The cold winter of real estate is not over yet, but professional managers are busy transferring risks.
According to the data of Hong Kong Stock Exchange on February 10, Xia Haijun, vice chairman of the board of directors and President of Evergrande group, cleared a number of Evergrande bonds from July to August 2021, with a total face value of US $128 million (equivalent to about 814 million yuan). After Evergrande fell into a liquidity crisis, Xu Jiayin, chairman of the board of directors, repeatedly promised to "ensure the delivery of buildings", so as to calm the market sentiment. However, when Xu Jiayin tried to win the trust of the market, the "working emperor" he supported quietly left behind.
If the real estate enterprise is a ship, the senior management team can be described as the "helmsman". They look at the overall situation, master the course and know the current situation of the ship. Therefore, their every move, advance or retreat, to a certain extent, reveals the development reality of the enterprise and becomes a window for the outside world to observe the enterprise and even the industry.
Once upon a time, real estate was a "multi gold" industry. Professional managers were either in high paid positions or on the way to higher paid positions. However, in recent years, the real estate industry has been down and the growth is weak. The executives of real estate enterprises have begun to circulate like a lantern, or hang their seals actively or leave passively.
Jing Hong, CEO of Zhongwang consulting, told the Times financial analysis that any industry has cycles. In different cycles, enterprises adopt different strategies and need different characteristics of professional managers. Globally, there are very few entrepreneurs and professional managers who can turn the tide when an enterprise encounters a major crisis. Real estate is facing industrial adjustment, and it is normal for professional managers to change.
the "working emperor" with an annual salary of 200 million sold corporate bonds and stocks
To the displeasure of investors, Xia Haijun's selling of Evergrande bonds occurred before the complete outbreak of the crisis, and he did not report to the Hong Kong stock exchange until half a year after the selling. Some investors questioned whether they had insider trading, and some investors lamented the "prophet of spring river water heating duck".
This is not the first time that Xia Haijun has left behind for himself. On August 11, 2021, Xia Haijun sold 10 million shares of Evergrande property and 3 million shares of Evergrande automobile, with a total cash out of more than HK $115 million. Among them, the selling price of Evergrande property shares was HK $7.30 per share and that of Evergrande automobile was HK $14.18 per share. After the sale, Xia Haijun's shareholding in Evergrande property and Evergrande automobile decreased from 0.61% to 0.51% and from 0.15% to 0.12%.
Compared with the stock price highs of Evergrande property and Evergrande automobile in early 2021, Xia Haijun's timing is not good. At the beginning of 2021, Evergrande property, which set a record for the fastest passing of property stocks, set a "military order", and its share price also rose continuously, rising by more than 20% in several single days, with a closing price of HK $19.1 per share at the highest. Evergrande motor's share price soared by 52% due to the introduction of 26 billion war investment, and the highest closing price was HK $72.25/share.
However, since the second half of last year, with the adverse news coming out one after another, the stock prices of Evergrande have been falling all the way. According to the information, since Xia Haijun's reduction, the share prices of Evergrande property and Evergrande automobile have not been higher than their current selling prices, and the latest closing prices (February 11) were HK $2.82/share and HK $3.67/share respectively. It can be said that Xia Haijun still "ran" in time.
In fact, from "airborne" to Evergrande in 2007, Xia Haijun was appreciated and trusted by Xu Jiayin. He accompanied him through the whole process from the failure of Evergrande's initial listing to the success of Evergrande's secondary listing in 2008, and witnessed the brilliance and gloom of Evergrande in different periods.
Evergrande also gave Xia Haijun a generous salary. As early as 2015, his annual salary had exceeded 100 million yuan. In 2017, Forbes released the salary list of CEOs of Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong. Xia Haijun topped the list with a salary of 270 million yuan, which is known as the "working emperor" in the industry. According to Evergrande's 2020 annual report, Xia Haijun's annual salary is about 205 million yuan, far exceeding that of several Vice Presidents - in the same period, Shi Junping and pan Darong, executive directors of Evergrande, ranked second and third, with salaries of 20.29 million yuan and 19.94 million yuan respectively.
