Xiaoxiang Morning News.
* |Jiemian News: Ding Benxi, the retired former president of Wanda Group, was suddenly rumored to have "lost contact".
On the evening of December 18, Wanda Hotel Development (00169HK) announced that since September 1, 2023, the board of directors has not been able to contact Ding, so he has not fulfilled his duties as a non-executive director.
The latest announcement of Wanda Hotel Development proposes to elect Liu Yingwu as Executive Director.
This means that Wanda Hotel and Ding Benxi have been missing for 108 days.
Wanda Hotel did not clarify the reason for Ding Benxi's disappearance in the announcement. Therefore, after the news was released, the outside world had some speculation about Ding Benxi's whereabouts, and whether he could not be contacted because of related issues.
In this regard, a person close to Wanda told Jiemian News that the replacement of directors of Wanda Hotel is a normal replacement of directors that expires after Ding Benxi's retirement. The announcement said that he could not be contacted, which should be caused by objective reasons such as the change of personal information, and the company has contacted Ding Benxi.
Ding Benxi, 68 years old this year, was once the "No. 2 person" of Wanda Group.
Born in 1955, Ding Benxi graduated from Chinese University and has served as the general manager of Hong Kong Yifeng Group Real Estate Investment Company, the general manager of Dalian Fengyuan Real Estate Company, and the assistant general manager of Dalian Ocean Company.
Since 2001, he has successively served as the general manager of Wanda Commercial Management and Development, the senior vice president of Wanda Group, and the president of Wanda Group from 2009 to January 2020.
In the development of Wanda Group in the past many years, Ding Benxi has been an important helper of Wang Jianlin, especially since 2009, when he became the president of Wanda Group and presided over the daily work.
At that time, Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, said that Wanda Commercial lacked talents, and Ding Benxi proposed a streamlined talent model, which solved the problem of Wanda's lack of talents at that time.
In 2014, Wanda vigorously promoted the listing of its two companies, Wanda Commercial and Wanda Film and Television, and set up a special internal team and appointed Ding Benxi as the team leader.
In 2016, when the real estate development industry was still on the rise, Wanda began to de-real estate, and Ding Benxi also led this reform. The adjustment made the maximum staffing of Wanda Commercial Headquarters not exceed 300 people, and at the same time, the three major project operation centers in the northern, central and southern districts were abolished, and the grassroots regional companies also strictly controlled the staffing.
During Ding's tenure as president of Wanda Group, Wanda's revenue and profit grew by more than double digits month-on-month for many years, from a company with an annual revenue of less than 40 billion yuan to a national enterprise with an annual revenue of nearly 300 billion yuan.
On January 3, 2020, Ding Benxi, then 65 years old, retired from his position as president of Wanda Group and chairman of Wanda Commercial Management, and he was replaced by Qi Jie.
Qi Jie currently serves as the president of Wanda Group, the chairman and president of Wanda Commercial Management, and he is also the professional manager who Wang Jianlin relied on after Ding Benxi's retirement.
The Wanda Hotel, which broke the news of Ding Benxi's disappearance, also completed a backdoor listing during his tenure as president of Wanda Group. The company, which went public in 2014, is currently responsible for the light asset management of 138 hotels.
Ding Benxi was the long-time chairman of the board of directors of Wanda Hotel. In April 2021, Ding Benxi stepped down as chairman but remained as a non-executive director.
At present, Wanda Hotel said that it will remove Ding Benxi as a non-executive director and select Liu Yingwu to replace Ding Benxi.
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