Hong Kong's rich circle has no shortage of stories, and the Cheng family, which started with jewelry, ranked third on the Forbes list of Hong Kong's richest people in 2021, with total assets of more than $88 billion (577.2 billion yuan).

As the saying goes, 30 years ago, the father respected the son, 30 years later, the son respected the father, this phrase is more appropriate in the Hong Kong-style family. Now that Zheng Zhigang, the eldest grandson of Zheng Yutong, the founder of the Zheng family, has taken over the key to the wealth of the Zheng family, can the assets of the Zheng family be expanded again?

Recently, Artisan Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) founded by Chow Tai Fook Jewellery and Zheng Zhigang, the head of New World,NASDAQListed under the stock symbol "ARTAU". Aspex and PAG anchor investors for it.

Artisan raised $300m this time. According to the 21st Century Business Herald, Artisan Acquisition was fully subscribed within two hours of launching the offering.

This is the first listed company of Zheng Zhigang, the third-generation "head" of the Cheng family, one of the four families in Hong Kong.

Under the SPAC craze, Zheng Zhigang is eager to try.

Zheng Zhigang, born in the 1980s, is a cultural entrepreneur of New World Group and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Jewelry Group, as well as the founder of K11 brand and C Ventures.

As the third generation of the Zheng family, Zheng Zhigang's experience is more like an entrepreneurial youth. In 2008, Zheng Zhigang founded K11 Shopping Mall, which was a great success in Hong Kong with K11. K11 became the first shopping mall in Hong Kong to make a profit that year. Today, the trendy shopping mall built by Zheng Zhigang has become a gathering place for hipsters everywhere.

As of December 31, 2020, the K11 brand investment property portfolio operates 13 projects in six major cities in Greater China, with a total floor area of more than 1.1 million square meters. K11 also has 25 projects in the pipeline, which are expected to be completed by 2025, bringing its total number of projects under construction to 38 in 10 cities in Greater China.

However, Zheng Zhigang's "ambition" does not stop there. The Zheng family, which started with jewelry and construction, has gradually accelerated its investment in other areas of the capital market under the leadership of Zheng Zhigang in recent years.

The listing of Artisan Acquisition Corp. Is the special purpose merger and acquisition company (SPAC) established by Zheng Zhigang, the third generation of Zheng family wealth. The SPAC will tend to look for suitable targets in the fields of health care, consumption and technology.

SPAC, also known as "blank check company", does not operate any business or assets, but after applying for listing and raising funds, SPAC helps the target company to complete mergers and acquisitions, so that the target company can be listed.

Since 2020, the SPAC craze has swept the world, and the listed enterprises around the world have experienced explosive growth around the traditional IPO model through SPAC. In the US stock market, half of all IPO projects are SPAC. In 2020, a total of 248 SPAC were listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, raising a total of $82 billion, accounting for 56% of U.S. stock IPO for the year, well above the $13.6 billion raised in 59 cases in 2019.

Why did SPAC become a tipping point?

If the target company is successful, it will be a fortune and fame for the sponsors of SPAC, so they are willing to bet their credibility on it.

For SPAC sponsors, only 5% of the initial capital of US $5 million, that is, only US $25000, is needed. If the company successfully acquires a merger and listing with SPAC, the sponsor can acquire 20% of the shares of the listed company before the merger and acquisition is completed, which is also the economic benefit it can gain from the creation of SPAC.

From the cost point of view, what investors hope most is to find a way to exit quickly. When enterprises are listed through SPAC, the sponsors hold the shares of listed companies, which is subject to the applicable lock-up period (Lock-up Period), and has high liquidity, which shortens the exit cycle of traditional investment mergers and acquisitions.

Why did Zheng Zhigang set up the company? This has something to do with Zheng Zhigang's frequent layout in recent years.

"cast the net" investment, three companies have been listed

Judging from the current public information, Zheng Zhigang mainly invests through himself and his founding C Capital, K11 Investment and ASPEX. SPAC's prospectus also disclosed that Aspex and PAG were anchor investors in the company's IPO.

According to incomplete statistics of Mustang Finance (Wechat official account: ymcj8686), so far, the company invested by Zheng Zhigang, Xiaopeng Automobile (XPEV.N),NIO Inc.Automobile (NIO.N) and Hua Medicine (2552.HK) are already on the market.

Zheng Zhigang participated in NIO Inc. 's D-round financing through C Capital in November 2017 and XPeng Inc. 's B round financing in August 2018, both of which successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the prospectus.

Among them, NIO Inc. Motor has a market capitalization of $54.76 billion (about 3524.73 yuan), XPeng Inc. has a market capitalization of $20.62 billion (about 1327.24 yuan), and Zheng Zhigang holds 104 million shares of XPeng Inc. through ASPEX MANAGEMENT (HK) LTD, accounting for 0.66%.

According to Tianyan, Zheng Zhigang participated in Hua Medicine's E-round financing through K11 investment in March 2018. Hua Medicine has been successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. as of press time, the company's market capitalization has reached 5.444 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 4.511 billion yuan). In addition, when Meituan (3690.HK) was listed on the stock market, there were news reports that Meituan's international placing portion was awarded to Li Ka-shing,Lee Fook InternationalChairman Joseph Lau Luen-hung andNew World DevelopmentZheng Zhigang, vice chairman and third-generation successor, subscribed and became an anchor investor, that is, he was given priority in the distribution of shares, and the amount involved was unknown.

Today, Meituan's market capitalization has already broken through the trillion yuan mark, if the above investment is true, Zheng Zhigang has also become another big winner in addition to the founder.

In addition to these listed companies, Zheng Zhigang invested in March 2018.JingDongLogistics. JD Logistics, Inc., which will list in Hong Kong on May 28, plans to sell 10 per cent of its shares, valuing it at about 225.3 billion yuan, according to recent media reports.

