The world's top 500 companies were auctioned: no one signed up for the seven-fold auction

National Business Daily

2024-06-24 18:17Published on the official account of Sichuan Daily Economic News

Every reporter: Peng Fei Every editor: Dong Xingsheng

Following the problems of arrears of project payments, arrears of wages, and suspension of production in 2023, Zhengwei Huaneng (Shandong) New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhengwei Huaneng"), a Fortune 500 company and Zhengwei International Group, invested and constructed by Zhengwei Huaneng Metal New Material Project, was officially put on the auction table.

At 10 a.m. on June 24, Zhengwei Huaneng's land use rights and its above-ground buildings, structures and ground attachments were officially auctioned on the Ali Asset Judicial Auction Platform, with a starting price of 165 million yuan, equivalent to 70% of the appraisal price of 236 million yuan. The embarrassing thing is that even with a seven-fold discount, more than 30 people set reminders and more than 3,000 people watched on the first day, but only "0" people signed up for this auction.

The world's top 500 companies were auctioned: no one signed up for the seven-fold auction

Image source: Screenshot of the webpage

It is worth noting that with the halo of Zhengwei International Group on its head, when it was first established, Zhengwei Huaneng was unrivaled in Zaozhuang, Shandong for a while, and was highlighted as a "leading enterprise". However, the notice issued by Zhengwei Huaneng at the end of 2023 shows that the company has no production orders for a long time and is in a state of shutdown, and its operation is facing great pressure and difficulties.

On June 24, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" learned from authoritative sources that the auction of Zhengwei Huaneng's related assets stemmed from the lawsuit arising from the failure to settle the project payment with China Construction Eighth Bureau.

In addition, an employee of Zhengwei Huaneng who has not gone through the resignation procedures said that after the Spring Festival, some of the company's administrative, human and logistics personnel have continued to pay five insurances and one housing fund in the name of employees of other subsidiaries of Zhengwei.

The company's Fortune 500 company was auctioned

From being regarded as a treasure by the local government as a key project to being put on the auction table, Zhengwei Huaneng only took two years.

On June 24, the target related to Zhengwei Huaneng was officially launched on the Ali auction platform. According to the previous announcement of the Intermediate People's Court of Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province (hereinafter referred to as the "Zaozhuang Intermediate Court"), the Zaozhuang Intermediate People's Court will conduct public auctions related to Zhengwei Huaneng on the court's Taobao judicial auction network platform from 10 a.m. on June 24, 2024 to 10 a.m. on June 25, 2024 (except for delays).

According to the bidding announcement, the auction target is Zhengwei Huaneng's land use right and its above-ground buildings, structures and ground attachments, with a starting price of 165 million yuan, a deposit of 16 million yuan, a price increase of 890,000 yuan, and an appraisal price of about 236 million yuan.

When communicating with the reporter of "Daily Economic News", relevant people familiar with the matter said that compared with the appraisal price, the starting price is equivalent to a seven-fold discount.

However, even though the starting price is already preferential enough, after the auction officially started at 10 am on June 24, although more than 30 people set reminders, as of 18 o'clock on the 24th, the number of onlookers also exceeded 3,000, but in this auction, no one officially registered.

As the protagonist of this auction, the background of Zhengwei Huaneng should not be underestimated.

According to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, Zhengwei Huaneng was established on November 18, 2019 with a registered capital of 2 billion yuan. The company's business scope mainly includes the production and sales of copper, wires, cables and other products. From the perspective of equity structure, Shenzhen Zhengwei (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhengwei Group) controlled by Wang Wenyin holds 80% of the shares of Zhengwei Huaneng, and the remaining 20% of the shares are held by two companies controlled by Tengzhou State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Bureau, with a shareholding ratio of 10%.

Image source: Screenshot of the webpage of the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System

According to the information on the official website of Zhengwei Group, in 2022, Zhengwei International Group, the company behind Zhengwei Group, will achieve a turnover of more than 600 billion yuan, ranking 124th among the world's top 500 companies in 2023.

