On December 4, financial news focused on a real estate enterprise event with a crowd that was comparable to the Evergrande Group Symposium two days earlier.
In the Evergrande Group Chairman Xu Jiayin's rumor speculation, after the 2 evening, Evergrande Group urgently held a special meeting to ensure the delivery of the building, Xu Jiayin to "nothing to come out to sneak around" posture to respond to the rumors. In fact, before the meeting, many insiders of Evergrande have already refuted the rumors.
Looking ahead to 2022, what is the former "richest man in China" up to? How will his future path unfold?
At 7:00 p.m. on December 2, Evergrande Group urgently held a special meeting on guaranteeing the delivery of buildings. Source: Evergrande Group official website
Starting with nothing and being unique
Unlike those sons of wealthy families, Xu Jiayin's starting point in life is "adversity mode".
Xu Jiayin was born in 1958 to a poor family in Taikang County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province. Taikang has been a famous city in the Central Plains since ancient times, where the hero Wu Guang and the poet Xie Ling Yun both left their footprints. In the same land, Xu Jiayin soon lost his mother.
"How happy are those who grew up with their mothers!" At the Evergrande Group meeting, Xu Jiayin had said to his subordinates with envy.
Growing up without a mother's love, Xu Jiayin developed an "independent" and "tough" character. Instead of dropping out of school to work as a farmer like other children, he insisted on studying. In the most difficult days, he even worked as a fecal laborer, and in 1978, he succeeded in the college entrance examination, and after graduation, he worked in an iron and steel factory for ten years. With the spring breeze of reform and opening up, he came to Shenzhen and became a salesman. 1992, he placed an order of 100,000 RMB for his company.
However, Hui Kayan was not satisfied with working for others forever. 1996, he created the Evergrande Group, targeting the real estate market.
At that time, most of the real estate developers in Guangzhou focused on large units. Xu Jiayin decided to develop the first project of Evergrande "Jinbi Garden" after market research, focusing on small house type. He believed that Chinese people did not have so much money in their hands at that time, and the public might not be able to afford to buy large apartments, which was not conducive to the quick return of capital.
As he expected, "Infinity Garden" was sold out as soon as it was opened, and Evergrande gained a large amount of cash flow, laying the foundation for continuous development. With a series of precise operations by Xu Jiayin, Evergrande Group has rapidly risen to become a dark horse in China's real estate market.
In 1999, Hui Kayan pushed Evergrande to the top 10 real estate enterprises in Guangzhou; in 2004, Evergrande ranked among the top 10 real estate enterprises in China; in 2009, Evergrande was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with a total market capitalization of up to HK$70.5 billion.
Photo: Hui Ka Yan.
Blind Expansion, Shattered Dreams of Being the Richest
Evergrande's success has made Hui Kayan famous. He has been a regular on the rich list since 2010 and topped the 2017 Forbes Rich List and Hurun Rich List as the richest man in China. However, his wealth dropped to 30 billion yuan and 172nd place on the 2022 Hurun 100 Rich List (China).
Evergrande's "Golden Dollar Football" is the most glittering of Xu Kayan outside of real estate. 2010, he invested a huge amount of money to build Guangzhou Evergrande soccer team, with a huge amount of money to set a new record in the Asian soccer circle.
On November 9, 2013, Guangzhou Evergrande, cheered by nearly 50,000 fans, drew 1-1 with South Korea's Seoul FC and won the AFC Champions League title by virtue of its away goal advantage, becoming the first Chinese soccer club in 23 years to stand at the top of Asia.
In 2020, Hui took a 500,000-square-meter plot of land in Xiecun, Panyu, Guangzhou, for 6.8 billion yuan, with plans to invest another 12 billion yuan to build a world-class professional soccer stadium that would surpass Barcelona's home, Camp Nou.
If all goes well, the 100,000-capacity soccer stadium, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, will be another highlight of Xu's career.
However, as it is often said in soccer circles, "Soccer is round, and no one knows what will happen at the last minute." In the second half of 2021, Xu Jiayin and his soccer dreams came to an abrupt end.
Released on April 16, 2020 at Evergrande Football Stadium in Guangzhou. Photo credit: Evergrande Group
Surviving against the odds and making every effort to ensure the delivery of the building
Due to the high leverage and high debt of real estate companies, Evergrande made an announcement in 2021 that it might not be able to fulfill its guarantee obligations. The central bank has pointed out that Evergrande Group's risks mainly stem from mismanagement and blind expansion.
Evergrande's asset disposal dynamics have always touched the sensitive nerves of the capital market. in November, Evergrande sold the Evergrande headquarters in Shenzhen Bay at a price of 7.54 billion yuan; in October, the Guangzhou Panyu land parcel that carries Xu Jiayin's soccer dream was acquired by Guangzhou City Investment. Local governments are also accelerating the recovery of Evergrande's land. According to incomplete statistics, since Evergrande fell into financial difficulties in 2021, the government has recovered more than 12,000 mu of land, equivalent to 8 million square meters.
The latest news shows that on the afternoon of November 30, Evergrande Wealth announced the adjustment of the payment program released on December 31, 2021, and adjusted the payment of 8,000 yuan per person per month to 2,000 yuan per person per month.
Evergrande's self-help action is far more than that, the most important of which is naturally "guarantee delivery". Up to now, so far this year, Xu Jiayin's name in the Evergrande Group official website only appeared three times, the theme of delivery and selling houses.
Even at the end of October, the Hengchi 5, which has invested 47.4 billion yuan and has been in the making for more than 2 years, finally ushered in the official delivery of the first batch of 100 units. Evergrande Auto, which has been delayed in mass production and delivery time, finally gave the market a preliminary explanation. However, on such an important occasion, Xu Jiayin, who has high hopes for Hengchi Automobile, was not present.
On the evening of December 2, in the much-anticipated work of guaranteeing the delivery of buildings on the special meeting, Hui focused on summarizing this year's resumption of work and production to guarantee the delivery of buildings to ensure the completion of the annual task of guaranteeing the delivery of buildings.
At the beginning of this year, Xu Jiayin said at the Evergrande mobilization meeting that Evergrande will pay for about 70 million square meters of construction this year, involving 600,000 sets of properties. By the end of the year, Xu Jiayin said, "From January to November this year, Evergrande Group realized 256,000 sets of property delivery, and strive to complete 300,000 sets of delivery for the whole year of 2022, and 44,000 sets of delivery must be completed in December with quality and quantity guaranteed." Compared with the beginning of the year, the target number of sets for the task of guaranteed delivery has been reduced by half.
Also at the beginning of the year, Evergrande's headquarters moved back to Guangzhou from the Nanshan District of Shenzhen, where it had worked for nearly five years. Some have commented that it is this pragmatic and accommodating temperament that has made Guangzhou a business capital that has lasted thousands of years. Now, Xu Jiayin has returned to Guangzhou in an attempt to return to pragmatism in order to weather the storm.
However, what the future holds is anyone's guess, and everything will take time to prove.
