Hao Jianmin

Hao Jianmin formerly served as chairman and chief executive officer of China Overseas Land & Investment Limited. In this capacity he signed the company’s reports of the board of directors issued in Hong Kong on March 13, 2014, March 24, 2015 and March 18, 2016.

According to the company’s report of March 13, 2014, the group at that time planned to start construction on more than 12 million square metres of new floor area, with the scale of construction reaching 30 million square metres at its peak, and aimed to complete 10 million square metres of floor area (including joint ventures) and achieve contracted sales (including joint ventures and China Overseas Grand Oceans) of no less than HK$140 billion. As of the end of February 2014, the group (excluding China Overseas Grand Oceans) had acquired seven land parcels in seven cities in mainland China, with developable floor area of about 5.29 million square metres; China Overseas Grand Oceans had acquired four land parcels in four cities in mainland China, with developable floor area of about 2.7 million square metres. The group said at the time that it would continue to build a business structure focused on residential property and supplemented by commercial property, and would strive in the long term to raise the share of investment property profit to 20% of the group’s profit; the commercial property under development and pending development amounted to 4 million square metres, about 50% of which was expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

In terms of diversified growth, the profit contribution and cash recovery of the group’s joint venture projects were significant in 2013: capital invested in joint venture projects fell to about HK$13.63 billion at year-end, while the full-year profit contribution rose 27.7% to about HK$2.94 billion. China Overseas Grand Oceans, an associate of the group focusing on business in third-tier cities in mainland China, recorded sales of HK$17.22 billion, turnover of HK$15.91 billion and profit of about HK$3.38 billion in 2013; after adjusting for the profit generated and recorded from the group’s acquisition of China Overseas Grand Oceans in 2010, it still provided the group with a profit of about HK$830 million. The three projects in which the real estate fund set up under the group’s leadership participated were liquidated after being fully repurchased by the group in May. The company announced on August 5, 2013 that its controlling shareholder, China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited, intended to inject certain real estate businesses into the group; on January 28, 2014, the company announced that, as a transitional arrangement, the operation and management of the businesses to be injected would all first be placed under its custody.

According to the company’s report of March 24, 2015, as of the end of February 2015 the group had acquired two land parcels in two cities in mainland China, with developable floor area of about 1.63 million square metres, while China Overseas Grand Oceans had not acquired any land in the first two months of 2015; the group planned to add no less than 10 million square metres of developable floor area of land in 2015. At the end of 2014, capital invested in the group’s joint venture projects fell from a peak of more than HK$20 billion to about HK$8.98 billion, and the full-year profit contribution consequently fell 62.5% to about HK$1.10 billion. China Overseas Grand Oceans recorded sales of HK$18.06 billion, turnover of HK$13.98 billion and net profit of about HK$1.45 billion in 2014, providing the group with a profit of about HK$480 million. The capital injection negotiated between the group and China State Construction Engineering had been completed, involving the acquisition of a property portfolio from China State Construction Engineering and its subsidiaries and the issuance of company shares to China Overseas Holdings Limited. On the financial side, the group’s bank loans maturing that year amounted to as much as HK$22.54 billion, of which HK$17.35 billion in Hong Kong bank loans would mature before the end of May; the group had arranged a total of HK$18.5 billion in financing in the fourth quarter of the previous year, arranging the refinancing of these loans in advance.

According to the company’s report of March 18, 2016, the group acquired one land parcel each in Jinan and Hong Kong in the first two months of 2016, with total developable floor area of about 1.58 million square metres, while China Overseas Grand Oceans did not acquire any land during the same period. At the end of 2015, capital invested in the group’s joint venture projects was about HK$14.52 billion, and the full-year profit contribution was about HK$630 million. China Overseas Grand Oceans recorded sales of HK$22 billion, revenue of HK$16.61 billion and net profit of about HK$920 million in 2015, providing the group with a profit of about HK$320 million. Against the backdrop of accelerating consolidation in the mainland property market, on March 14, 2016 the company signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire the mainly residential property development projects (CITIC Real Estate) held by CITIC Limited; the board believed that the acquisition would benefit the sustainable development of the group’s future business, enhance the company’s financial efficiency, substantially increase the group’s land bank in one go, and have a major positive impact on the group’s achievement of its various operating targets over the next several years.

In each of the above reports, Hao Jianmin set out the group’s financial management direction as adhering to the capital management principle of “cash is king, and expenditure determined by income”, expanding onshore and offshore financing channels, and improving the debt structure; the 2016 report further noted that, owing to continued pressure from renminbi depreciation, the group was committed to improving the currency structure of its debt, mainly by accelerating and increasing the proportion of renminbi debt.