Futu News on October 28, Gree Electric Appliances said that after a comprehensive review of the two intended transferees participating in this open recruitment, Zhuhai Mingjun Investment Partnership (limited partnership) was determined as the final transferee.

The two intended transferees, Zhuhai Mingjun Investment Partnership (limited partnership), and the consortium of Gewu Houde Equity Investment (Zhuhai) partnership (limited partnership) and GENESIS FINANCIAL INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED, which participated in this public recruitment, all put forward specific measures and cooperation plans to maintain management stability in the transfer application materials submitted to Gree Group.

Is there a boss behind Zhuhai Mingjun?

Behind Zhuhai Mingjun is Hillhouse.

He Hengjian owns 99.67% of Ningbo Meiyu Equity Investment Partnership (hereinafter referred to as Ningbo Meiyu), and finally owns part of Zhuhai Mingjun through layers of investment. The specific path is: he Xiangjian & Ningbo Profei Investment Management Co., Ltd.-Ningbo American Equity Investment Partnership (limited partnership)-Zhuhai Hillhouse Zeyuan Asset Management Center (limited partnership)-Zhuhai Hillhouse Tiancheng Phase II equity investment fund (limited partnership)-Shenzhen Hillhouse Hanying Investment Consulting Center (limited partnership)-Zhuhai Mingjun.

Tianyan data show that Ningbo Meiyu owns 7.47% of Zhuhai Gaoling Zeyuan Asset Management Center (hereinafter referred to as Gaoling Zeyuan) and 1.16% of Zhuhai Gaoling Tiancheng Equity Investment Fund.

In fact, in recent years, Hillhouse, Midea and Gree have a lot of connections, not limited to he Hengjian's indirect participation in the acquisition of Gree's controlling stake.

Unlike other investors, Gree and Midea have always been competitors. He Xiangjian "bought" Gree in the fourth quarter of 2015, until it became the tenth largest shareholder of Gree, with a shareholding of 0.71%. The number of shares is about 42.9 million shares.

At the same time, Hillhouse Capital bought 45.36 million shares in the first quarter of 2016, costing nearly 800 million yuan, and has held it ever since. According to the latest semi-annual report, Hillhouse Capital Management Co., Ltd.-HCM China Fund ranks as the eighth largest shareholder of Gree Electric Appliance with a stake of 0.72%, while Hillhouse Capital Management Co., Ltd. and HCM China Fund ranks as Midea's eighth largest shareholder with a stake of 0.89%.

Earlier, some market participants pointed out whether Gao Ling's holding of shares in Gree and Mei at the same time has the problem of inter-industry competition.

With regard to the fact that Midea's real controller indirectly participated in the Hillhouse bid, Shen Meng, executive director of Xiangsong Capital, told the Securities Daily that on the one hand, consideration should be given to easing the highly antagonistic competitive contradiction between the two, on the other hand, the proportion of investment is limited, which will not affect Hillhouse's dominant position.

It should be mentioned that when openly recruiting the transferee, Gree Group explicitly required that if there are various relationships between the intended transferee and Gree's main competitors, including joint venture, investor and fund, equity cooperation, etc., it is necessary to disclose all kinds of information in detail, such as investment time, shareholding information and so on.

Caixin magazine previously quoted a person familiar with the Zhuhai municipal government as saying that Zhuhai SASAC does not consider transferring Gree shares to enterprises or investment institutions in the home appliance industry, and the public solicitation plan also requires the intended transferee to issue a letter of commitment to avoid competition with listed companies.