Wan Long, the 81-year-old head of Shuanghui Group, recently resigned as the company's chief executive and deposed "Prince" Wan Hongjian and made Wan Long's second son vice chairman of the company's board of directors. Wan Hongjian once clashed with his father Wan Long over the selection of THE CEO and ended in a head-on glass bloodshed, and later issued a document exposing his father's "crime": leaving his wife in Luohe and living with his female secretary Shen Ruifang for 20 years, privately collecting consideration of US$200 million during the Shuanghui restructuring period without declaring unpaid taxes, and forcibly increasing the price of frozen meat exported from Smith from the United States to China, causing losses of up to 800 million yuan to Shuanghui. Pile by pile, beckoning deadly.
Produced by YOUNG Finance (Guangzhou)
Author Tanikoshi
Edited by Xu Aizhi ([email protected])
On August 12, when Wanzhou International, a listed company of the "Pork King" Shuanghui Group in Hong Kong, announced that wanlong, the 81-year-old head, had resigned as the company's chief executive, and wan hongwei, the second son of wanlong, had succeeded his brother Wan Hongjian as the vice chairman of the company's board of directors.
Bandung with sons
Bandung
Wan Hongjian
Wan Hongwei
Wan Hongjian, the deposed "prince," showed great generosity, saying he wanted to "congratulate his brother" and send him a congratulatory text message. This is not the pity of the loser, but the true feelings of the brother. In the eyes of Wan Hongjian, his younger brother Wan Hongwei is "kind and indisputable from the world." In the shocking office clash two months ago, only Wan Hongwei finally wiped the blood from his forehead for his brother.
At this moment, the cruel and ruthless family power struggle was replaced by a vein of kinship that was thicker than water.
This warmth, as father and son, Wan Long and Wan Hongjian also had - 13 years ago, for Wan Hongwei to buy a bakery in Shanghai, they once stood side by side to face dozens of people dressed in black who came to maliciously collect debts. It was the "happiest and most valuable moment" in Wan Hongjian's life.
But now everything is gone with the break between father and son. All that's left is resentment.
On the evening of August 17, five days after WH Group's announcement, Wan Hongjian began to fight back, declaring war on his father with a piece of paper.
In this article, Wan Hongjian details Wanlong's "four deadly crimes", including embezzlement of team stocks, illegal related party transactions, evasion of huge taxes, and long-term marriage with secretary Shen Ruifang.
WH's response was "untrue and misleading.".
The palace fight drama of the Wan father and son, from the inside to the outside, everything seems to have just begun.
Court "Blood Case"
In terms of self-exposure of family ugliness, the "scale" of Shuanghui is so large that it has definitely set a record for Listed Companies in China.
On June 17, WH Group issued an announcement to dismiss Wan Hongjian from his position as a director and terminate his position as an executive director and vice president with immediate effect. The reason for the dismissal was "bizarre": "Due to Mr. Wan's recent improper attack on the Company's property".
According to Wan Hongjian's active revelations since then, the so-called "improper attack behavior" refers to: because of his emotions, he smashed his fist into the door against the wall in his father's office and hit the glass wall cabinet of the office with his head, causing his head to break and bleed.
Why did Wan Hongjian make a big fuss about his father's office and take inappropriate attacks?
According to himself, on June 3, he went to his father's office on the 76th floor of the Global Commerce Plaza in Kowloon, Hong Kong, to discuss the selection of THE CEO of Wanzhou International. Unexpectedly, his father was furious and asked where he had learned about the PROMOTION of the CEO. Not only was he taught by his father, but outside the office, Wan Hongjian was also reprimanded by Shen Ruifang, the secretary of Wanlong.
The anger in Wan Hongjian's heart was completely ignited. In a frenzy, he slammed his fist on the door and banged his head against the cabinet to vent his dissatisfaction. In the end, covered in blood, he was crushed to the ground by the company's security guards and his father's bodyguards.
However, what made Wan Hongjian feel cold was that seeing his son's blood spattered in the office, his father not only did not have a hint of pity, but let the on-site personnel take pictures to collect evidence. Not only that, but two weeks later, the company also issued an announcement announcing that it would be relieved of all positions in the company.
It's not just about dispensing with a public company executive. In fact, Wan Hongjian has a special status, he was once recognized by the outside world as the "prince" of Shuanghui and the successor of Wanlong.
However, Wan Hongjian is not a "lying to win" stupid disciple. At least, from the perspective of experience, he has grown up from the bottom and step by step.
Wan Hongjian, 53, graduated from Henan Radio and Television University in 1990 with a major in business enterprise management and entered the Henan Luohe Meat Factory (the predecessor of Shuanghui Group) run by his father. He started as a worker in the cooked food workshop, then transformed into sales, and finally entered the management of Shuanghui, which can be called the elder of the company.
