1, his father Wang Zhenhua was released from prison and was suspicious
From July 3, 2019 to July 3, 2024, Wang Xiaosong was appointed to take over the head of Xincheng Holdings, and it has gone through five springs, summers, autumns and winters.
He is probably the most low-key second generation of the house. From entering Xincheng Holdings as a grassroots employee, to later, due to personal marital problems, Wang Xiaosong left the company and came back, Wang Xiaosong's exposure was very small.
One of the few appearances he made was also because of his work: either to attend the annual results meeting or to attend the semi-annual results meeting.
On the contrary, it is his father Wang Zhenhua, although he is not in the rivers and lakes, but the rivers and lakes always have his legends. Five years ago, Wang Zhenhua was detained by Shanghai police on suspicion of child molestation, and was later sentenced to five years in prison. In the five years since he was imprisoned, Wang Zhenhua has not been idle: he has appealed many times and has been rejected many times.
On the other hand, while in prison, Wang Zhenhua also repeatedly increased his holdings in Seazen Development, the parent company of Seazen Holdings. Outside prison, amid internal and external troubles, Wang Xiaosong spent five years cleaning up the mess left by his father. This second-generation house has done everything he can to try to keep Xincheng Holdings.
In recent years, there have been news that "Wang Zhenhua wants to be released on medical parole at the beginning of 2022" and "Wang Zhenhua has been released on medical parole in the second half of 2023", but from the current point of view, there is no official news to confirm that Wang Zhenhua has been released on medical parole.
From a legal point of view, "medical parole requires special circumstances, and it is not something that can be come out if you think of it." Wang Yuchen, director of Beijing Jinsu Law Firm, told "City Boundary". The so-called medical parole refers to the enforcement method whereby a detainee is allowed to be released for medical treatment outside of prison on bail with the approval of the judicial authorities due to a serious illness.
Although the crime of child molestation committed by Wang Zhenhua is a serious criminal offense, the crime itself does not directly affect his eligibility to apply for medical parole. "The approval of medical parole is primarily based on the physical condition and medical needs of the offender, not the nature of the offense." Wang Yuchen explained. Although Wang Zhenhua's crime is serious, judging from public information, there is no news that Wang Zhenhua is suffering from a serious illness.
If nothing else, Wang Zhenhua will be released from prison in early July 2024. On July 3, 2019, the Putuo Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau announced that Wang Zhenhua had been criminally detained. On June 17, 2020, Wang Zhenhua was sentenced to 5 years in prison by the Shanghai Putuo District Court. Wang Yuchen told City Boundary that based on the five-year sentence, Wang Zhenhua should be released from prison in early July 2024.
However, no one knows whether "Wang Zhenhua is released from prison" or not. In this regard, "City Boundary" repeatedly contacted the holding party of Xincheng to inquire about Wang Zhenhua's release from prison, but as of the date of publication, the other party has not replied. In any case, Wang Zhenhua will always be released from prison. Therefore, a question is about to arise: will Wang Zhenhua take over Xincheng Holdings again after he is released from prison? Because Wang Zhenhua is still the actual controller of Seazen Holdings.
According to the relevant regulations of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, persons who have committed criminal offenses, such as embezzlement, bribery, embezzlement of finances, misappropriation of property, or undermining the order of the socialist market economy, are restricted from serving as directors, supervisors, and senior managers of listed companies.
"Wang Zhenhua's crime does not fall under the above provisions, so theoretically, he can continue to be a director." Huang Lichong, President of Huisheng International Capital, mentioned to the "market community" that it also depends on the attitude of the CSRC, and the CSRC will also take into account the pressure of public opinion and the impact of society. This is in line with Wang Yuchen's view to some extent, "After Wang Zhenhua is released from prison, the likelihood of returning to power is low." ”
Wang Yuchen explained to "City Boundary" that for Seazen Holdings, maintaining the stability of management and the restoration of brand image is the key to future development, "Wang Zhenhua's return may have a negative impact on the company. ”
After all, Wang Xiaosong spent five full years and a lot of effort to keep Seazen Holdings alive until now.
2. "Everything is based on ensuring cash flow"
As a real estate person for 20 years, Wang Zheng has personally watched many real estate companies "raise high-rise buildings, feast guests, and collapse buildings". On the other hand, Xincheng Holdings, under the leadership of Wang Xiaosong, did not explode thunder and walked relatively steadily.
According to the 2024 China Top 100 Real Estate Enterprises Research Report released by the China Index Research Institute, Seazen Holding Group ranks among the top 10 in terms of seven dimensions of comprehensive strength, scale, and profitability. Everyone in the world says that it is precisely because of Wang Zhenhua's accident that Xincheng Holdings slowed down, so in the real estate circle of the big reshuffle, "there was no sinking ship, no overturning." ”
Wang Zheng also believes that this is indeed one of the reasons why Seazen Holdings has survived so far. After being appointed as the new helmsman in 2019, Wang Xiaosong did not continue his father's usual routine of "fighting and turning a bicycle into a motorcycle", but let Xincheng, which was in a period of pain, urgently step on the "brakes": disposing of assets, reducing the size of the team, stagnating investment, and comprehensively shrinking the action of land acquisition.
