Too much money? Liquor leader blessed this bank, promoted the largest shareholder, Tianfeng Securities retreated to the fifth place! These wine companies also "love" banks.

Wuliangye Group has become the largest shareholder of a local bank!

The Yibin City Commercial Bank in Sichuan (referred to as "Yibin Commercial Bank") recently completed industrial and commercial changes, substantially increasing its registered capital from 1.386 billion yuan to 2.822 billion yuan. Among them, Wuliangye Group through participation in capital increase, transfer, the number of shares increased to 564 million shares, accounting for 19.99% of the bank's total share capital, promoted to the largest shareholder.

Prior to this, the bank's largest shareholder was Tianfeng Securities, but did not participate in the capital increase. At the same time, Wuhan Tianying Investment Group, which is related to it, successfully bought a stake, and the two jointly owned about 10.95 per cent of the bank's capital increase.

Among them, calculated by the separate shareholding of Tianfeng Securities, the company has retired from the largest shareholder of Yibin Commercial Bank to the fifth largest shareholder.

Wuliangye owns Yibin Commercial Bank

It is understood that Yibin Commercial Bank issued about 1.437 billion shares by five enterprises and institutions respectively, including two old shareholders and three new shareholders.

Among them, three local finance companies in Yibin-- Yibin City Finance Bureau, Yibin City Cuiping District Finance Bureau, and Yibin City Nanxi District Finance Bureau, respectively completed a large increase in their holdings, obtaining 82% of the capital increase of Yibin Commercial Bank. Yibin City Finance Bureau also separately transferred about 94.22 million shares of the bank.

Coupled with the original shareholding, after the completion of the increase and transfer, the above three local financial shareholders will hold 19.98%, 19.24% and 8.12% of the total share capital of Yibin Commercial Bank respectively.

Wuliangye Group, the bank's second largest shareholder, bought about 152 million shares and was transferred to about 230 million shares by participating in the capital increase and share expansion of the bank. After the completion of the increase and transfer, Wuliangye Group held a total of 564 million shares of Yibin Commercial Bank, accounting for 19.99% of the bank's latest total share capital, and was promoted to the largest shareholder.

At the same time, Tianfeng Securities, the bank's largest shareholder, did not participate in the capital increase. However, Wuhan Tianying Investment Group, a related party of the company, took about 107 million capital increase shares, together with the shares held by Tianfeng Securities, the two owned about 309 million shares of Yibin Commercial Bank, accounting for 10.95 per cent of the bank's total share capital.

According to public information, this round of capital increase and share increase of Yibin Commercial Bank was launched in 2017, which is also the third round of capital increase since the bank was founded. However, the programme has been adjusted several times since its launch and did not get back on track until 2020.

It is worth noting that in the application paper for the large-scale capital increase and share expansion, Yibin Commercial Bank specifically mentioned that when subscribers subscribe for 1 new share, they need to pay 1.8 yuan per share to dispose of the bank's non-performing assets.

Based on the latest total share capital after the capital increase, the top five shareholders of the bank are: Wuliangye Group (19.99%), Yibin Municipal Finance Bureau (19.98%), Yibin Cuiping District Finance Bureau (19.24%), Tianfeng Securities and its related party Wuhan Tianying Investment Group (10.95%), Yibin Nanxi District Finance Bureau (8.12%).

In addition, Jiaxing Jiayuan Technology, a subsidiary of Jiuding Group, was originally the third largest shareholder of Yibin Commercial Bank, with a shareholding ratio of 9.95%. But after the bank completed a massive capital increase, its stake has fallen to less than 5 per cent, retreating to the sixth-largest shareholder.

In December, Yibin Bank also disclosed on its website the list of 13 director candidates for the new board of directors, as well as three shareholder and four external supervisor candidates for the new board of supervisors.

Among them, Wuhan Tianying Investment Group has a seat in the bank's new board of directors and supervisory board, while Jiuding Group has a shareholder seat on the bank's board of directors. In addition, Wuliangye Group and Yibin local finance each have a shareholder board seat.

By the end of 2020, Yibin Commercial Bank has total assets of about 51.17 billion yuan, which is one of the smallest urban commercial banks in Sichuan Province.

Wine enterprise "love" bank

In fact, under the abundant cash flow, many liquor companies have long not completely focused on the liquor industry, but extended their hands to the broader financial industry.

At the end of 2019, Guizhou Bank was listed in Hong Kong, and Guizhou Moutai Distillery (Group) was the second largest shareholder of the bank, with a current shareholding of 12%. Maotai also owns a 1.65% stake in Guiyang Bank, another local listed bank.

The technology development company of Guizhou Moutai Distillery (Group) is also the largest shareholder of Renhuai Moutai Nong Commercial Bank, a local corporate bank, with a stake of 8.33%.

Although the bank's assets are less than 20 billion, the top 10 shareholders, Yunji Inc, the wine company: apart from Maotai, Guizhou Diaoyutai State Guest Employment ranks the bank's largest shareholder, with a stake of 8.33%; Guizhou Wuxing Wine Group holds 4.67%, the fourth largest shareholder; Renhuai Junfeng Wine Industry holds 1.67%.

Luzhou Laojiao Group is the largest shareholder in Luzhou Bank, which now owns about 14.79% of the bank, which landed in H shares at the end of 2018. In addition, Luzhou Laojiao Group is also the largest shareholder of Luzhou Agricultural and Commercial Bank, with a shareholding of 7.18%.

Also in Sichuan, the well-known Jiuqiuotuo Shide Group has also invested in a bank, Suining Bank, with a stake of 12.39%, ranking the second largest shareholder. The latter is implementing a plan to list H shares with assets of about 50 billion yuan.

Anhui Gujing Group, the parent company of Gujing Gong Liquor, is the largest shareholder of Bozhou Pharmaceutical Dunong Commercial Bank, with a shareholding ratio of 9.25%. The latter entered the A-share queue in March 2018, and the current queuing status is "pre-disclosure update".

In addition, Shanxi Xinghuacun Fenjiu Group is the largest shareholder of the local Jiaocheng Agricultural Bank, with a stake of 26.67%. Sichuan Jiannanchun Group holds 7.89% of Shaanxi Yangling Agricultural Bank and 10% of Pufa Village Bank in Mianzhu. Zhejiang wine company Guyue Longshan holds 1.27% of Shaoxing Bank.

In addition to Yibin Commercial Bank, Wuliangye Group also appeared in the lineup of shareholders of Sichuan Bank shortly after its opening. According to industrial and commercial information, Wuliangye Group holds a 5.5% stake in Sichuan Bank, making it the bank's fourth largest shareholder.

"similar to the 'tobacco system', wine companies also need to find capital exports for huge cash flows, while banking dividends are relatively stable and suitable for such companies to invest. On the other hand, when some local banks are carrying out capital increase and share expansion, they also like to find local wine enterprises to buy shares, which can not only solve the source of capital increase, but also relatively less involvement in the operation of banks. " Said one brokerage analyst.