In 2016, Wan Hongjian ushered in the highlight of his life when he was appointed as the vice president of WH Group International (renamed from Shuanghui International in January 2014), a listed company in Hong Kong, in charge of international trade business.
This appointment, interpreted by the outside world, wan Hongjian began to enter the power core of the Shuanghui business empire and is expected to become the successor of Bandung. It should be known that WH Group is the head of Shuanghui Bandung, which was listed in Hong Kong after spending huge sums of money to acquire us pork giant Smithfield in 2013. Bandung, on the other hand, has also been vigorously promoting the development of the American meat business in China. The eldest son, Wan Hongjian, is in charge of international trade business, which shows the high expectations of his father Wan Long.
In 2018, Wan Hongjian entered the board of directors of WH International and became an executive director and vice chairman for a three-year term. In April this year, Wan Hongjian was successfully re-elected.
Everything seems to be moving in a predetermined direction, and it is no surprise that Wan Hongjian will succeed his father Wan Long and take charge of the Shuanghui business empire.
However, just two months later, the plot was completely reversed.
Bandung figure from the network
Prince "Trespass"
Dragons have reverse scales, and if they touch them, they will die. Wan Hongjian, the "prince of Wanzhou", was suddenly deposed, which seemed to force the palace to be abolished, but according to Wan Hongjian, the father-son gap had actually arisen as early as 8 years ago. The advice of June 3 this year was only the last straw that crushed the camel.
In 2013, Shuanghui wholly acquired Smithfield, the largest pig breeding company in the United States, for US$7.1 billion, setting a record for Sino-US mergers and acquisitions at that time.
Why buy Smithfield?
Bandung believes that U.S. pork is cheap, and even if pork imported from the United States to China, the price is much lower than the price of local Chinese meat. China is the world's largest pork consumer, and the market is huge.
In addition, Bandung also hopes to promote Western-style foods such as ham, bacon and hot dogs in China. To this end, he later invested 800 million yuan to build a food processing plant in Zhengzhou, specializing in the production of these Western-style products.
Wan Hongjian disagreed with his father. In addition to the fact that the funds of this acquisition are too large and the risk is too high (Shuanghui and a number of banks have a total loan of 4 billion US dollars), but also because importing pork from the United States and developing "frozen meat" is equivalent to negating the "cold fresh meat" strategy that Shuanghui has previously implemented for many years, which will cause the original production and marketing system to suffer a serious blow.
For the promotion of Western-style foods such as ham and bacon, especially the huge amount of money to build a factory in Zhengzhou, Wan Hongjian is even more resolutely opposed. He believes that Western-style food is difficult to become popular in China, and Shuanghui should still vigorously develop Chinese-style products in view of the situation in the Chinese market. After the day, Western-style products such as bacon failed to become popular in China, and directly led to the annual loss of hundreds of millions of yuan in The Zhengzhou Food Factory undoubtedly gave Wan Hongjian a "mouthful".
Wan Hongjian, who resolutely opposed his father's strategy of "emphasizing beauty over china," even resigned. Of course, he returned to the company two years later.
Since no one can convince anyone, let's do our own thing.
Since 2018, Wan Hongjian has begun to organize personnel to vigorously develop and sell Chinese products. Bandung was very disgusted by this, not only repeatedly admonishing his son not to do so, but also sending people to "obstruct" from many aspects.
Wan Hongjian's Chinese product strategy is not welcome because there are more product categories and obvious regionalization characteristics, which are purely "losing money and making money". Bottom line: It is difficult for Chinese products to achieve industrial production like Western products.
Wan Hongjian believes that for the new track of Chinese products, it is necessary to have a strategic vision, not short-sightedness, and cannot ask for money in the early stage.
In 2020, Wanlong proposed that Shuanghui will still adhere to the strategy of developing Western-style products, while requiring the industrialization of Chinese-style products. This triggered Wan Hongjian's dissatisfaction.
At the "WH-Shuanghui" video conference in November 2020, Wan Hongjian publicly proposed that the American product strategy has been proved unworkable by the market and should be abandoned in favor of chinese products as newborn babies.
Wan Hongjian's remarks are tantamount to completely negating his father Wan Long. The contradiction between father and son that had accumulated for many years broke out completely. This also became the direct reason for Wan Hongjian's future dismissal.
"You've been a liar all your life," Wan Long scolded Wan Hongjian in a clash on June 3 this year— a father's disappointment and hatred for his son.
Some analysts believe that Wanlong once had heavy responsibilities and high hopes for Wan Hongjian, but this son not only did not do a good job, but worked against himself everywhere, which he absolutely could not tolerate and accept.
Bandung's authority is unquestionable, nor is his own son!
