A piece of information about the person subject to execution has exposed the suspected relationship between Tianjin Chase Investment Group (referred to as "Chase Group") and a number of enterprises, and it is also related to the layout of a local agricultural bank.
A reporter from the Securities Times learned that at the end of May, Chase Group, Li Zhantong, the actual controller of the group, and his spouse, as well as Chase City Real Estate, Tianjin Jirui Technology, Tianjin Qinlian Trade, Binhai Xintian Investment and other enterprises were listed as executees because of the same case, and the subject matter of the case was 308 million yuan.
It is worth mentioning that three companies, Chase Group, Tianjin Jirui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment, joined Yaodu Agricultural Bank, the largest agricultural commercial bank in Shanxi Province, as early as 2016, with shares of 9.85%, 9.85% and 9.09%, respectively.
Whether it is listed as the person to be executed together, or the foreign investment of the three companies, as well as the switch between senior executives and legal representatives, it all reveals the inextricable relationship between Tianjin Jirui Technology, Binhai Xintian Investment and Chase Group.
In fact, if Ji Rui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment are identified as affiliated enterprises of Chase Group, Chase Group will actually control nearly 30% of Yaodu Agricultural Bank, which is undoubtedly contrary to the regulatory rules.
The exposed relationship of "the person subject to execution"
The reporter learned that Chase Group and its holding subsidiary Chase City Real Estate, Sun Company Chase Jindao Real Estate, Group actual controller Li Zhantong and his spouse, Tianjin Jirui Technology and its controlling shareholder Qinlian Trade, Binhai Xintian Investment, Tianjin Xintian Investment and New Oriental Biotechnology, the controlling shareholder of the two companies, were recently listed as executees.
According to the court announcement, the above-mentioned enterprises and individuals were involved in the same execution case, which was filed on May 25, with the case number (2020) Jin 03 holding No. 273, and the subject matter of the case execution was about 308 million yuan.
In fact, Chase Group, Tianjin Jirui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment are all natural shareholders after penetrating upward, and the major shareholders are Li Zhantong, Zhang Ligong and Shi Lurei respectively. These enterprises, which do not have a direct equity relationship, have become the executees together because of the same case.
It is understood that the family of Chase Group got rich in Tianjin, and most of the founding teams have the background of well-known university teachers in Tianjin. The company is actually controlled by Li Zhantong, who holds 70% of the shares.
After years of development, Chase Group has dabbled in biomedicine, real estate, environmental protection, gas energy, media advertising and other fields. Among them, the group previously controlled Chase Gas, Hongri Pharmaceutical two A-share listed companies equity, for its most important assets.
However, in the fourth quarter of 2018, Chase Group transferred most of its shares in two listed companies one after another, cashing out a total of 2.32 billion yuan. Prior to this, the Chase Group had pledged a high proportion of its shareholding and repeatedly sought the transferee.
The reporter also noted that since the beginning of this year, most of the shares of Chase Group's subsidiaries, such as Chase Financial Leasing, Chase Xintian Investment, and Chase Capital, have been pledged to Cinda assets Tianjin Branch one after another.
The annual report of Yaodu Agricultural Bank also shows that in the second half of last year, Chase Group, Tianjin Jirui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment pledged all their shares in the bank one after another.
Related people frequently "interact"
Although Chase Group has no direct equity relationship with Tianjin Jirui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment, it has been "interactive" frequently in terms of foreign investment, legal representatives and senior executives.
Let's first take a look at Tianjin Jirui Technology, which is jointly set up by Qinlian Business and three natural persons, of which Qinlian Commercial Trade holds nearly 99% of the shares, and the latter is controlled by three natural persons after penetration.
According to industrial and commercial information, Jirui Technology and Qinlian Business Co., Ltd. jointly initiated the establishment of Golden Valley Capital Management at the end of 2013, with a shareholding of 95% and 5% respectively. However, the official Wechat account of the Golden Valley is full of all kinds of information about the Chase Group and Li Zhantong, and the company's annual meetings and wrap-up meetings for many years have also been directly named "Chase Golden Valley." Yu Xinyi, assistant to the chairman of Chase Group and general manager of the Innovation Investment Center, was present to present the awards and give a speech year after year.
At present, the legal representative and deputy general manager of the Golden Valley is Li Yongqin. In the filing information of the Fund Industry Association, Li Yongqin has been in office since the establishment of the Golden Valley. However, in a number of public reports between 2016 and 2018, she was deputy general manager of Chase Group's Innovation Financial Center.
Jirui Technology, Qinlian Business and Trade also jointly established Zhongkangjiu and Medical Management Group with AVIC Trust. This equity has nothing to do with the Chase Group, the legal representative is Li Zhantong, and the general manager of the company, Wang Qiao, is also the person in charge of the health plate of Chase Group.
In addition, according to industrial and commercial information, Tong Xiaojian, the current legal representative of Jirui Technology, previously served as Vice President of Jin Zhigu and is currently the appointed representative of a limited partnership under Chase Group to carry out partnership affairs.
Song Rui, the last legal representative of Jirui Technology, has been in office since the end of 2014, but in a news release at the end of 2017, he was the human resources director of the financial sector of Chase Group.
Let's take a look at Binhai Xintian Investment. The shareholders of the company include New Oriental Biotechnology and a limited partnership, which own 95.92% and 4.08% respectively. The former is controlled by two natural persons, Shi Lurui and Huang Zhaoxiong, while the executive partner of the latter is Chase Group.
