Even when she became the chairman of the board of directors of Country Garden Group, Yang Huiyan's clothes were still simple, she did not like to be public, she acted in a low-key manner, and her style was just like her father Yang Guoqiang. But in the face of Country Garden's unprecedented difficulties, the "richest woman", who has been low-key for many years, had to release public appearance information every now and then.
On January 15, Country Garden Group updated Yang Huiyan's latest **, with neat short hair and a gray coat, she appeared at the Country Garden Annual Work Conference. In the face of the current difficulties, Yang Huiyan said that the family will definitely "breathe and share the same fate" with the company, "Although the company is facing difficulties now, the dream Country Garden has never changed." ”
The year 2023 that has just passed is undoubtedly an unforgettable year for Yang Huiyan. In March 2023, Yang Huiyan succeeded Yang Guoqiang, the founder of Country Garden, as the chairman of the board of directors of Country Garden Group. For this day, she has been preparing for more than ten years, and finally waited for the day of the transfer of power.
At the beginning of her tenure, Yang spoke confidently and calmly about her views on the company's strategy, business mergers and acquisitions, and the "family business". However, after stepping into the real business torrent, Yang Huiyan did not wait for the new show of her career, but ran into the biggest storm of Country Garden.
After 11 months at the helm of Country Garden, "ensuring delivery, operation, and credit" has become Yang Huiyan's top priority in 2023. In order to make the company "survive", Miss Yang Er had to do everything she could to sell assets, reduce debts, and auction equity.
Today, Country Garden is still struggling with a liquidity crisis, but Yang Huiyan still has not given up hope. "The market can't go up forever, it can't go down forever, the market is always there. Country Garden's management emphasized this at the 2024 annual work conference.
Miss Yang Er's first year (2018) performance meeting as the co-chairman of Country Garden, there was ** raised the microphone in front of Yang Guoqiang and asked him, "As a father, please give Chairman Yang an evaluation", Yang Guoqiang thought about it and wittily replied with authentic Shunde English, "Very good." ”
In fact, Yang Huiyan, who was nicknamed "Doudou" by her parents since she was a child, had the earliest dream of becoming a teacher. However, in the face of the family's responsibilities, even if she is a beautiful girl in the family, Yang Huiyan cannot choose the path she likes, and can only accept her father's arrangement.
Yang Huiyan has been cultivated as a Country Garden ** person since she was a child, and she was taken by her father in and out of the company and audited various meetings when she was a teenager. Yang Guoqiang admires Li Ka-shing the most, and when Yang Huiyan was studying in college in the United States, Yang Guoqiang also let Yang Huiyan earn tuition while working like Li Ka-shing taught his son.
In order to cultivate Yang Huiyan in an all-round way, Yang Guoqiang can be said to teach by word and deed. According to ** report, after the meeting, Yang Guoqiang will tell her again about the meaning of what kind of words are said in the meeting, and even how to criticize his subordinates. Not only that, before Country Garden went public, Yang Guoqiang gave 70% of his holdings to Yang Huiyan at once.
In 2007, Country Garden's market value reached 118.9 billion Hong Kong dollars on the day of its listing in Hong Kong, and overnight, Yang Huiyan, who was only 25 years old, was crowned the "richest woman in China" by her father and became the richest woman in Asia.
* Country Garden Group***
At that time, the American "International Herald Tribune" once reported: "Her personal wealth has surpassed that of Soros, Apple's Steve Jobs and media mogul Murdoch." In an article titled "Daddy's Girl" in Forbes, Yang Huiyan's position as the richest man was attributed to "having a good father and the wealth inflation brought about by going public."
Standing on her father's shoulders, the young Yang Huiyan became the "richest woman" in the spotlight, and has climbed to the top ten times since then. But it was accompanied by invisible pressure from his father. How to be a good person in Country Garden has become Yang Huiyan's life responsibility.
Under the cultivation of her father, Yang Huiyan climbed all the way. In 2005, at the age of 25, Yeung Wai Yin joined Country Garden as soon as she graduated and was appointed as an Executive Director in 2006. In 2011, Yang Huiyan took charge of Country Garden's procurement business. In March 2012, she was promoted to Vice Chairman of Country Garden and officially entered the core management team.
In her father's journey, Yang Huiyan grew up very fast. Since 2018, Yang Huiyan has been re-designated from Vice Chairman of Country Garden to Co-Chairman, co-managing the daily work of the Group and responsible for the Group's strategic planning.
For the next four years, Yang Huiyan was mainly responsible for assisting her father in the day-to-day work of the group, and making new explorations of the group's strategic investments and existing businesses. Yang Guoqiang also praised his daughter, and he praised his daughter for her steady personality and clear thinking.