Within Shuanghui, Bandung is synonymous with power. Since childhood, he has suffered from the hardships of life, coupled with the fact that Bandung, who was born in the army, is bold and decisive, saying one thing or the other, even to the point of arbitrariness. This can be seen from the fact that he reformed the Luohe Meat Joint Factory with an iron fist and fired a number of deputy factory directors in one go.
Wan Hongjian admitted that although he has made many comments since 2013, his father basically disdains to listen. And when it comes to making a different business proposition than his father,he even needs to drink alcohol to be bold.
After the june 3 clashes, Wan Hongjian publicly shelled his father for his lust for the scepter, persuading him to really let go. Not only that, but he also exhorted his younger brother Wan Hongwei, who succeeded him, with "personal pain": It is very dangerous to be too close to his father's throne, and it is best not to speak.
Giants " Leftovers "
Along with Wan Hongjian's "deposed" and Wan Hongwei's "ascension to the throne", the storm of Shuanghui successors who made a lot of noise finally settled.
WH Group's latest power structure is that Wanlong resigns as Chief Executive Officer, but retains a number of positions including Chairman of the Board of Directors; Guo Lijun, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, succeeds Wan Long as Chief Executive Officer; and Wan Hongwei is promoted to Executive Director and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.
This arrangement was interpreted by the outside world as Wanlong still refused to delegate power and wanted to be the "Emperor Taishang". Wan Hongjian also revealed that his father intends to serve for more than 5 years and has no succession plan.
However, in a recent telephone exchange meeting, for the adjustment of WH Group's senior personnel, Wanlong explained it like this: "One is the need for normal work, and the other is to prepare for future retirement."
Wanlong said that Guo Lijun has worked in WH International for many years, and his professionalism is strong, and the team is reasonably equipped, which is a suitable candidate for CEO.
As for Wan Hongwei, he has the experience of studying and working abroad, and has also worked in Shuanghui for a period of time, which is basically mature. It will only take a while to observe and then hand over the chairmanship of the board to him at the right time.
Wanlong stressed that it is necessary to be conscientious and conscientious to the enterprise and must meet its own expectations. Therefore, for the new team, it is necessary to "help the horse to send a ride, and when the conditions are ripe, it will be handed over as soon as possible; if it is not mature, it is not in a hurry." ”
Bandung regarded the adjustment of WH Group as one of the "3 correct things" in this life, saying that it believed that the team it was equipped with was suitable, could withstand the test, and was full of confidence in them.
What kind of experience did Wan Hongwei, the successor of Wan Long, have, and can he take on the heavy responsibility of the Shuanghui Dynasty ZTE?
Wan Hongwei, 47, graduated from York University in Toronto, Canada in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. After returning to China, he served as the secretary of the chairman of Shuanghui Group, the assistant to the chairman of WH Group, and the chairman of the board of directors of Shuanghui Development.
Judging from their resumes, Wan Hongwei and Wan Hongjian belong to completely different types of successors: Wan Hongjian is a practical school that represents the Chinese tradition and grows up from the bottom; Wan Hongwei is a veritable turtle who has always taken the "upper route", especially he participated in the acquisition of the American enterprise Smithfield by Shuanghui Group in the early years.
In this way, the choice of Wan Hongwei seems to be more able to implement Bandung's internationalization strategy.
In the aforementioned conference call, Wan Hongjian, who was relegated to "Shuren", did not mention a word.
Wan Hongjian, on the other hand, seems to have become disheartened with WH International. He said that in the future, he will not return to WH Group, but will start his own business and open a store in Hong Kong to sell Chinese pork products such as pork head meat, elbows and braised pork.
These are precisely the businesses that he has been promoting in WH International before.
This Henan man, who looked exactly like his father, was as stubborn as his old man.
However, the story is not over, on the contrary, it is just beginning.
On the evening of August 17, five days after WH International swept Wan Hongjian out of the house, Wan Hongjian began to fight back, exposing his father's four major crimes with a long article.
The four charges are: 1. Under the pretext of successful acquisition of Smithfield, the secretary and the secretary rewarded themselves with more than HK$5 billion, and also took the 350 million shares of WH that had been promised to the management team;
2. Ignoring the strong opposition of domestic Shuanghui managers, he forcibly raised the price of frozen meat exported from Smith from the United States to China, and eventually caused losses of up to 800 million yuan to Shuanghui;
3. In the final stage of the restructuring of Shuanghui state-owned enterprises in 2007, the transaction consideration of US$200 million of shares obtained privately was concealed, and so far no tax has been paid;
4. He has lived with his secretary Shen Ruifang for nearly 20 years, but ruthlessly abandoned his wife alone in Luohe.
Regarding the above four major crimes, WH International's response was somewhat understated: "untrue and misleading".
This palace fight drama of the Wan father and son is gradually entering a climax.