What should come will always come. On January 26, due to the fact that the ** price was lower than 1 yuan for 20 consecutive trading days, the Shenzhen ** Exchange (hereinafter referred to as the Shenzhen Stock Exchange) issued a notice that *ST Oceanwide (000046SZ) terminated its listing. *ST Oceanwide announced on the evening of February 6 that it was decided to terminate its listing by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and will be delisted on February 7. The listed company with the longest history of the "Oceanwide Department" finally came to an end. Oceanwide's boss Lu Zhiqiang is still on the stage. He worked as a civil servant and went into business in 1985. Three years later, China Oceanwide was established in Beijing, becoming one of the first private enterprises in China. After another 12 years, he led the transaction of backdoor Guangcai Construction, which pushed Oceanwide to the capital market. Originated in real estate, Wenda in finance, but also involved in energy and cultural tourism data information, spread overseasIt eventually became a private financial holding group in China. Although he has been in a predicament for more than three years, he has been riddled with all kinds of troubles and disputesHowever, Oceanwide and Lu Zhiqiang still have a good reputation, which is very different from the situation of enterprises and entrepreneurs after a large number of thunderstorms. In the face of the predicament of Oceanwide, the business community and the capital market are full of regrets. Compared with other insurance companies, Oceanwide has a lot of high-quality assets, while Lu Zhiqiang is generous, trustworthy, and struggling to support in the midst of ups and downs, neither large-scale layoffs, nor transfer assets to find a way out. Fortune is a rare moment. Although it started from real estate, Oceanwide has climbed to the top by relying on finance, and Lu Zhiqiang has never regarded Oceanwide as a developer internally. At its peak, Oceanwide held as many as 10 financial licensesSpanning the three major financial fields of trust, brokerage and insurance, it actually controls four listed company platforms, coinciding with the financial cycle of abundant liquidity, with strong financing cash flow, Oceanwide in one fell swoop"Make it big", the scenery is unique. It is in this kind of fortune that a business model of obtaining funds through financial operations and connecting all businesses from these funds has been shaped. In the prosperous era, Oceanwide was strong in capital, and physical business and assets gradually became the carrier of capital realization and further financingWith this model, Oceanwide was once unrivaled in the scope of private enterprises. However, success or failure is a failure. When the financial cycle shifts gears and the era of strong supervision comes, the capital center on which Oceanwide relies is under pressure, and the old model is no longer maintained. As a result, the outbreak of systemic debts gradually fell into difficulties and could not extricate themselves, coupled with the fact that individual executives faced business difficulties with their own selfish interests, Oceanwide finally prospered to the east. If Oceanwide had chosen to stick to real estate more than 10 years ago, rather than opening and closing in the financial sector, the current situation, although it would still be very difficult, may not have a moment of life and death. This is the real embarrassing thing about Oceanwide Elegy.
The turning point in the fate of Oceanwide began with Minsheng Trust. Oceanwide's business really started with real estate. At the turn of the century, Oceanwide developed Guangcai International Apartment near Beijing Gongti, and later built a huge Minsheng Financial Center on the side of Chang'an Avenue, and to Beijing's luxury benchmark Oceanwide International Residential Area, and then Wuhan's Wangjiadun CBD project. The land was acquired early, the plot was large, the first was low, and it had completely gone through the cycle of unilateral rise in China's housing prices, Oceanwide made a lot of profits, and also saved a family fund. After the abundant cash flow brought by real estate, Oceanwide began to expand into the financial sector. In 2012, Oceanwide acquired CTS Trust for 300 million yuan, and renamed Minsheng Trust the following year, headquartered in Beijing. CTS Trust is an old trust company, established in 1994, for a long time the business scale is not large, 300 million yuan was not a big expenditure at that time. However, post-mortem developments showedThis is not an "idle chess", but the first step of Oceanwide to turn to a financial strategy as a whole. Another year later, Oceanwide increased its capital to Minsheng Trust by 3 billion yuan, and then loaded it into Oceanwide Holdings, a listed company. This listed company was built through backdoor Guangcai Construction, and was later renamed Oceanwide Construction, and later renamed Oceanwide Holdings. Judging from the change of name, Oceanwide's strategic intention of "abandoning a single real estate and embracing finance" has been very obvious. After stepping on the ten-year cycle of real estateOceanwide has stepped on the cycle of abundant financial liquidity at the beginning. The demand for leveraged funds in the market has made the trust industry gradually assume the role of "shadow banking", and a large amount of funds have poured into the market through trusts. As a result, the performance of Minsheng Trust exploded, not only the scale of assets expanded rapidly, but also the operating profit rose rapidly, becoming the star business segment of Oceanwide Holdings. At that time, at the end of the year, the first award was basically Minsheng Trust, and the limelight far overshadowed real estate. In those years, the total annual profit of Oceanwide Holdings, the contribution of Minsheng Trust almost exceeded 1 3, and in some years it was even close to half. Such a performance has made Oceanwide see the value of financial business, and also strengthened its confidence in fully embracing the financial strategyOceanwide believes that with finance, it can become bigger and stronger. It was two years after Minsheng Trust was incorporated into the listed company that Oceanwide assigned another financial business to Oceanwide Holdings, which is Minsheng**. In fact, Oceanwide's layout of Minsheng ** is much earlier than Minsheng Trust. As early as around 2002, Oceanwide became its largest shareholder by increasing capital and shares, and at that time, Oceanwide's real estate business was still in its infancy. From the very beginning, Oceanwide was not satisfied with just being a developer.