With the halo of Zhengwei International Group on its head, when Zhengwei Huaneng was first established, it was unrivaled in Zaozhuang. According to the Qilu Evening News, on March 18, 2021, the Zhengwei Huaneng Metal New Materials Project, which was invested by Zhengwei International Group, a Fortune 100 enterprise in the world, held the first phase of commissioning and the second phase of the groundbreaking ceremony in the Zhengwei Huaneng Project Industrial Park in Tengzhou City.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Li Bin, chairman of the investment committee of Zhengwei International Group, introduced the Zhengwei Huaneng project as follows: as a major promotion project in Shandong Province in 2020, the project has completed the construction of nearly 160,000 square meters of core plant area in just 10 months since the official start of construction in May 2020, including conductor workshop, low-voltage workshop, R&D building, etc., completed the installation, commissioning and trial production of a large number of equipment, and embarked on a new stage and new journey of production and operation.

However, unlike the previously advertised planned investment of 12 billion yuan, the real investment amount of Zhengwei Huaneng project may have been greatly discounted. The reporter of "Daily Economic News" noticed that the Zhengwei International Metal New Material Project, which was built by Zhengwei Huaneng, was continuously ranked on the list of key projects in Zaozhuang City in 2020, 2021 and 2022, with a cumulative planned investment of 2.3 billion yuan in three years. In 2023 and 2024, the project is no longer on the list of key projects announced by the government.

On January 29 this year, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" saw in the Zhengwei Huaneng factory that as of that time, only two workshops had been completed on the more than 650 acres of land planned for use in the first phase of the project. The dormitories and R&D buildings involved in the project, although the external works have been completed, have not been put into use because the interior of the building has not been decorated.

The 100 million yuan project became the fuse of the auction

From the guests of the local government with the same scenery to the final suspension of production, the sliding speed of Zhengwei Huaneng is directly related to its order status.

In fact, since it was put into production in March 2021, Zhengwei Huaneng's production seems to have been abnormal. In the memory of an employee of Zhengwei Huaneng who has not gone through the resignation procedures, since it was put into production, Zhengwei Huaneng has not been in full production, but "the company has always been in intermittent production, and at the height of the epidemic, some of them were still closed for production".

A former employee of Zhengwei Huaneng, who has left in 2022, revealed that after the company was put into production, leaders from Zaozhuang City and even Shandong Province often visited the factory. In order to show the busyness of the production line, the company will engage in some "fake production" situations, such as transporting some finished cable products that are not produced by Zhengwei Huaneng to the factory from outside, and idling back and forth in the workshop.

Previously, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" learned from a number of government figures in Tengzhou City that because Zhengwei Huaneng owed employees wages, local labor, letters and visits and other departments have intervened. In the notice issued at the end of December 2023, Zhengwei Huaneng reflected the current situation to the labor inspection department and government leaders at all levels: the company has not had production orders for a long time, and (based on) the current situation of long-term serious losses, it is no longer able to pay employees' salaries on time and in full.

On June 24, the above-mentioned Zhengwei Huaneng employees who did not resign said that it had been confirmed that some of the company's administrative, human and logistics personnel had continued to pay five social insurances and one housing fund in the name of employees of other subsidiaries of Zhengwei. But after the Spring Festival, the employees of the workshop production line are no longer allowed to enter the factory.

Zhengwei Huaneng factory at the end of January this year Image source: Photo by reporter Peng Fei (data map)

However, compared with the inability to carry out normal production, the real reason why Zhengwei Hua can be put on the auction table is that the company has not been able to settle the project payment at the time of construction.

According to the relevant news obtained by the reporter of "Daily Economic News" from authoritative channels on June 24, the auction of Zhengwei Huaneng's related assets stemmed from the lawsuit arising from the failure to settle the project payment with China Construction Eighth Bureau.

According to the consumption restriction order of the Zaozhuang Intermediate People's Court obtained by the reporter, because Zhengwei Group and Zhengwei Huaneng failed to perform the payment obligations determined by the effective legal documents within the period specified in the enforcement notice, the Zaozhuang Intermediate People's Court took consumption restriction measures against the two companies and their legal representatives Wang Wenyin and Wang Wensheng in accordance with regulations, and the announcement date is August 31, 2023.

Because Zhengwei Group and Zhengwei Huaneng owed 100 million yuan to the First Construction Company of China Construction Eighth Bureau, the Intermediate People's Court of Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province took measures to restrict consumption of Zhengwei Group and its legal representative, Wang Wenyin.

On September 4, 2023, Zhengwei Group issued a statement saying that its subsidiaries and the general contractor of the project had a lawsuit, and Zhengwei Group was jointly and severally liable due to communication problems. After friendly negotiation between the two sides, the incident has been properly resolved and the relevant impact has been lifted.

