The whereabouts of star real estate manager Chen Kai have finally settled.
On November 3, some media reported that Excellence Group issued internal documents and appointed Chen Kai as the executive chairman of the group to lead the real estate development sector and asset operation sector.
At the same time, Wang Jiaxi of Chen Kai's old department was appointed as the vice president of Excellence Group and the general manager of Chongqing Company and the chairman of Chengdu Company, presiding over the daily work of Sichuan-Chongqing company.
On the afternoon of the same day, Excellence Group held a senior executive induction meeting at its headquarters in Shenzhen.
Chen Kai is a well-known professional manager in the real estate circle, who has performed his duties in China Resources, Longhu, Sunshine City and Zhongnan Real Estate, and has led real estate companies from one billion to ten billion, from ten billion to hundreds of billions.
Before joining Excellence Group, Chen Kai briefly stayed at Xinli Holdings. In March this year, Xinli Holdings announced that Chen Kai had been appointed co-chairman, chief executive officer and executive director, and just six months later, Xinli Holdings announced again that Chen Kai had offered to resign due to the need to devote more time to personal and other matters, effective October 1, 2020.
It is worth mentioning that Chen Kai is not the only executive of Xinli Holdings who has recently left. In October 2019, on the eve of the listing of Xinli Holdings, Wang Yan, vice president and chief financial officer, resigned; in May this year, She Runting, executive director and vice president of Xinli Holdings, also resigned.
After losing three core executives in a year, Xinli Holdings seems to be in the predicament of "unable to retain talents". After Chen Kai's departure, Xinli Holdings did not introduce a new manager, and the founder Zhang Yuanlin is currently the chairman and chief executive officer.
Xinli Holdings has proposed a sales target of 20% growth this year, which is close to 110 billion yuan based on last year's contracted sales of 91.4 billion. In the first three quarters of this year, Xinli Holdings achieved contracted sales of 73.42 billion yuan, and achieved two-thirds of the annual target.
Turn to excellence
Excellence Real Estate has been established for 24 years and is headquartered in Shenzhen. According to the official website, the total assets of Excellence Group exceed 190 billion yuan, and the total scale of asset management exceeds 100 billion yuan. The national development area exceeds 20 million square meters, the land reserve area exceeds 50 million square meters, and 70% of the reserves are in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
In 2018, Li Hua, chairman of Excellence Group, said in his New Year's speech, "The three-year goal of 100 billion yuan is within reach. That is to say, excellence group plans to exceed 100 billion yuan in sales in 2020.
According to the data of the Opinion Index Research Institute, the sales of the excellent group reached 98.1 billion in 2019, and it seems that it is not difficult to achieve only 2% growth in order to achieve the goal of 100 billion in 2020. In the first ten months of this year, Excellence Group has achieved nearly 80 billion sales, and only 20% of the 100 billion target is left.
However, The Excellence Group may face regulatory pressure. Due to its non-presence in the capital markets, the financial data of the Excellence Group is not well known. However, li hua's emphasis on "high soil reserves, high turnover, and strong financing" when he set the target of 100 billion yuan in that year has been difficult to achieve under the regulatory tone of reducing leverage. Is the introduction of Chen Kai to solve the debt problem? Can Chen Kai, who has created miracles twice, make excellence more remarkable? This personnel change has left the market with enough room for imagination.
However, Chen Kai's entry into excellence also needs to face the run-in with the existing management.
Excellence Group has undergone a number of personnel changes in recent years. After Wang Weifeng resigned last year and Vice President Sha Ji was replaced as EXECUTIVE President, Excellence successively ushered in the joining of veterans such as Li Honggeng of Longhu and Niu Wei of Vanke.
In April this year, after the resignation of Xu Chun, a veteran and vice president of Excellence, Excellence and Shenzhen Real Estate merged its two companies, Shenzhen Real Estate and Shenzhen Real Estate, to establish a Shenzhen company, with Sha Ji concurrently serving as the chairman and Bu Wei as the general manager.