The "success" of Minsheng Trust has encouraged Oceanwide to embrace finance more thoroughly. In 2015, Oceanwide made another move into the insurance field. Through its subsidiary, Wuhan CBD, Oceanwide initiated a deal with Asia-Pacific P&C Insurance, eventually controlling a 51% stake in the insurance company. Prior to this, there was no precedent for a private company to hold more than 50% of an insurance company's shares. At that time, it was evident how strong Oceanwide was. In this deal,The boss's circle of friends played no small role. Several private enterprises that participated in this transaction with Oceanwide include Yili, Xinhualian and Huiyuan, and they have been very close to each other in terms of communication between companies and bosses. For example, Macrolink has issued trust financing through Minsheng Trust. This is the period of "great development" of Oceanwide, and the layout is large and the essentials are accurate, which makes the entire business community look sideways. In 2021, the 7th year of Oceanwide proposing transition finance, Oceanwide already owns companies licensed to operate, such as Minsheng Trust, Minsheng **, Minsheng Wealth, Asia Pacific Property Insurance, Minsheng **, Minsheng Pawn, and Minsheng Insurance Brokers. At this stage, Oceanwide actually controls Oceanwide Holdings, Minsheng Holdings (000416SZ) two A-share listed company platforms. In Hong Kong, Oceanwide also controls China Oceanwide Holdings (000715HK), China Tonghai Finance (000952HK) two listed companies. In addition, Oceanwide also participated in Legend Holdings (03396.).HK), Minsheng Bank (600016SH), Bohai Bank (09668hk）。The "financial control" structure has long been formed, and Oceanwide has gradually become a company with "operating capital". Trusts, brokers, insurance, wealth management and even pawn business have become the tentacles and grips of operating funds; The four listed company platforms actually controlled can also obtain large amounts of financing through capital operation. The two banks in which they have a stake can easily obtain related party loans, and they are relatively cheap. In this way,Oceanwide has brought together a huge flow of fundsAllocate these funds, invest in the business of different entities, realize the appreciation of funds and then exit, and become the center of Oceanwide's business model. For a long time, "Oceanwide is very rich" is a well-known fact in the Chinese business community. During this time, Oceanwide expanded its business overseas, investing in power plant projects in Indonesia and five real estate projects in the United States. At that time, there was a trend in China's business community to go overseas, and Oceanwide's overseas layout was wide open and closed. Oceanwide has also taken action to acquire Genworth, a U.S. financial group listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with a transaction amount of up to $2.7 billion. Genworth is the largest long-term care insurer in the U.S., but eventually abandoned it due to U.S. regulatory scrutiny. In those years, Oceanwide also supported China's IDG Capital to buy IDG in the United States and took over the digital and media business itself. A territory connecting domestic and foreign countries, with business layout across finance and industry, has been established. No matter from what point of view, this layout reflects Lu Zhiqiang's grand strategy. Just one problem seems to be overlooked:Is the money used to set up the big picture your own, or is it borrowed?
