"When the giant fell, his body was still hot." Ma Huateng, the founder of Tencent, once used this sentence to warn colleagues that they must always think of danger in times of peace and take precautions.
Last year's epidemic, the global industrial chain was trapped, and this year's commodity prices rose, and the impact on cyclical stocks is self-evident. A year ago or even half a year ago, it was still a company with unlimited scenery, thunderstorms or overnight. Zhongwang, China (1333. HK) announced that the company had entered a serious debt crisis.
Liu Zhongtian, the actual controller of the company, is similar to most of the rich generation, acts quite boldly, and is also favored by the goddess of destiny. When the "building" of Zhongwang will fall, can he continue to write magic?
In the official information introduction, Liu Zhongtian was a deputy to the National People's Congress and was awarded various honorary titles such as Liaoning Provincial Special Labor Model, National May Day Labor Medal, National Labor Model, Builder of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and Executive Committee Member of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.
An easy to overlook fact is that unlike the graduate degrees, doctoral degrees and even professor titles of many private enterprise founders, Liu Zhongtian's academic introduction is very low-key.
He received a diploma in administration from Liaoning Radio and Television University in 2002 and is an economist. The former may imply that its diploma is a college or undergraduate, while "economist" in the system means only "intermediate" titles.
Liu Zhongtian was born in 1964, and by the time China Zhongwang was listed in Hong Kong in 2009, it was worth more than 10 billion yuan, and it was not difficult to give his academic qualifications and "titles" enough time and space. In fact, Liu Zhongtian did not operate in this regard, and the image of a grassroots entrepreneur jumped on the paper.
Zhongwang Group's headquarters in Wangjing, Beijing, "Zhongwang Building", claims to be a five-star decoration standard, but some insiders revealed that "the standard can reach seven stars".
Interior view of Chung Wan Building
The whole building, it is said that the Zhongwang Group used for office only about half of the floor, the other half is not rented out, but vacant, showing a "local tycoon" state.
Before founding Zhongwang in 1993, Liu Zhongtian successively founded Liaoyang Aluminum Products Factory, Futian Chemical, Cheng Cheng Plastics and Hongcheng Plastics. As can be seen from the company name, Liu Zhongtian has made more entrepreneurial attempts.
In anecdotal rumors, Liu Zhongtian has many versions of his fortune. What is widely circulated is that in 1978, 14-year-old Liu Zhongtian carried 200 yuan borrowed in his pocket and went to Changbai Mountain to do timber business and made a sum of money.
But later, the northeast timber business was monopolized by merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Six years later, Liu Zhongtian turned to the chemical business, producing refractory coatings for local steel mills.
Most young people are still in school at the age of 20, and he has been in society for 6 years.
There is also a rumor that Liu Zhongtian went to Hong Kong in the 1990s to invest in real estate and dig the first pot of gold.
In 1993, Liu Zhongtian and Hong Kong companies jointly founded Liaoning Zhongwang Aluminum Profile Company (referred to as Zhongwang), specializing in the production of aluminum profiles for door and window frames in the construction industry. This is the starting point of Liu Zhongtian's serious career.
In 1992, the housing reform was fully launched, and Liu Zhongtian realized that this was a signal that the real estate market was very likely to set off a wave of investment; aluminum profiles were important building materials, which were naturally of great use. Stepping on the express train of the times, Zhongwang galloped all the way.
In 2001, Alcoa wanted to buy Zhongwang for hundreds of millions of yuan, but Liu Zhongtian refused. He gave up the opportunity to cash out huge amounts because he was aware of greater business opportunities.
In 2002, Liu Zhongtian began to gamble heavily, planning to transform from aluminum profiles to industrial aluminum profiles, providing products for trains, ships, automobiles, aircraft, etc. for large construction customers.
Aluminum profiles for the management of Zhongwang, just tasted the sweetness of a few years, customers lined up to pick up the goods, the company slightly lived a comfortable life, and now toss to a new field, Liu Zhongtian in the internal resistance. After all, it was Liu Zhongtian who made the decision, and the company launched "industrial aluminum".
