Since this year, A-shares have frequently staged a “prison storm,” and the chairmen or actual controllers of several listed companies have been arrested. On the afternoon of December 10, Lanzhou Minbai (600738) issued an announcement that Zhu Baoliang, the actual controller of the company, was subject to criminal coercive measures for personal reasons; affected by this news, Lanzhou Minbai plummeted 5.21% throughout the day, and its market value evaporated more than 200 million yuan.
Who is Zhu Baoliang
Lanzhou Minbai said that the company received a letter from the Tonglu County Public Security Bureau on the 10th, but the relevant matter has yet to be further investigated by the public security authorities. Lanzhou Minbai stressed that the above incident was a personal matter of the actual controller and had nothing to do with the company's operations; up to now, the company's business conditions are normal, and Zhu Baoliang has not held any position in the company.
According to shareholding information disclosed in Lanzhou Minbai's 2019 Third Quarter Report, although Zhu Baoliang personally directly held 103.78 million shares, accounting for only 1.33% of the total share capital, Zhu Baoliang indirectly controlled 435 million shares of Lanzhou Minbai's shares through the Red House Group, reaching 435 million shares, accounting for 55.6% of the total share capital. In addition, Zhu Baoliang's wife, Hong Yidan, directly holds 5.3% of Lanzhou Minbai's shares and holds the position of chairman.
At the beginning of this year, Zhu Baoliang and others were on the cusp of public opinion due to the large-scale dividend plan of Lanzhou's 100 people. According to the 2018 annual dividend plan disclosed by Lanzhou Minbai, the company plans to distribute cash dividends of 16 yuan per 10 shares to all shareholders, for a total of 1,253 billion yuan; in fact, Lanzhou Minbai's deducted non-net profit in 2018 was only 135 million yuan.
The percentage dividend rate for Lanzhou residents this time is astonishing. Of course, nothing has benefited the most than Zhu Baoliang and his wife. Since the two directly and indirectly held a total of more than 62% of their shares, the two received nearly 780 million yuan in cash. Lanzhou Minbai has increased the frequency of dividends in recent years. Since 2018, the company has implemented dividends 5 times.
Zhu Baoliang is a native of Tonglu County. In the course of his business, the auction for the acquisition of 49.6% of the state-owned shares of Zhejiang Fuchunjiang Tourism Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Fuchunjiang Tourism) was a highlight. According to public information, in a bid in January 2000, Zhu Baoliang used 90 million yuan to buy all of Fuchun River Tourism's state-owned shares. Since then, he has further purchased shares from other companies.
Fuchunjiang Tourism forms an important business entity of the Honglou Group. According to the official website of Honglou Group, the group is a comprehensive large-scale enterprise group integrating retail department stores, professional markets, financial investment, boutique tourism, hotels and restaurants, high-end real estate, and e-commerce; the industrial sector includes commercial real estate, boutique tourism, retail department stores and other industries.
In fact, starting with the acquisition of Fuchunjiang Tourism, the Red House Group has successively carried out a number of mergers and acquisitions under Zhu Baoliang's leadership. It has transferred 28.8% of Lanzhou Minbai's state-owned shares to become the latter's largest shareholder; it has taken huge sums of capital in Tai'an Asia, Shandong, and taken 100% of the shares in Zhejiang Silk Group Co., Ltd.
The actual controllers of several companies have been arrested
Since this year, the actual controllers or chairmen of more than 10 listed companies have been arrested or coercive measures taken.
Among them, the more typical one is the Kaiying Network. On the evening of October 25 this year, Kaiying Internet announced that on the same day, the board of directors received a “Notice” from the family of Jin Feng, chairman of the company, claiming that Jin Feng had been arrested by the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau on suspicion of insider trading.
This is not the first time that an executive of Kaiying Network has been arrested and investigated by the public security authorities. On the evening of May 6 this year, Kaiying Network issued an announcement stating that Wang Yue, the actual controller of the company, was taken into criminal detention by the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau on suspicion of manipulating the securities market. On June 12, Wang Yue was officially arrested by the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau on suspicion of manipulating the securities market.
On the afternoon of October 24, Chunxing Precision announced that it had received a notice from the family of Sun Jiexiao, the controlling shareholder and actual controller, that Sun Jiexiao had been subject to coercive measures by the public security authorities on suspicion of insider trading. The relevant matter has yet to be further investigated by the public security authorities. Meanwhile, on March 13 of this year, Sun Jiexiao was administratively punished by the Securities Regulatory Commission for being found to be insider trading.
In addition, listed companies with actual controllers or chairman involved in the turmoil also include Fengyuzhu, Xunxing Shares, *ST Peng Qi, etc. Well-known companies such as Storm Group and *ST Kangde are also typical of these.
It is worth noting that in the incident where the chairman or actual controller of a listed company was arrested this year, the reason for quite a few cases was due to the parties involved suspected illegal securities operations such as insider trading and illegal disclosure. Currently, the exact reason why Zhu Baoliang was subject to criminal coercive measures is still unclear, but this has undoubtedly added a crisis to the enterprise controlled by Zhu Baoliang.