However, Yang Huiyan does not want to only be the "symbolic representative" of the family, she longs not only to gain her father's approval, but to step out of her father's halo.
At the first performance meeting of the chairman of the board of directors, Yang Huiyan said that she believes that Country Garden is "not a family business" and positions herself as a "professional manager".
That was the first time Yang Hye-yeon publicly tore off the "family" label. Prior to this, Yang Huiyan had never been able to get rid of the influence of her father Yang Guoqiang. Whether it is wealth or status, it is all given to her by her father. On the eve of the handover, Yang Guoqiang still has unparalleled influence within the company.
Even Yang Guoqiang, who is regarded as a model of handover, still kept a hand when handing over power. On the day of the official announcement of his resignation as chairman of the board of directors of Country Garden, Yang Guoqiang, who was committed to everything, was still working.
But Yang Huiyan, who took over the "scepter", is no longer thinking about how to obtain her father's authoritative approval, but how to rely on her own strength to become the "queen" who really has the right to speak in the group.
But if she wants to turn over and become a one-sided talker, Yang Huiyan needs to prove herself with actions.
It's a pity that the giant ship that Yang Huiyan jumped on did not catch up with the smooth sailing. Soon, the ship was lost in a raging storm. But at the beginning of her tenure, Miss Yang Er did not expect the situation to take a sharp turn for the worse.
A year ago, Yang Guoqiang also said at the annual meeting within Country Garden that he "saw the dawn". In March 2023, Yang Huiyan used this sentence in her annual report to look forward to the future, "The cold has passed, and the warm spring is coming." She also said that in the next three to five years, the proportion of development and sales in first- and second-tier cities will be increased.
Internally, Yang Huiyan has already made a move. Three days after the results meeting, Country Garden's 58 regional companies were cut to only 29. At that time, Country Garden's sales showed some signs of improvement, with sales of 22 billion yuan in January 2023 and 25 billion yuan in March.
However, the "little spring" in the first quarter was only a flashback, and after entering the second quarter, Country Garden not only was not optimistic in sales, but also stumbled along the way in financing. In July last year, Country Garden's sales quickly slipped to 12 billion yuan, and Country Garden suddenly fell into the whirlpool of stocks and bonds.
Yang Huiyan, who originally wanted to make a big move, hit the throes of the real estate downward cycle head-on, and a series of bad news followed. At the crisis moment of lack of money, Yang Huiyan's charitable donation caused widespread discussion.
On July 30, 2023, Yang Huiyan donated 20% of the shares of Country Garden Services to the Guoqiang Public Welfare Association, totaling RMB 6.4 billion. At that time, the largest real estate company in the universe had entered the eve of danger.
On August 11, Country Garden officially sounded the debt alarm, and all 11 of its domestic bonds were suspended from the opening of the market the next day. The total balance of bonds is 15.7 billion yuan, of which the earliest maturity is the 3.9 billion yuan private placement bond "16 Bidi 05" to be redeemed on September 2, 2023.
Country Garden said that the company encountered the biggest difficulty since its establishment, and incidentally issued a profit warning announcement that shocked the market, "In the first half of 2023, Country Garden's net loss will be between 45 billion yuan and 55 billion yuan." ”
Along with the danger signal, a letter of apology signed by Yang Huiyan and President Mo Bin was released at the same time. In the letter, Ms. Yang wrote, "We feel very guilty, no matter how many reasons, it is true that we have not done a good enough job," and vowed to do everything in our power to turn the situation around.
However, after the crisis was exposed, the outside world began to compare Country Garden and Evergrande repeatedly, from the scale of debt and financing environment to the scale of projects and restructuring prospects. Since Evergrande Xu Jiayin was arrested, rumors about "Yang's father and daughter have left the country" have lingered, and ** surging attacks.
During the special period, Yang Guoqiang, who was originally relegated to the second line, suddenly appeared on the construction site in a high-profile manner to inspect the project of guaranteeing the delivery of the building. In order to dispel the concerns of the outside world, Yang Huiyan, who has always been low-key, also began to release her appearance information frequently. Since October last year, Country Garden has announced Yang Huiyan's activities** or speeches almost every month.
In the face of this biggest crisis, the fledgling Yang Huiyan no longer tries to break free from the halo given to her by her family. Almost every time she speaks out, Yang Huiyan will talk about the "Yang family" behind her. "The family will definitely sell iron to support the company" and "The family will definitely share the fate with the company".