Equipment, technology, raw materials, all require a large amount of capital investment. In the past 7 years, Zhongwang invested nearly 2 billion yuan, and Liu Zhongtian finally won the bet.
With the official commissioning of Zhongwang's 1.25 million tons extruder, the annual revenue of industrial aluminum profile products contributed more than half of the group's total revenue, and the gross profit margin was far higher than that of construction aluminum profiles. In 2008, the world ushered in the financial crisis, But China Zhongwang made a lot of money, successively signed more than a dozen major national projects such as the expansion of the capital airport, the Beijing Olympic Games, the Shanghai World Expo, etc., and the sales volume of Zhongwang products jumped to the first place in Asia and the second in the world, and the money was full.
On May 8, 2009, Zhongwang successfully landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising HK$9.8 billion, becoming the largest IPO in the global capital market since September 2008 to the time of listing.
Liu Zhongtian holds a 74% stake in a listed company and his net worth of HK$26 billion, becoming the richest man in the new world and ushering in the brightest moment of his life.
Judging from the financial data of China Zhongwang over the years, this is a company with considerable profits, and it is not easy to see signs of big trouble.
However, after having money, they will make a great leap forward, and the rapid changes in funds, talents and even the market are also the "culprits" for many rich people to fall rapidly from the peak. Zhongwang also had an adventurous experience.
In 2011, Zhongwang launched the aluminum rolling project with a total planned annual production capacity of 3 million tons in Tianjin, which is about three times the company's original aluminum extrusion production capacity.
Official publicity shows that the project is located in Wuqing District, Tianjin, covering an area of 9,000 acres, and local media have specifically reported that the total investment of the project is 46.6 billion yuan.
What is this concept?
In 2011, China Zhongwang's net profit was 1.1 billion yuan, and it took nearly 40 years of hard work. More critically, in 2012, China Zhongwang's operating cash flow was about 630 million yuan, far exceeding the total investment amount of the project, which meant that the company needed to replenish blood from the outside.
The plant construction and equipment installation of the first production line of Tianjin Zhongwang were not fully completed until 2015 and officially put into production in 2017; the second production line of the first phase of the project was also sample trial production in 2019.
From the perspective of revenue changes, revenue has not improved by leaps and bounds, with total revenue of 13.5 billion yuan in 2012, peaking at 26 billion yuan in 2018, followed by two consecutive years of decline, until last year's revenue was 20.5 billion yuan, back to the level of 2017.
In 2020, the company's accounts receivable and other receivables totaled more than 20 billion yuan, accounting for 61% of net assets. Under the cycle, the business partners are not having a good life, how many of these accounts will become dead debts?
In 2016, Zhongwang, through its subsidiaries, took the equity of Junkang Life from Shanshan and entered the insurance field. Zhongwang currently holds or participates in the number of banks up to seven, including Liaoning Rural Commercial Bank, Liaoning Bank, Dalian Bank, Fushun Bank, etc., 2020 financial report data shows that China Zhongwang from the bank and other loans amount of 25.153 billion yuan.
The suspension of trading began on August 30 and has not disclosed the semi-annual report so far. The total assets of more than 100 billion listed companies, cash is only 363 million yuan, liabilities are as high as 91 billion yuan, short debt and long debt maturity part of up to 25.1 billion, thunderstorm is already reading seconds.
On October 15, China Zhongwang announced that its subsidiaries Liaoyang Zhongwang Refined Aluminum and Liaoning Zhongwang Group had serious operational difficulties and could not rely on their own strength to solve the current problems, and all three independent directors resigned
If Liu Zhongtian wants to save China Zhongwang, there are other financial assets that can be sold, including the aforementioned Zhongwang Building, even if it is not a listed company asset, it is not difficult to transfuse blood to the company.
How will this northeastern man, who has surpassed Wang Jianlin many times on the rich list, do he do? And really good men will rise from the trough, and surviving with a broken arm is also the way out.