Among the existing management, Executive President Sha Ji and General Manager of the Strategic Operation Department Niu Wei were born in Vanke; Vice President Li Honggeng was born in Longhu, but Chen Kai had already left when he joined Longhu; another vice president, Chen Lin, was the elder of Sunshine City, when Chen Kai was at the helm of Sunshine City, Chen Lin was still the general manager, promoted to vice president in 2017, and left from Sunshine City in 2018; the newly joined vice president Wang Jiaxi was Chen Kai's old department, and the two had intersected in longhu, Sunshine City, Zhongnan and other companies.
In the future, how to match between Executive Chairman Chen Kai and Executive President Sha Ji, and how to balance the energy between Excellence and its own startup company Bodhisattva Capital, are worth paying attention to.
A family of excellence
Although a manager has been introduced to run the company for many years, Excellence Group has always been a family-oriented business. For many years, Chairman Li Hua has been hiding behind the scenes to control the company, and the person who manages the company at the front desk is Li Hua's brother Li Xiaoping.
Li Hua, 54, whose original name was Li Xiaohua, served in the Shenzhen Municipal Youth League Committee in his early years and later went to the sea to do business. In the 1990s, he obtained Hong Kong resident status and founded excellence group, engaged in residential and commercial real estate development, and has developed benchmark projects such as excellence in the Côte d'Azur and Excellence Times Square.
Excellence Group started with the old. Public information shows that in 2013, Excellence Group made fierce efforts in the old reform project, and signed old reform projects with Guangming New District, Longhua New District and other places. According to the data, by the end of 2013, excellence group has signed a total of 30 old renovation projects, with a total construction area of more than 8.4 million square meters for development.
Excellence also almost "folded its wings" due to the old change. In early 2019, Li Hua was suspected of being involved in a corruption case of a senior official in Shenzhen because of an old reform project and was taken away to assist in the investigation.
Li Xiaoping, 62, also worked in the Shenzhen government department, and Li Hua followed him the whole time after starting his business. In 1991, when Shenzhen Yonggao Fashion, a company of excellence, was established, Li Xiaoping served as the chairman of the board, left at the end of the year, and served as the general manager of Shenzhen Yonggao from 1993 to 1996; since the departure of Shenzhen Yonggao, Li Xiaoping has been the vice chairman and president of Excellence Real Estate, responsible for the overall strategic development and major business decisions.
In addition to the outstanding real estate business, Li Xiaoping is also responsible for the excellent property management business, and has served as the chairman of the excellent property management since 1999. In October this year, excellence in the property sector of outstanding commercial and enterprise services (6989. HK) was spun off and listed, with Li Xiaoping as chairman and executive director, and Li Xiaoping's wife Xiao Xingping and son Li Yuan held 9.8% and 5.3% of the shares respectively in Excellence Commercial Enterprises, second only to the controlling shareholder Li Hua.
Li Hua, who came from the political circles, has a wide range of social identities. In addition to serving as a member of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Hong Kong, Li Hua is also the vice president of the Shenzhen Branch of the China Guangcai Promotion Association, the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong and Shenzhen Community Organizations, and an important member of the Shenzhen One Heart Club.
Li Hua's business connections are also very extensive, and in 2018, he attracted attention because of Liu Qiang's East Wind Wave. Reuters reported that during the Liu Qiangdong incident, an assistant of Liu Qiangdong contacted the woman and proposed that Li Hua be the mediator, but the woman refused.
Li Hua and Liu Qiangdong both participated in the Doctor of Business Administration program at the University of Minnesota, were classmates, and also married a "little wife". Similar to Liu Qiangdong and the "Milk Tea Sister", Li Hua's wife is 21 years younger than Qi and has run for Miss Asia.
According to industrial and commercial information, Li Hua's wife Tong Xiaoyan currently has three affiliated companies, involving investment, industry and cultural industries, and the core company Jinluan Investment has a registered capital of 50 million yuan, which is 99% held by Tong Xiaoyan and 1% held by Tong Yuanyuan.
The Events in Minnesota did not create a rift in the relationship between Li Hua and Liu Qiangdong. In October this year, when the outstanding commercial enterprises went public, JD.com and Tencent, as the second of the nine cornerstone investors, subscribed for $20 million and $45 million of shares, respectively.
However, the outstanding commercial enterprises have not performed well after listing, closing at HK$10.5 today, a discount of 1.68% from the issue price of HK$10.68, and the current market value is only HK$12.6 billion.