In terms of today's asset scale and popularity, Yang Guoqiang's family can undoubtedly be called the "first family" in Shunde, Guangdong. Even after the introduction of a number of professional managers, what Country Garden has never been able to change is the absolute control of the Yang family over the enterprise.
The Yang family has a large number of people and many relatives, and there are several brothers of Yang Guoqiang alone. And with Country Garden becoming bigger and stronger, Yang Guoqiang also takes good care of them. There are a considerable number of Yang relatives, who have been entrusted with important tasks by Yang Guoqiang and focus on training.
For example, executive director Yang Ziying is the third daughter of Yang Guoqiang, non-executive director Chen Chong is Yang Guoqiang's second son-in-law, and Yang Zhicheng, vice president of real estate, is Yang Guoqiang's nephew. At present, among the multiple board seats on the board of directors of Country Garden, family members Yang Huiyan, Yang Ziying and Yang Huiyan's husband Chen Chong occupy three seats.
And gaining the support of the family has also become an important support for Yang Huiyan to overcome the crisis. Country Garden said in December last year that since its listing, the Yang Guoqiang family has supported a total of about HK $41 billion through borrowing, increasing holdings, buying bonds, and paying dividends on behalf of shares, and has never been ***
The real estate market is turbulent, how to make the giant ship of Country Garden move forward smoothly? Yang Huiyan needs to actively convey a gesture to the outside world: Country Garden is not lying flat, let alone the next Evergrande.
In the face of an "extremely difficult" situation, the family's statement is crucial. To this end, the Yang family provided an interest-free loan of $300 million to Country Garden, and the Yang family also has a private jet under the name of **. At the same time, Country Garden has also implemented a series of self-help measures in management.
First and foremost, we strive to ensure cash flow security. On January 22, 2024, Country Garden will be worth 38A $1.8 billion asset package, including five properties in Guangzhou, is on the shelves, including apartments, hotels, office buildings and commercial assets in Guangzhou. These very high-quality assets have been evaluated as "Country Garden has come up with something at the bottom of the box".
Prior to this, in order to maintain the situation, Country Garden had continuously cashed out a lot of assets. For example, at the end of December 2023, Country Garden sold Country Garden's investment in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management and returned 30 percent of the capital700 million yuan; On August 25, 2023, Country Garden will launch the Guangzhou Asian Games City project 2667% equity to 1291.5 billion yuan of ** was sold.
According to statistics, if you count the 5 property asset packages in Guangzhou just taken out, Country Garden's current total assets have reached 9316.5 billion yuan. According to another report, due to the pressure of overseas debt, Country Garden continues to seek overseas projects in Melbourne, Sydney, Australia, etc., to raise funds to pay off debts.
In addition to selling assets to cash out, Country Garden is also minimizing spending. In December last year, Country Garden's senior management Yang Huiyan, President Mo Bin, executive director Yang Ziying and non-executive director Chen Chong took the initiative to reduce their salaries to 120,000 yuan per year and cancel the car allocation for senior executives. At the same time, Country Garden also canceled the reimbursement of senior executives' physical examinations and free canteens for executives.
Various trends show that Country Garden is actively working to adjust the company's debt structure, strive to revitalize the stock assets, and hope to alleviate the group's financial pressure through a multi-pronged approach of asset management and debt restructuring.
Regarding the key work in 2024, Country Garden said that it is still to ensure delivery, operation and credit to repair the balance sheet in an orderly manner. According to the information released by Yang Huiyan at the meeting, Country Garden is expected to deliver more than 480,000 sets in 2024, "which will be a lot of pressure for Country Garden." ”
In terms of the "credit protection" debt treatment, Country Garden's domestic debt restructuring has progressed relatively smoothly. Last year, Country Garden's domestic debt of up to 15.7 billion yuan has been successfully extended, and from this stage, the interest on the relevant bonds, small payments and installments are still being paid normally.
Next, Yang Huiyan needs to deal with the thorny problem of offshore debt restructuring. On October 10, 2023, Country Garden announced that it had hired Houliano** and CICC as consultants for Country Garden's overseas restructuring. But after waiting for 3 months, investors waited for the news of the withdrawal of the above-mentioned advisers.
However, on the evening of January 16, 2024, it was reported that Country Garden has appointed KPMG Advisory (China)** as the main financial adviser for overseas debt restructuring. At present, Country Garden has a total of 15 overseas bonds, totaling 99$12.7 billion, of which 7 are 54$3.9 billion of notes are in default.
The haze of debt still hangs over Country Garden's head. Before the industry really ushers in the recovery of sales, Yang Huiyan still has to work hard to make Country Garden survive the difficult moment.
Author |Lee teased.
Edit |Sun Chunfang.
Operations |Liu Shan.