jiayin's.