Representative Guo Xiaoqun (right)Kaisa industryDonate money

Guo Xiaoqun, 28, is one step closer to taking over.

On the evening of April 6, 1638.HK announced that Weng Hao and Zheng Yi resigned as executive directors, replaced by Guo Yingcheng's eldest son, Shanghai chairman Guo Xiaoqun and chief operating officer Li Haiming. This means that Kaisa has officially entered the core management of the second generation of post-90s generation, and the succession plan is accelerating.

Guo Xiaoqun was first known by the public, which began with the equity change of Kaisa five years ago. At this time, Kaisa was in a crisis of suspension, and Guo Junwei, the brother of Guo Yingcheng, transferred his 16.42% stake to Guo Xiaoqun.

In February 2017, Guo Xiaoqun transferred 4.23% of Kaisa's stake to "Toy King" Cai Zhiming through Dachang Investment, which was reduced to 12.19%. Five months later, it emptied its shares in Kaisa and transferred all its shares to Guo Yingcheng.

The emergence of the "second generation" makes the topic of succession inevitable. In response to the possibility of his son taking over the baton, Guo Yingcheng said at the 2016 results conference that "not yet". "Children have children's hobbies, children want to engage in technology, whether we do bricks and real estate, or there are some differences," he added.

Guo Xiaoqun, who is keen on investment

Guo Xiaoqun officially entered Kaisa's system in August 2017, when he was at Kaisa's regional headquarters in Shenzhen. Guo Xiaoqun didn't wait long after his father labeled him "want to engage in science and technology."

In September 2017, Kaisa acquired A-share listed companiesMing Family Union (300242.SZ)And then changed its name to Jiayun Technology. At the time, it was said that Guo Xiaoqun was in charge of the merger, which he denied; in January 2018, Guo Xiaoqun became a director of the company. In December 2019, he was elected as the new chairman of Jiayun Technology and began to be on his own.

In addition to the technology sector, in the past two years, Guo Xiaoqun has experienced in many core sectors, such as Kaisa real estate, finance, urban renewal, and so on.

According to information, from May 2018 to March 2020, Guo Xiaoqun served as Vice President of Real Estate and Wealth Management in Kaisa Shanghai, and participated in the largest urban village project in Shanghai to transform Xuhang Town. He has accumulated practical experience; since March 2020, he has been appointed Chairman and President of the Group in Shanghai, responsible for overseeing the group's mergers and acquisitions, property development, investment and financing and other businesses as well as the business development in Shanghai.

In addition, Guo Xiaoqun is also keen to invest. Since July 2017, it has intensively increased its holdings in Hong Kong financial companies.Convoy Global (01019.HK)At the end of the same year, Guo Xiaoqun, who became the largest shareholder, proposed to hold a special general meeting of shareholders to remove eight directors in an attempt to gain control of the company. The investment was seen as an exercise in his succession, while Guo Yingcheng clarified that the investment had nothing to do with Kaisa and was "my son's own investment". However, so far, the restructuring of the board of directors has been fruitless, and convoy Global is still suspending trading.

New challenges for the new team

For Guo Xiaoqun to join Kaisa's board of directors at this time, some analysts believe that, on the one hand, he has accumulated rich management experience in many business sectors of Kaisa; on the other hand, Kaisa has recovered from the "lock disk storm". The time is ripe for the second generation to rise to the top.

In the second half of 2014, Kaisa got into operational difficulties and announced the suspension of trading in March of the following year, following the locking of thousands of homes in Shenzhen, restrictions on the transfer of equity rights and interests of subsidiaries, and the departure of management and a large number of employees. Kaisa, which was suspended for two years, resumed trading in March 2017 after a debt restructuring.

After the crisis, debt remains high. Data show that from 2016 to 2018, Kaisa's net debt ratio was 308%, 300% and 236%, respectively. At every performance meeting, "reducing debt" became the key word of management.

As can be seen from the financial results in recent years, Kaisa's financial situation continues to improve.

According to the annual report, Kaisa achieved contract sales of 88.12 billion yuan in 2019, up 25.8 percent over the same period last year; revenue of 48.02 billion yuan, up 24.1 percent; and gross profit of 13.8 billion yuan, up 24.3 percent over the same period last year. There has been a marked increase in sales, revenue and profits.

In addition, on the closely watched measure of net debt ratio, Kaisa's net debt ratio fell 92 percentage points to 144% by the end of 2019 from 2018. Kaisa exceeded expectations, whether it was the 200 per cent set at the beginning of last year or the 180 per cent target set in the middle of the year.

By the end of 2019, Kaisa's total borrowing was about 117.2 billion yuan, 49% at home and 51% abroad. In terms of the maturing debt structure, 31.9 billion yuan needs to be repaid within one year, accounting for 27.2%. Cash (cash and bank deposits) increased 61% to 37 billion yuan from the end of last year, enough to cover short-term maturing debt.

At the 2019 performance meeting, management set two targets for this year: a sales target of 100 billion yuan and a net debt ratio of 120% or less. This is the new challenge that the new team will face after this personnel change.