The new head of Ningxia Bank is worth looking forward to.
Text: Daily Financial Report Li Jia.
Recently, as the country's first provincial-level local bank, Bank of Ningxia issued three rare announcements on its official website in one day, all of which were related to major personnel changes, and also pushed the "change of leadership" at the helm of many urban commercial banks to a high point this year.
Two of the announcements show that Sha Jianping submitted his resignation as chairman, executive director, and chairman of the strategy committee of the board of directors due to the expiration of the age of service. In addition, Wan Yaming also ceased to serve as the bank's vice president due to the expiration of his tenure of office. This means that at the same time, the two commanders of Ningxia Bank left the scene, and who will provoke the "big beam" next has attracted much attention from the market.
Another announcement is about the first extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of Ningxia Bank in 2024 to be held on March 8. According to the disclosure, the major topic involved in the meeting was the proposal to elect Wu Qiong as the executive director of the seventh board of directors of Ningxia Bank.
Generally speaking, as the leader and leader of a bank, the chairman of the board of directors will not be in a "window period" due to a change for too long, which is not conducive to the implementation of the bank's strategic planning at the entire level. From this perspective, at the same time as Sha Jianping stepped down, if Wu Qiong was successfully elected as executive director without accident, whether he would take over the position of chairman is also a big attraction.
The veteran will step down, and the new successor may come from the regulator
Looking back in time, at the beginning of 2022, Ju Guanghua, who was 60 years old at the time and had served as Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Bank of Ningxia for four years, resigned from the post of chairman of the bank due to his transfer to the first counselor of the autonomous region, and was replaced by Sha Jianping, who was the secretary of the Party committee and president at the time, took over the helm, and it has only been two years since then.
It can be said that the 61-year-old Sha Jianping's tenure as the "number one" of Ningxia Bank was extremely short, and he hurriedly took command because of the expiration of his tenure for less than three years, which can not help but make people feel a lot of emotion.
In fact, Sha Jianping is a veteran who has grown up with Ningxia Bank step by step, and before the bank's restructuring, Sha Jianping had joined Yinchuan Commercial Bank (the predecessor of Ningxia Bank) and served as the director of the banking department, the director of the credit management department, the general manager of the comprehensive planning department, the assistant to the president, and the director of the office.
After the official name change at the end of 2007, Sha Jianping successively served as the bank's chief auditor and chief risk officer, and since March 2013, he has served as the vice president of Ningxia Bank.
In 2018, Sha Jianping and Ju Guanghua, who is also the vice president and the "veteran" of Ningxia Bank, were both promoted. He served as the president, and Ju Guanghua was promoted to the secretary of the party committee and chairman, and the two veterans have also formed a close partnership, formulating many financial policies and strategies for the Bank of Ningxia and implementing them, leaving an indelible outstanding contribution to the bank's business development in the financial market.
According to public information, Sha Jianping and Ju Guanghua "came from the same school" and were both "born" in ICBC. Ju Guanghua has served as the Deputy Director of the Deposit Division, the Deputy Director of the Savings Division, the Deputy Director of the Survey and Statistics Division, and the Deputy Director and Director of the Industrial and Commercial Credit Division of ICBC Ningxia Branch. Before coming to Bank of Ningxia, Sha Jianping also served as the vice president and president of ICBC Guyuan Branch, and the director of the Supervision Office of Ningxia Branch.
However, unlike the previous two chairmen, Wu Qiong, who was elected as an executive director this time and may become the "new head" of Ningxia Bank, is not from the banking department, but has a very strong political and financial background and has worked in the financial regulatory department for a long time.
According to the data, Wu Qiong, 56 years old, once served as the deputy secretary of the General Office of the Ningxia Autonomous Region, the director of the Capital Operation Division of the Financial Management Office of the Autonomous Region, and from 2016 to 2018, he served as the chairman and secretary of the Party Committee of Ningxia State-owned Assets Investment Holding Group Company. Subsequently, he was transferred to the Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau of Ningxia Autonomous Region, and successively served as deputy director, director, secretary of the party committee, deputy director and other important positions, and has continued to this day.
The performance was lackluster, and asset quality was under pressure
Ningxia, known as the "South of the Yangtze River", relies on rich agricultural, mineral and tourism resources to continue to promote the development of key industries, but due to factors such as history and natural environment, the region's economic foundation is relatively weak, and industrial transformation and upgrading are facing certain pressure.
Bank of Ningxia, which plays an important role in boosting local economic development, playing an important role in stabilizing the financial market, and alleviating the financing problems of small, medium and micro enterprises, has been contributing its own strength in recent years.
From a regional perspective, as of the end of 2022, the bank's loans to Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region accounted for 85% of the bank's total loans01%；Deposits and loans in Yinchuan City (including subordinate districts and counties) accounted for 66 of the total deposits and total loans of the bank, respectively62% and 3587%；The bank's deposits and loans in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have a market share of 1541% and 1237%, ranking first and second respectively, has an important position in the local financial system.