In order not to breach the contract, Wang Xiaosong also spent a high price to acquire the project equity of some thunderbolt enterprises. Some old suppliers have not fallen into the ground, such as Zhongxing Construction, Suzhong Construction, etc., saying that they will continue to cooperate with Xincheng Holdings, which can be said to have helped Wang Xiaosong a lot. The real estate self-media "One Spoonful Words" reported that most of the old suppliers have been running out of Changzhou with Xincheng since 1993.
In this way, Wang Xiaosong took Seazen Holdings to survive the first four years of the crisis, and in the first half of 2023, Seazen Holdings also achieved positive profits.
Like most real estate companies, Seazen is facing debt pressure, and Wang Xiaosong said that repaying debt is one of the company's main tasks in 2023. "City Boundary" learned that in the past year, Seazen Holdings took cash flow as the starting point, and settled the project payment in the form of arrival in the form of delivery.
Wu Jiang's construction company, the last hundreds of millions of project money, was settled in the form of arrival. These jobs were consumed by the construction company's internal staff. Wu Jiang sorted out the relevant process to the "city boundary", which is usually like this: the employee likes which suite, so he goes to the sales office of Seazen Holdings, signs the purchase contract, and pays the full amount to the Xincheng account. Then, according to the progress payment or settlement payment, Xincheng will return to the account of the construction company.
"The national policy is also in place." Wu Jiang mentioned another reason why Seazen Holdings was in a desperate situation. At the end of 2023, the name of Seazen Holdings appeared in a rumored whitelist of financing for Chinese-funded real estate enterprises. This made the shareholders of Seazen Holdings ecstatic. It is important to know that the real estate companies that are included in the list will receive support from various aspects, including credit, creditor's rights, and equity financing.
This is not unfounded. "City Boundary" noted that in its 2023 annual report, Seazen Holdings had explained the issue of whether to repay the debt. Among them, one of the reasons for being able to repay debts that are about to mature is the introduction of a financing "white list". At the end of April 2024, an investor asked Seazen Holdings on the interactive platform: Has the company's project been included in the first batch of white lists? Seazen Holdings replied: The company has projects that have entered the "white list of real estate projects".
Wang Xiaosong's important business management business has also given a boost to Seazen Holdings. I have to mention that it is Wuyue Plaza. The location of Wuyue Plaza is generally in the core location of the new area of the third and fourth-tier cities, with parks, colleges, hospitals, government offices, etc., and the surrounding people are also young people, and their consumption power is stronger than that of the old city.
Due to the cheap land, the supporting residences in Wuyue Plaza, "as long as the square is hot, they are all easy to sell." Moreover, in the environment of price reduction and volume, Seazen Holdings rolled up the price, and no one can compare. Wang Zheng sighed to the "city boundary". In addition, in recent years, as people have become more and more cautious in consumption, Wuyue Plaza, which is not positioned as a high-end and the target group is young people, is firmly in line with the current consumption concept.
Take Anhui Anqing New Town Wuyue Plaza as an example. It is the largest mixed-use mall in the third-tier city of Anqing to date. It is located at the intersection of the new city and the old town, and the transportation route extends in all directions. "The average daily passenger flow is 3 or 40,000 on weekdays, 50,000 on weekends, and 50,000 on large holidays. Most of them are young people. Zhang Xiao, a former employee of the local Wuyue Plaza, told the "City Boundary". Class A stores like this have added a few fires to the commercial operation of Seazen Holdings. In 2023, Seazen Holdings' commercial operating income will reach 11.324 billion yuan.
However, the revenue from commercial operations accounts for only a small part of the total revenue scale of Seazen Holdings. The key point is later: whether it is an operating property loan, a mortgage loan, or a collateral for the collateral of China Debt Enhancement and Counter Guarantee, Wuyue Plaza can provide considerable incremental financing for Seazen Holdings. For example, by the end of 2022, Seazen Holdings has used Wuyue Plaza to make a financing of 26 billion. This year, in response to investors' questions, Seazen Holdings mentioned that in 2023, Seazen Holdings will add new operating property loans with Wuyue Plaza as collateral, as well as other financing of about 14 billion yuan.
3. The troubles of the "post-85 boss".
"Boss" is a specific character setting in online novels, which originates from the genre of president essays. The characters in this setting are usually the affectionate president boss of Dorkin, who loves the heroine deeply and wants to be with her despite all difficulties.
If you look at it according to the setting of President Wen, Wang Xiaosong is a proper post-85 boss. Born in 1987, he once walked away from Xincheng Holdings because of marital problems. Tencent News "Prism" once reported that because Wang Xiaosong's marriage partner was not recognized by his father, the father and son turned against each other. Later, Wang Xiaosong's wife gave birth to a pair of twins, and the father and son got back together.