It is worth noting that according to an announcement disclosed by Hongri Pharmaceutical in September 2009, Shi Lurui's 70 per cent stake in New Oriental Biotechnology was transferred from Chase Investment (formerly known as Chase Group) in 2005.
In addition, Binhai Xintian Investment and New Oriental Biotechnology also jointly set up Chase City Real Estate with Chase Group in 2008. Among them, the Chase Group holds 55% of the shares, while the other two companies have a combined stake of 45%. Binhai Xintian Investment also holds a 3.31% stake in Chongzhou Commercial Bank.
On the other hand, Feng Jiangwei, who has been the legal representative of Binhai Xintian Investment since the beginning of 2018, is also the secretary to the chairman of Chase Group. Wang Guiwen, who served as the legal representative of the company before Feng Jiang Wei, appeared as executive vice president of Chase Real Estate during his term of office.
Affiliated holding Yaodu Agricultural Bank
On the one hand, there is no direct equity relationship, but there are inextricably linked; on the other hand, three companies have bought shares in Yaodu Agricultural Commercial Bank, the largest agricultural commercial bank in Shanxi Province.
In 2016, Yaodu Agricultural Commercial Bank selected war investment partners across the country, targeting 950 million shares. Among them, Chase Group, Tianjin Jirui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment invested 325 million shares, 325 million shares and 300 million shares respectively through the capital increase of the bank.
After the completion of the capital increase, the shares of the three companies are 9.85%, 9.85% and 9.09% respectively, occupying the top three shareholder seats of Yaodu Agricultural Bank. The rest of the bank's top 10 shareholders are local private companies with a maximum shareholding of 6.23 per cent.
However, the bank's annual report does not identify Jirui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment as affiliated enterprises of Chase Group. "We have three shareholders in Tianjin, all of which are written in the annual report and have no other information." A person from the bank's management office said.
According to the regulatory rules, affiliated enterprises refer to those enterprises that are directly or indirectly controlled by each other, jointly controlled by the same enterprise or have a significant impact on each other.
"generally speaking, the relationship is informed to the bank by the enterprise itself. if there is an actual relationship, but the bank is not informed, then if there is a dispute or regulatory accountability, the enterprise will bear its own responsibility. In addition, if in the process of verification, banks, regulators or the outside world question the relationship between the bank's shareholders, the general bank should send a letter to the shareholders to confirm. " Said a person in charge of the board of directors of a listed bank.
Another relevant official of the listed bank believes that based on the above-mentioned inextricable ties, especially the presence of legal representatives, Chase Group actually has a significant impact on Ji Rui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment, and should be recognized as an affiliated enterprise of Chase Group.
In fact, if Ji Rui Technology and Binhai Xintian Investment are identified as affiliated enterprises of Chase Group, the latter will effectively control 28.79% of Yaodu Agricultural Bank.
According to the interim provisions on the Administration of Rural Commercial Banks issued and implemented by the former CBRC in 2003, the total shareholding of individual legal persons and their affiliated enterprises shall not exceed 10% of the total share capital of the Agricultural Commercial Bank.
The above-mentioned provisions were repealed in 2018, but the Bancassurance Regulatory Commission promulgated the measures for the implementation of Administrative Licensing matters for small and medium-sized Bank institutions at the end of last year, reiterating that the total investment proportion of individual domestic non-financial institutions and their associated parties and concerted actors shall not exceed 10% of the total share capital of the Agricultural Commercial Bank.
In addition, surprisingly, although the three companies have significantly higher shareholdings than other shareholders of the bank, only Tianjin Jirui Technology has assigned a shareholder director, Cai Xiujuan, to the bank since its entry, whose qualifications were approved in July 2018.
According to the annual report of Yaodu Agricultural Bank, Cai Xiujuan worked in Bohai property Insurance in her early years and has been an assistant to the general manager of Jirui Technology since May 2015.
However, according to her LinkedIn resume, she has been working in Chase Group since she left Bohai property Insurance. At the annual meeting of Chase Group in early 2017, Cai Xiujuan was also awarded the Outstanding employee of the year on the grounds that she was mainly responsible for equity investment in financial institutions and "seized the opportunity in 2016 to promote the group's strategic stake in Shanxi Yaodu Agricultural and Commercial Bank".
By the end of 2019, Yaodu Agricultural Commercial Bank had total assets of 75.62 billion yuan, down 3.5% from the beginning of the year. The bank's annual operating income was 2.35 billion yuan, an increase of 10.5% over the same period last year, and net profit was 650 million yuan, down 7.6% from the same period last year.
It is worth noting that the bank's total assets reached 127.46 billion yuan as of the end of September last year, according to data disclosed by the bank on the China Monetary Network. Comparing the year-end data, we can see that the assets of Yaodu Agricultural Commercial Bank skyrocketed in the first three quarters of last year, but shrank sharply in the fourth quarter.
In addition, it was reported last year that Didi planned to jointly initiate the establishment of a private bank, East Bank, in conjunction with Chase Group, with Didi subsidiary Dirun Technology holding 30% and Chase Group 21%.
Didi responded at the time that the information was not accurate. Didi said that with regard to banking licenses, Didi has conducted some careful preliminary exploration and research, and if it has a clear promotion plan in the future, it will conduct a comprehensive and careful study of market conditions, social values and policy guidelines.