In a liquid financial cycle, high debt ratios are not too much of a problem. The co-founder of a Hong Kong-listed real estate company once made a bold statement at that time: which real estate company has a debt ratio of less than 80%, I think this company is lacking in development. However, he also ignored or could not have anticipatedThe cycle has begun. Oceanwide's decision-makers are not unaware of this. A friend who understands the situation said that since 2017, Oceanwide has consciously controlled its debts, hoping to reduce the debt ratio and total debt. Judging from the data, this work has also achieved certain results. Publicly disclosed financial data shows that by 2020, China Oceanwide's interest-bearing liabilities had fallen to more than 140 billion yuan, nearly 60 billion less than in 2017. As big as Oceanwide, the difficulty of reducing debt can be imagined, and such a result can also be a performance. However, the drastic changes in the market brought about by the cycle switch are far faster than the pace of Oceanwide debt reduction. This time,The turning point still happened in Minsheng Trust. In 2015, Minsheng Trust issued a trust to a company in Wuhan to raise funds. The collateral is a bit interesting, it's gold bars. In order to reassure the trust company, the company also went to the insurance company to take out insurance. However, in 2020, various circumstances will trigger an absurd sceneAfter testing, the ** used as collateral is actually fakeThis triggered a crisis in the redemption of trust financing. The parties involved have their own opinions, and the insurance company has not reached a conclusion on whether to settle the claim, but the trust has been sold, and the urgent issue of paying the trust to investors is in front of us. In 2020, the financial pressure has been revealed. The company's decision-makers have been actively defusing potential crises. However, the fake ** incident came suddenly, and Minsheng Trust is also said to be a victim of the fake ** case, however, investors can't manage so much, they are buying products from Minsheng Trust, and if there is a problem, they will find Minsheng Trust. In other words, other companies, I am afraid that they will continue to "rip off" on this issue, and if they also have insurance, whether to pay investors after insurance compensation, which can provide enough space for "ripping". After a year or two of lawsuits, there will eventually be an explanation. StillOceanwide's senior management attaches great importance to "reputation".Therefore, instead of making the above choice, after careful consideration, it was decided to pay the investor first. In this way, under the circumstance that the liability and compensation for the fake ** case have not yet been clarified, Oceanwide has first cashed out to the investors who purchased Minsheng Trust. This is a move full of "righteousness", and such a payment is rare in China's financial market. The investor's problem was solved, and Oceanwide shouldered the burden.
Under the sudden changes in the market environment, the performance of Minsheng Trust fell into turmoil. Bidding farewell to the cycle of abundant liquidity, it is difficult for enterprises that issue trust financing to refinance and pay, and the entire trust industry is shrouded in thunder. The tide receded, and some illegal operations such as radish chapters and fake mortgages began to surfaceSeveral big thunders in the trust market, Minsheng Trust have stepped on. The trust that Oceanwide finally decided to redeem in advance was not small, which brought certain pressure to the entire capital chain of Oceanwide at that time. Since then, Oceanwide has faced even greater financial pressure. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the payment of a number of products of Minsheng Trust was delayed, and unease spread among investors and institutional marketsFinally, in the first quarter of 2021, it caused a double kill of stocks and bonds. Of course, Lu Zhiqiang realized the seriousness of the problem, and he quickly returned to China after being treated abroad, and wrote a letter to investors in his own name, indicating that he would ensure payment by introducing new strategic investment and accelerating asset disposal. The letter did have the effect of calming the marketLu Zhiqiang's reputation played a role at this timeInvestors and institutions also know that Oceanwide is not a shell company, and there are many high-quality assets that can be disposed of as soon as possible, and the problem is not unsolved. Oceanwide's operation also showed no sign of debt evasion. A friend from an investment institution said that at that time, everyone in the circle knew that as long as the price was right, Oceanwide had to repay its debts, and there was nothing that could not be sold. There has been news circulating in the circle of investment institutionsOceanwide tried to introduce war investment at the level of Oceanwide HoldingsIn this way, strategic investors can obtain a number of valuable financial licenses by investing in Oceanwide Holdings. However, it is difficult to implement this seemingly cost-effective transaction, because the regulator has the requirement of "one participation and one control" for the holding of financial institutions, and there are very few enterprises and institutions with this financial strength and qualifications, and most of them have achieved "one participation and one control", and there are almost no people who can intervene at the level of Oceanwide Holdings. This plan was finally abandoned, and Oceanwide began to separate ** assets. Among the assets on the shelves, there are many high-quality assets such as Minsheng Trust equity, Minsheng ** equity, and Minsheng Financial Center property rightsFor Minsheng Trust and Minsheng **, which hold trust and brokerage licenses, Oceanwide even does not hesitate to give up control. At this time, due to the flow of funds within the system, the pressure of redemption has also been transmitted to other business sectors, and the compliance issues of some operations in the field of wealth management have gradually surfaced**The speed at which assets are solving problems cannot keep up with the increase in financial pressure. As a result, the huge Oceanwide fell into a predicament.
