On June 22, China Union continued to sell its bank shares under the Hualian Group.

On June 22nd, the first auction of 125.7658 million shares of Ningxia Bank shares held by China Union Beverage Co., Ltd. was completed, and both auctions attracted thousands of onlookers, but they still ended up unsold due to no bids. The above-mentioned shares are already all the equity of Ningxia Bank held by China Union, if the auction is successful, China Union will completely withdraw from the list of shareholders of Ningxia Bank.

It is worth noting that the auction of Ningxia Bank's equity is only part of China Union's asset lightening plan. Recently, in addition to Ningxia Bank, the 47.2779 million shares of Changsha Bank held by China Union's subsidiary companies are also scheduled for auction.

As for the above-mentioned auctions, industry insiders believe that the success of equity auctions depends on factors such as the bank's own equity structure, business performance, and profit prospects, as well as multi-faceted factors such as equity pricing and bank valuation. However, even if the above-mentioned auctions fail, it will not have much impact on China Union's asset lightening plan.

Ningxia Bank's 124 million shares of equity are up for auction, and China Union plans to dispose of its shares.

According to the Jingdong Auction Platform, on the morning of June 21st, China Union's shares in Ningxia Bank were auctioned in two parts. One part consisted of 124.3258 million shares with a starting price of about 499.5412 million yuan; the other part consisted of 1.44 million shares with a starting price of about 5.7859 million yuan, both of which were based on the evaluation price.

In terms of attention, both auction messages were viewed by more than 6,400 people, and the number of people following was about 10. However, even so, no one bid until the auction ended, resulting in no sales.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that China Union has auctioned off Ningxia Bank's equity. As early as 2018, China Union held 12.47% of the shares of the second-largest shareholder of the bank, holding a total of 270.268 million shares. Since 2021, China Union has tried to auction the bank's equity many times, reducing its shares continuously.

Looking at the Jingdong Auction Platform, in September and October 2021, China Union's approximately 65.9 million shares of Ningxia Bank were auctioned for the first time and second time, respectively. In November and December of the same year, another 12 million shares of equity went through two auctions. Then in April 2022, China Union consecutively auctioned off approximately 6.59 million shares of equity twice. From the results, although the equity auctions have attracted many onlookers, they have all failed due to no bids.

However, although the auctions have been unsuccessful, China Union's process of reducing its shares in Ningxia Bank has not stopped. From the annual report information, its shareholding ratio began to gradually decline after 2021, dropping to the seventh largest shareholder of Ningxia Bank with a shareholding of 4.33% at the end of 2022, and the number of shares held also dropped to 125.7658 million.

The shares being auctioned this time are the remaining shares of Ningxia Bank held by China Union, which means that China Union is trying to completely dispose of its equity in Ningxia Bank and completely withdraw from the list of shareholders of the bank.

Continuously reducing its shares in its subsidiary banks, China Union's asset-lightening plan continues.

In the view of insiders, the success of equity auctions depends on factors such as the bank's own equity structure, equity pricing, business performance, and profit prospects, as well as other factors. Nevertheless, even if the above-mentioned auctions fail, it will not have much impact on China Union's asset lightening plan, and its subsidiary financial institutions will continue to be sold off.

In terms of business performance, the overall performance of Ningxia Bank has been relatively stable in recent years. From 2020 to 2022, its operating income was 3.036 billion yuan, 3.394 billion yuan, and 3.248 billion yuan, with a net profit of 638 million yuan, 664 million yuan, and 721 million yuan for the same period. However, its profitability level declined in 2023, with annual revenue of 3.264 billion yuan and net income of 603 million yuan.

At the same time, the divestment of Ningxia Bank shares is just part of the "China Union" asset slimming plan. Recently, in addition to Ningxia Bank, the shares of Bank of Changsha held by Hunan Xinhua Union International Petroleum Trading Co., Ltd. under China Union will also be auctioned soon.

According to the Alibaba auction platform, 47.2779 million shares of Bank of Changsha will be auctioned in two equal parts on June 26 with the total starting price of about 360 million yuan, which accounts for 90% of the average closing price of the bank's stock in the previous 20 trading days before May 31.

It is worth mentioning that "China Union" also used to be the second largest shareholder of Bank of Changsha, but after several auctions, it has faded out of the top ten shareholders of the bank. In February last year, Hunan Xinhua Union Construction Engineering Co., Ltd.'s approximately 139 million shares of Bank of Changsha were also subject to bidding by two state-owned enterprises, and eventually Changsha State-owned Enterprise Changsha Toukong took over at a price of 1.006 billion yuan.

Public information shows that China Union is a large private enterprise involved in multiple fields such as culture and tourism, chemical new materials, mining resource development, oil trade, investment and finance. In recent years, affected by multiple factors, the company has encountered a liquidity crisis and has to sell its equity holdings in multiple listed companies and financial institutions to solve debt problems.