JD Logistics, Inc. officially announced its independent operation in 2017, and JD Logistics, Inc. was valued at $13.5 billion after completing $2.5 billion in financing in 2018. With the explosive increase in the order volume of JD.com Mall, JD Logistics, Inc. has also grown into a super unicorn valued at nearly 100 billion yuan in just 12 years.

If JD Logistics, Inc. is successfully listed, the wealth of Zheng Zhigang, the third generation of rich people, will once again usher in a substantial leap.

In addition, Zheng Zhigang has also invested in many "unicorn" enterprises, including Little Red Book, Full Truck Alliance Co. Ltd. Group, Xiao Ma Zhixing, New Ruipeng Pet, Freedom, Horizon, Dingdong (Cayman) Limited and so on. And, according to media reports, a number of companies have been listed rumors.

The SPAC set up by Zheng Zhigang tends to be in the areas of health care, consumption and technology. In 2019, Zheng Zhigang led the completion of New World's HK $21.5 billion acquisition of Fortis Insurance; in 2018, Zheng Zhigang launched a new health brand Humansa (Renshan excellent Society) to enter the health care market; earlier, in 2013, he joined Parkway Medical to set up Hong Kong Yi Hospital.

Create the first generation to start the mountain, and the rich second generation to keep the industry

The net-like investment layout has led to the continuous expansion of the assets of the Zheng family. The Cheng family ranked third on the Forbes list of Hong Kong's richest people in 2021, with total assets of more than US $88 billion as of December 31, 2020.

Such a distinguished family is inseparable from the efforts of creating a generation. As the founder of the Cheng family, Zheng Yutong can be described as a legend from fleeing famine to becoming one of the four major families in Hong Kong (Hong Kong's "four families": Li Ka-shing, Guo Desheng, Li Shaoji, Zheng Yutong).

Zheng Yutong came to Macao from Guangdong at the age of 13 and entered Zhouda Fujin Store. At this time, "Chow Tai Fook Jewellery", a well-known brand, has been founded by founder Zhou Zhiyuan.

Through the struggle of creating a generation, Zheng Yutong developed Chow Tai Fook Jewellery into a match withTiffanyOn December 15, 2011, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery was listed in Hong Kong, and its capital map was further expanded. By the time Zheng Yutong died in 2016, the Zheng family had become jewelry brands Chow Tai Fook Jewellery (1929.HK, with a market capitalization of HK $130.8 billion), New World Development (0017.HK, with a market capitalization of HK $102.352 billion),Newly created(0659.HK, market value HK $33.597 billion), New World Department Store (0825.HK, market capitalization HK $2.259 billion) and head of New World China.

Zheng Yutong, also known as Shark Dantong, has partnered with Stanley Ho to set up casinos in Vietnam and other places, and has invested in water power, electricity and other industries in Macao. His business empire has exceeded 200 billion yuan.

Zheng Jiachun, who lives under the halo of Shark gallbladder Tong, doesn't seem to be in suspense about taking over. Zheng Jiachun, as the eldest son of Zheng Yutong, inherited his father's work and took most of the family business into his pocket.

However, Mr Cheng does not seem to be good at solving business problems. Zheng Yutong had no choice but to make a comeback and put the family business back on track.

In recent years, Zheng Jiachun has also participated in the investment layout, but invested in fewer projects.

March twenty _ ninthChina Evergrande GroupAccording to the announcement, on March 28, 2021, its car car Bao Group entered into an investment agreement with each investor, with a total investment of HK $16.35 billion, accounting for 10 per cent of the total equity. It is worth noting that in the investor list, Top Assemble Holdings Limited, which is finally controlled by the family of Dr. Chow Tai Fook Jewellery and Dr. Cheng Jiachun, contributed HK $510 million.

RV Bao is a company with the vision of "digital technology, RV in one", innovative application of big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, virtual reality and other digital technology to build real estate, car online and offline omni-channel trading service platform.

Up to now, RCB has more than 21 million broker members, 400000 professional brokers and more than 40, 000 offline stores. The transaction volume is expected to exceed 2 trillion yuan this year.

Evergrande has said publicly that RV will be listed on NASDAQ or other appropriate stock exchanges in the United States, and the valuation should be no less than 150 billion yuan before the offering.

In addition to Fangche Bao, in November 2020, China Strategic Group (0235.HK) announced that it planned to issue 3.397 billion new shares to Zheng Jiachun, chairman of the independent third-party New World, at a discount of 10.45 per cent, equivalent to 16.67 per cent of the enlarged share capital. After the completion of the deal, Zheng Jiachun replaced Sun Maohong as the company's largest shareholder. At present, China Strategic Group has a market capitalization of 2.997 billion Hong Kong dollars (2.527 billion yuan).

In July 2019, Zheng Jiachun invested in 0620.HK through Ion Tech Limited. As of press time, the market capitalization of Datang West City is 3.872 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 3.208 billion yuan). Of these, Ion Tech Limited holds 16.66 per cent of the shares.

It is worth noting that Zheng Jiachun also became the new controller of the company by acquiring a 30 per cent stake in 600265.SH through Chow Tai Fook Jewellery before September 2018. However, Jinggu Forestry has now become a ST company. As of the third quarter of 2020, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery held 55% of the shares, with a market capitalization of 1.991 billion yuan.

Now, Zheng Zhigang, as the eldest grandson of the Zheng family, has taken over. In the future, the attention to the Zheng family will also be transferred to him. Will the asset map of the Zheng family be further expanded?.

Do you know anything about the four families in Hong Kong? What other interesting things do you know? Welcome to leave a message at the end of the article.