However, with the continuous expansion of scale, the bank's performance has not been much surprising in recent years, and its profitability has not been stable. As shown in the figure below, after the revenue growth rate of Ningxia Bank reached a high point in 2014, it began to turn sharply, and then it was in the negative range for a long time, which also shows that the overall revenue scale of Ningxia Bank is on a downward trend, and the fluctuation is also large. There is also a trend of sluggish growth in the net profit indicator, which has been jumping back and forth between growth and decline.
WhileAccording to its latest 2023 semi-annual report data, there is a situation of increasing profits but not increasing income. In the first half of 2023, it achieved revenue of 163.1 billion yuan, down 621%；Net profit increased by only 234% to 4100 million yuan.
In this regard, the rating agency China Chengxin International believes that the recovery of interest margins, the reduction of loan provisions and the reversal of income tax expenses are important ways to promote the growth of Ningxia Bank's net profit, but the fluctuation of non-interest income and the large pressure on the provision of asset impairment losses have an adverse impact on profitability, and the overall profitability of Ningxia Bank still needs to be improved.
For example, in 2022, the bank will provide a total of 119.5 billion yuan, although the year-on-year pressure decreased by 932%, but it accounted for 66 percent of profit before provisions88%, which is still at a high level.
At the same time, the asset quality of Bank of Ningxia is still facing great pressure to defuse, and although the non-performing ratio has decreased in recent years, it is still far from the average level of commercial banks in the same period. According to the financial report data, from 2018 to 2022, its non-performing loan ratios were. 08% and 273%, and in the first half of 2023, it will fall further to 259%。
Since the non-performing stock of Ningxia Bank is mainly concentrated in the production of steel, coal, petrochemical products and some small and micro enterprises' corporate loan business, since 2022, affected by factors such as the macroeconomic downturn, the capital chain of the above enterprises has been tense or even broken, and at the same time, the risk of small and micro customers with weak anti-risk ability as the main customer group has been exposed, which also means that its future asset quality will still face certain downward pressure.
The proportion of equity pledge freezing is high, and the quality of shareholders' operation is also worrying
In fact, as early as December 2012, the Ningxia Securities Regulatory Bureau approved the application for the listing guidance and filing of Ningxia Bank submitted by China Securities Construction Investment, but there has been no substantial progress after 11 years, and the biggest influencing factor is that it has always had equity and shareholder quality problems.
In terms of equity, according to the information disclosed in the 2022 annual report, the proportion of equity pledge by shareholders of Bank of Ningxia is relatively large, and the total number of shares pledged by shareholders has reached 46,005 by the end of 2022610,000 shares, accounting for 15 of the total share capital85%。Among the top ten shareholders, the second largest shareholder, Ningxia Xingjun Industrial Group, pledged 3782% equity; The pledge ratio of Ningxia Electric Power Investment Group, the fourth largest shareholder, is as high as 4884%。
In addition, among the top 20 shareholders, there are six major shareholders represented by Western (Yinchuan) Financing Guarantee, Xinhualian Holdings, Ningxia Zhongyin Cashmere International Group, etc., totaling 2All 2.5 billion shares were frozen by the judiciary.
According to the data of the enterprise investigation, among the shareholders whose shares have been pledged and frozen, there are currently four enterprises: Xinhualian Holdings, Ningxia Zhongyin Cashmere International Group, Zhengzhou Xinjian Commerce and Trade, and Shizuishan Lida Industry and Trade, which involve bond defaults, dishonest executors, and restrictions on high consumption.
Taking Macrolink Holdings as an example, before the beginning of 2021, it was the second largest shareholder of Bank of Ningxia, but then suddenly pledged all its shares to Minsheng Bank, AVIC Trust and Xiamen International Bank, and its shares were also frozen by the judiciary, thus retreating to become the seventh largest shareholder. According to public information, it has been listed as a person subject to execution as many as 144 times; 7 times of judgment defaulters in history; Limit high consumption 32 times.
According to the Interim Measures for the Administration of Equity of Commercial Banks issued by the former China Banking Regulatory Commission in 2017, shareholders of commercial banks should have a good social reputation, integrity records, tax records and financial status, and comply with laws, regulations and regulatory requirements. Major shareholders of commercial banks and their controlling shareholders and actual controllers must not be listed as targets of joint disciplinary action for untrustworthiness by relevant departments, as well as be investigated and dealt with by the financial regulatory departments or relevant departments for violations of laws and regulations, causing a bad impact.
It can be seen that if Ningxia Bank wants to successfully pass the IPO listing review, it urgently needs to solve the problems of freezing shareholders' equity pledges and declining shareholders' operating quality. We also hope that the new helmsman will be able to face a series of challenges positively and take effective measures to resolve them, so as to take the road to IPO further.