Compared with Minsheng Trust, Minsheng's performance is stable, and the brokerage license is a scarce resource. In order to repay the debt, Oceanwide began to look for buyers for people's livelihood**, howeverThe ** of this high-quality asset has been full of twists and turns. This situation is related to a person named Feng Henian, who has served as the chairman of Minsheng ** for a long time, and also served in Oceanwide Holdings. Unlike most of the executives of the Oceanwide System, Feng Henian was not born in the Oceanwide System. He has worked in the regulatory department for many years, and was introduced as a "financial expert" by Oceanwide in the era of strategic transformation to finance. He joined Oceanwide around 2015, and once won the trust of Oceanwide's senior management, entrusted him with the important responsibilities of chairman of Minsheng ** and director of Oceanwide Holdings, and gave him a high salary. According to the information disclosed by Oceanwide Holdings, director Feng Henian's pre-tax salary in 2020 is 60240,000 yuan, ranking first among the executives of listed companies. In addition, he also has the corresponding Minsheng ** shares, and his income is very high. Now it seems,After all, this is like a "wrong payment". In the face of the situation of repaying debts in the face of Oceanwide's people's livelihood, he has his own abacus. Since 2020, Minsheng ** has experienced a dazzling array of equity transactions, through capital increase and share expansion, equity transfer, etc., Minsheng ** has introduced more than 30 investors, Oceanwide Holdings has also transferred the shares of Minsheng ** to three employee shareholding platforms, and the place of registration has also been transferred from Beijing to Shanghai. After several operations,The equity of Minsheng ** was "shredded and sold", and it once became a brokerage company with no actual controller and no controlling shareholder. This is Feng Henian's "abacus", he once won deep trust, trying to transform Minsheng ** into a company controlled by insiders and management under the pattern of no controlling shareholder and no actual controller, and the biggest beneficiary is himself, and to achieve this change, it is necessary to make the shareholding structure highly dispersed. And he did, and at one point he came close to successPeople's livelihood was finally separated from the Oceanwide control system. Under the idea of "chopping and selling", because it is impossible for a buyer to gain control, ** is greatly discounted. Another brokerage company that transferred equity in the same period once asked for 8 billion yuan, and its asset quality was not as good as that of people's livelihood. If, during this period, Minsheng ** can transfer shares with control, then the large price of the sale may bring a turnaround to Oceanwide. However, there was no if, and Oceanwide missed this opportunity. Feng Henian didn't get the ending he wanted in the end. He was investigated in 2022.
Feng's actions also brought about two "joint effects". First, the disputes brought about by the bulk sale of shares continued; Second, after the re-domiciliation, the management and control relationship is more complex, which increases the uncertainty for further negotiation of equity transfer matters. Since a lot of the equity of Minsheng ** has been pledged, theoretically it should be released first and then transferred. However, in the process of selling equity in bulk, the transfer money has often been collected, but factors such as equity pledge make it impossible to transfer the equity to the acquirer. In this way, justNew debt disputes are formed, which often trigger new lawsuits. The debt dispute of Beijing Lion Asset Management, hereinafter referred to as "Lion Asset Management"), which led to the "pre-reorganization" of Oceanwide, was triggered by this. In November 2020, Lion Asset Management bought 200 million shares of Minsheng from Oceanwide Holdings, and paid half of the transfer price of 13.6 billion, but due to the fact that the equity of Minsheng ** was later frozen and could not be transferred, and Oceanwide Holdings did not return the funds, which caused disputes, Lion King Assets finally applied to the court for pre-reorganization. From this,Oceanwide Holdings began to embark on the road of delisting. Oceanwide, which has lost control of people's livelihood, is constantly falling into the dilemma of asset waiting to be frozen. The creditors know very well that the most valuable assets are Oceanwide Holdings and Minsheng's 3103% equity. Finally,The creditor Shandong High-speed came out and froze this part of the equity in the form of over-freezingIn the end, Oceanwide could only accept the outcome of this part of the equity being auctioned by the judiciary. One day in March 2023, the auction began, and the intensity of competition could explain the value of Minsheng**'s equity. After 162 rounds of bidding, the Guolian with the background of Wuxi state-owned assets won at a cost of 910.5 billion yuan. This is a good **, however, for this funding, Oceanwide Holdings has lost its initiative, and it will be prioritized for repaying the debts of the auction promoters. Oceanwide is still trying to repay its debts, and most of its overseas assets in its heyday have been discounted, and the Minsheng Financial Center on Chang'an Avenue, which is also worth its value, is also waiting to be sold. Lu Zhiqiang himself was also restricted from high consumption, but neither the company nor himself saw any signs of evading debts or seeking a way out. This is a story of ambition, daring, luck, mispayment and even betrayalThese elements come together to form an elegy for the ocean. The reason why it is embarrassing is not only because of the emotion of "Zhong Mingding eats and scatters for a while", but also because he is the epitome of the fate of more adventurers. If you get on stage, you won't get off easily.