Xia Haijun's high salary also left his peers far behind. Public data show that in 2020, the annual salary of Mo bin, President of country garden, Wang mengde, chief executive of rongchuang, was 133 million yuan, that of Shao Mingxiao, CEO of Longhu, was 80.1 million yuan, and that of Yu Liang, chairman of Vanke's board of directors, was only 12.473 million yuan.
Therefore, after the news that Xia Haijun cleared the bonds before the Evergrande crisis came out, some investors lamented: "it's really difficult for professional managers to survive with their owners."
However, many industry consultants believe that excessive ethical requirements for professional managers are inappropriate. Bai Wenxi, chief economist of IPG China, told times finance that high salary and equity are just measures to encourage professional managers to develop together with enterprises. When enterprises have problems or even the platform collapses, running away is an inevitable choice for professional managers.
123567 {the era of black iron enterprises, or a sharp decline in employees {123567}
In the management system of enterprises, equity incentive, high salary and bonds are supposed to bind the interests of professional managers and the company. However, in the rise and fall of real estate enterprises, not only the partner system has lost its original significance, but also there seems to be no eternal relationship between professional managers and bosses.
In 2016, the annual sales contract of country garden Jiangsu region was as high as 36.7 billion yuan, with an average sales of 100 million a day. At that time, Liu senfeng, the president of country garden Jiangsu region, also had a total annual revenue of more than 100 million.
Liu senfeng's high salary benefits from country garden's "concentric sharing" incentive mechanism, that is, project employees can follow the project, become project shareholders and share project profits. It is understood that Liu senfeng invested most of his wealth in the Country Garden real estate, even mortgaged the real estate, and made a credit loan with salary mortgage.
The "concentric sharing" mechanism makes the "Liu senfeng" who dare to think and do move forward like chicken blood, and also makes the sales performance of country garden grow explosively, rapidly rising to the leading position in the industry. Real estate enterprises with large-scale ambition and want to overtake in corners have followed suit. The trend of high salary, dimensionality reduction and job hopping, and the realization of "curve appreciation" have also become the career path of professional managers.
However, with the downturn of the industry, the aura of real estate enterprise executives gradually fades. The truth may be that times create heroes. People are not as good as the right place, and the right place is not as good as the right time. The once famous star professional manager was greeted by the new owner with great expectation, but left in a hurry.
Liu senfeng left country garden and joined the field group in 2019. He was regarded as a key figure in the field real estate sprint, but he left in a hurry within a year; On October 1, 2020, another "working emperor" Chen Kai resigned as the co chairman and chief executive officer of Xinli holdings, and has been employed for only more than half a year.
Through the golden age, real estate is no longer the holy land of "gold rush", and salary reduction will become the general trend of the industry. Yu Liang, chairman of Vanke, recently pointed out that the real estate industry has reached the era of black iron. Vanke can no longer simply use the method of monetary incentive as before, and the income of Vanke employees will decline significantly this year; Employees who only want to make a lot of money are not suitable to work in Vanke or in the black iron era of the real estate industry.
Under the new cycle of the industry, how can real estate enterprises deepen their contact with professional managers? Jinghong believes that at present, all aspects of real estate resources have been significantly adjusted. In this context, "deepening the connection between professional managers and enterprises" may not be the core talent strategy, because the previous professional managers' strengths do not necessarily meet the requirements of the enterprise strategy in the next stage. For enterprises, we should first set the strategy for the next stage, then readjust the organizational structure according to the strategy and select professional managers more in line with the strategy for the next stage. The third is to concentrate resources to retain suitable talents, such as adopting new assessment methods and creating new directions.
Wang Yahui, vice president of SAP consulting, believes that deepening the relationship between professional managers and enterprises does not rely on external support, "First, it is related to the moral character, ability and pursuit of professional managers; second, it is related to their relationship with the boss. Whether they cherish each other like bole and Qianlima; third, it is related to the enterprise itself, whether there is room for development, and whether the enterprise culture, employment system, layout and business model are attractive to professional managers."
Without a golden parachute, people who are used to high paid professional managers can only find a way out if they can't continue to work side by side with the enterprise.