Different from Wang Zhenhua's radical personality, Wang Xiaosong is unanimously recognized by Xincheng people as thoughtful, humble and low-key. A former executive of Seazen Holdings also told "City Boundary" that Wang Xiaosong attaches more importance to the essence of Xincheng's corporate culture than his father Wang Zhenhua. For example, Wang Xiaosong has repeatedly explained his understanding to the outside world about the camel culture of Xincheng Holdings: you can take the longest road in the most difficult environment.
Today's Wang Xiaosong is walking the longest road. Even after making so many efforts, Wang Xiaosong was still questioned by the outside world, "Wang Xiaosong cannot replace his father Wang Zhenhua." The two-wheel drive of commercial + residential is still following the old way. In this regard, the former executive of the above-mentioned Xincheng Holdings gave such a sentence, "It is said that the innovation consciousness of young people is not as good as that of the elderly, I am afraid that not many people believe it, but maybe it is difficult to use it due to bad luck." ”
In the executive's view, there is not much time for Wang Xiaosong, and the opportunity is not good, and it is difficult for him to do subversive things. And that's exactly what happened. Looking at the current pattern, real estate is still in the environment of deep adjustment, and the performance growth rate of Seazen Holdings in 2023 is also slowing down. It can be said that "the real estate rivers and lakes have changed dramatically" is a fact that Wang Xiaosong has tried his best and cannot reverse, so that the current situation of Xincheng Holdings has deviated from the original track in some aspects. Feng Xiao, a former employee, complained about Wang Xiaosong and Xincheng Holdings.
Since the Wang Zhenhua scandal, Seazen Holdings has launched several rounds of layoffs, which makes it possible for regional companies, city companies, or at the project level, due to the shortage of personnel, one person has to do several people's things, working overtime until late every day, sometimes even until one or two o'clock in the morning. "Huge roll, and very tired!" Guo Xiao complained to the "city boundary".
Entering 2023, Guo Xiao is afraid of something, "The performance has been cut, the subsidy is gone, the 13th salary is gone, the basic salary has been reduced, and the year-end bonus promised by Mr. Xiao Wang has not been paid." Because of cost control, there is no promotion if there is a vacancy. Angry, Guo Xiao left. In this case, Wang Xiaosong himself also cut his salary. In 2022, Wang Xiaosong will cut his salary by 34%; In 2023, Wang Xiaosong will receive a salary of 4.32 million yuan, a decrease of 147,600 yuan, or 3.30%, compared with the salary received in the previous year.
Measures to reduce costs and increase efficiency continue. "City Boundary" understands that Seazen Holdings is reducing the lot and the poorly operated Wuyue Plaza, such as Huifeng Wuyue Plaza in Anqing, Anhui Province, which is an asset-light shopping mall. Seazen Holdings officially took over from the original Huifeng Plaza in 2021, and everyone originally expected Wuyue to give it a second spring.
But now, Zhang Xiao told the "City Boundary" that Huifeng Wuyue Plaza is about to be withdrawn, withdrawn, and the entire team has been disbanded. "This mall is in the old town and there is very little footfall. There are also problems with the positioning of shopping malls, with few types of shops and high floors. Zhang Xiao was part of the team that was disbanded.
Seazen's 2023 annual report shows that the non-current liabilities due within one year are about 19.3 billion yuan, and there are about 1.3 billion yuan of short-term borrowings. However, the monetary funds on the books of Seazen Holdings are about 19 billion yuan, excluding restricted funds, cash and cash equivalents, about 12.8 billion yuan. The difference between the two is about 7.8 billion yuan, which means that it is difficult for cash to cover short-term debt.
The worries are yet to come. Following the slowdown in performance growth in 2023, from January to May 2024, the performance of Seazen Holdings still did not improve: the cumulative contracted sales amount of Seazen Holdings was about 19.754 billion yuan, a decrease of 44.67% over the same period of the previous year.
▲ (Seazen Holdings stock price chart.) Source/Straight Flush)
Shrinking along with paper wealth. Wang Zhenhua incident, superimposed on the real estate changes, the stock prices of the three listed companies in the new city system have fallen all the way, falling by more than 80% in five years, and the market value has lost 180 billion. Wang Zhenhua's family wealth has also shrunk by eighty percent, from 43 billion yuan in 2020 to 7.2 billion yuan in 2024.
Wang Xiaosong is very clear about today's situation. At the meeting of the controlling shareholders of Xincheng held on May 28 this year, Wang Xiaosong said frankly that "the company's sales will continue to decline" and "the company's operating income will definitely decrease in the future".
As the saying goes, fight the tiger brothers, and go into battle with father and son. In this situation, I wonder if after Wang Zhenhua is released from prison, will Seazen Holdings once again usher in the era of father and son in power?
(Wang Zheng, Wu Jiang, Zhang Xiao, and Guo Xiao are pseudonyms in the article)
Author | Tao Ting
Edit | Sun Chunfang
Operations | Liu Shan