However, since entering 2024, the relevant payments between Zhengwei Huaneng and China Construction Eighth Bureau have not yet been settled. Tianyancha shows that the case resumed enforcement on May 17 this year, and the plaintiff is China Construction Eighth Bureau First Construction Co., Ltd., with an execution target of 103 million yuan.

At noon on June 24, in a call with the reporter of "Daily Economic News", the person in charge of the Tengzhou project of Zhengwei Group said that the cost was not settled because Zhengwei had no money, but mainly because the accounting opinions of Zhengwei Huaneng and China Construction Eighth Bureau were inconsistent.

Can the Tengzhou project come back to life? "We're moving in a good direction"

Although it was put on the auction table, in Zhengwei's view, this does not mean that the Zhengwei Huaneng project is hopeless.

"We are moving in a good direction, and now the government is ready to revitalize our projects." On June 24, the person in charge of the Tengzhou project of Zhengwei Group told the reporter of "Daily Economic News". He relied on the fact that no one had signed up for the auction of the Zhengwei Huaneng project on June 24.

However, on the morning of June 24, the reporter asked the Zaozhuang Intermediate People's Court about the specific matters of the Zhengwei Huaneng project in the name of the investment institution, and the relevant people of the court said that they could participate in the auction normally, and introduced in detail some details of the Zhengwei Huaneng project, as well as the operation details related to the auction.

Relevant information shows that Zhengwei Huaneng Metal New Material Industrial Park project plans to invest a total of 12 billion yuan, covering an area of 1,200 acres, and will be constructed in three phases. Among them, the first phase of the project has an investment of 6 billion yuan, covering an area of 650 acres, and the main products are dual-use cables and high-speed railways, ships, State Grid cables, high-end precision wires, etc.

On January 29 this year, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" saw in the Zhengwei Huaneng factory that as of that time, only two workshops had been completed on the more than 650 acres of land planned for use in the first phase of the project. The dormitories and R&D buildings involved in the project have not been put into use because the interior of the building has not been decorated, although the external works have been completed.

Zhengwei Huaneng factory at the end of January this year Image source: Photo by reporter Peng Fei (data map)

In the "Zaozhuang 2023 National Economic and Social Development Plan" previously released by Zaozhuang City, Zhengwei Huaneng was highlighted as a "leading enterprise". In the expression of "focusing on adjusting the structure, cultivating the ecology, and concentrating on the excellent industry and strengthening the industry", the above plan mentions: high-end equipment industry, in-depth promotion of machine tools and mining equipment intelligent manufacturing, precision parts industry cluster to expand the scale, and vigorously support Tengda stainless steel, Xinjinshan, Zhengwei Huaneng and other leading enterprises to expand and improve quality.

Judging from the current situation, Zhengwei Huaneng not only failed to expand and improve quality, but also whether the company can still operate normally is a question mark.

According to a notice issued by Zhengwei Huaneng on December 29, 2023 obtained by the reporter of "Daily Economic News", the company has no production orders for a long time, and is in a state of shutdown, and its operation is facing great pressure and difficulties. In the early stage, Zhengwei Huaneng leaders raised funds through various ways to ensure that employees' wages were paid in full and in a timely manner. But "to date, there is really no money to pay salaries, and the company's leaders at all levels are trying to get out of the current predicament in various ways, but with little success." For the authenticity of the above notice, a number of Zhengwei Huaneng employees confirmed.

On April 10 this year, an administrative law enforcement decision of the Tengzhou Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau showed that Zhengwei Huaneng was fined 15,000 yuan for failing to pay labor remuneration in full and in a timely manner in accordance with the law, and failing to make corrections in accordance with the law after the issuance of the "Order to Correct Instruction".

Image source: Screenshot of the webpage

This is also in stark contrast to the role of guests before and after Zhengwei Huaneng was put into production. At that time, the information of Tengzhou Investment Promotion Service Center showed that as the largest single manufacturing project in Zaozhuang City, the project was put into operation and completed, which will play an important demonstration and leading role in the local new material industry.

On June 24, the above-mentioned employees who have not resigned from Zhengwei Huaneng told the "Daily Economic News" reporter through social platforms that as front-line employees, they have not been allowed to enter the factory since the Spring Festival in 2024.

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