China's former richest man taken away by Police
Li Hejun, the founder of the Hanergy Department and the former richest man who had disappeared for more than two years, was taken away for finacial problems. According to Caixin news, Li Hejun was taken away by the Jinzhou police in Liaoning on December 17, 2022 to assist in the investigation, and has not been released as of January 10, 2023, but it is not clear why Li Hejun was taken away. Since it was the Jinzhou police who took Li Hejun away, market sources speculated that it might be related to Jinzhou Bank.
In 2015, Bank of Jinzhou (00416.HK) disclosed in its prospectus that the scale of its financial relationship with Hanergy was 9.461 billion yuan, which were directly linked to Hanergy’s beneficiary rights transfer plan, non-principal-guaranteed wealth management products, and capital-guaranteed financial products. Wealth management products, which have a net credit risk exposure of 2.77 billion yuan. In addition, there are also reports that Bank of Jinzhou has actually provided more financing to Hanergy, and many of them have been transferred off-balance sheet. On January 11, a reporter from Times Weekly called the Secretary of the Bank of Jinzhou's office to verify the relevant situation. As of press time, the call was still not connected. Since December 19, 2022, the stock of Bank of Jinzhou has not been traded for many consecutive days. At the close of trading on January 11, Bank of Jinzhou reported HK$1.40 per share. Started with 50,000 yuan and earned hundreds of billions After landing in the capital market and then withdrawing, Li Hejun and his Hanergy Department went from peak to trough and then disappeared. Li Hejun once told the media about his idea, "I hope that Hanergy will one day become China's business card, just like Apple is the pride of the United States." This idea ultimately failed to materialize. In 1984, Li Hejun was admitted to the Engineering Department of Beijing Jiaotong University. In his junior year, he hired more than 20 classmates to sell film at school, earning 12 yuan in 3 days. After graduation, Li Hejun refused to be assigned and devoted himself to business. Starting from electronic components, he successively set foot in domestic trade, mining, mineral water, real estate and other industries. In 1989, Li Hejun borrowed 50,000 yuan from a university teacher, and Hanergy Group was born. In just five years, Li Hejun used 50,000 yuan of venture capital to earn the "first pot of gold" - 80 million yuan. The origin of this sum of money is quite mysterious, and Hanergy’s official website at the time only had a simple description: “railway transportation” and “mining”. After getting his first pot of gold, Li Hejun was also at a loss. Some people suggested that he invest in stocks, some suggested that he buy listed companies, and some suggested that he buy small hydropower stations. In the end, Li Hejun chose to invest in hydropower stations. In 1994, Li Hejun established Huarui Group, entered the field of hydropower station investment, and purchased a 350-kilowatt small hydropower station for 2 million yuan in his hometown of Heyuan, Guangdong. Since then, he has purchased several small hydropower stations in Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Ningxia and other places. However, the small hydropower station with hundreds of kilowatts is just a small project after all. It is the 3 million-kilowatt Jin'anqiao Hydropower Station that really made Li Hejun famous in one fell swoop. In 2002, the Yunnan government invited investment, and private enterprises organized a delegation to visit Yunnan. Li Hejun, who has been involved in the hydropower industry for many years, is aware of the business opportunities in hydropower resource projects in Yunnan Province. Soon, Hanergy and Yunnan Province signed an agreement on the development of the Jin'anqiao Hydropower Station Project, with an investment of nearly 20 billion yuan. The first phase is 2.4 million kilowatts, and the total installed capacity of the two phases is about 3 million kilowatts. At that time, this was the only super-large hydropower project of one million kilowatts built by a private enterprise in China.
Extra-large hydropower projects require massive financial support. Li Hejun once said that in the eight years from planning to construction and operation, the funds were like a millstone, which made him breathless. For this reason, Li Hejun sold the original small hydropower station and even invested all the company's funds in it. Li Hejun invested all his wealth in the Jin'anqiao hydropower project, but the progress of the project is still full of twists and turns. At the end of 2008, it was revealed that the Jin'anqiao Hydropower Station was built before approval, and many banks urgently stopped lending, and Li Hejun's capital chain was about to break. In a difficult time, Li Hejun relinquished his position as a major shareholder and introduced Zhang Zhengyu, chairman of Henderson Albert, and the Jin'anqiao hydropower project was continued. In 2009, the Jin'anqiao Hydropower Station was built to generate electricity, with a daily income of tens of millions of yuan. Zhang Zhengyu, who "renewed his life" for Li Hejun, did not withdraw most of his shares until 2011, when the Jin'anqiao Hydropower Station was officially connected to the grid for power generation. Seeing the huge business opportunities behind new energy, Mr. Li He has been involved in all "scenery and water". In 2009, Li Hejun invested in Hanergy wind farms in Jiangsu and Ningxia, but the wind power investment was only a flash in the pan, and Li Hejun did not continue to cultivate in the wind power industry. Subsequently, Li Hejun brought Hanergy to the photovoltaic industry, choosing thin-film solar cell technology with huge investment and low cost. At the time, solar cell technology was divided into polysilicon and thin film. If it can successfully produce thin film products with higher conversion rates, Li Hejun's Hanergy is expected to become the leader in China's photovoltaic industry. Li Hejun is very confident in the thin-film technology invested by Hanergy. Since 2009, Hanergy has invested in 8 photovoltaic bases across the country. In 2010, Li Hejun not only purchased billions of billions of equipment, but also bought a 29.4% stake in the equipment supplier Boyang Solar for 1.1 billion yuan, intervening in the upstream industry of thin-film batteries. At the time of the scenery, Li Hejun also bought two second-hand Gulfstream G550s, which were parked at Haikou Airport at a price of 7 million yuan per year. The words "Hanergy" can be clearly seen on the fuselage. To achieve technological breakthroughs, more financial support is bound to be needed. Compared with borrowing money from the bank, going public is undoubtedly a faster financing method. In February 2013, Li Hejun took control of Boyang Solar, which was listed in Hong Kong, and later changed its name to Hanergy Thin Film Power (00566.HK). Standing in the wind, the stock price of Hanergy Thin Film soared from HK$1.8/share in November 2014 to a high of HK$9.07/share in March 2015. With the rising share price of listed companies, Li Hejun was selected into the "2015 Hurun Global Rich List" with a net worth of 160 billion yuan, becoming the richest man in China. gambler's investment It became famous in hydropower and collapsed in solar energy. Thin-film technology was once regarded as one of the future development directions of photovoltaics, but this technology has fatal shortcomings in commercialization. Since the photoelectric conversion efficiency of thin films is lower than that of crystalline silicon cells, the difference in conversion efficiency will often offset the impact of component prices on the cost of electricity, and crystalline silicon cells with higher conversion efficiency have stronger competitiveness. To promote thin film technology into the mainstream, it is impossible to rely solely on Li Hejun's Hanergy. It is an important part of Li Hejun's 200 billion yuan solar energy investment plan to attract local governments to take shares. Since his high-profile announcement of entering the photovoltaic industry in 2009, Li Hejun has been promoting his huge solar thin film plan to local officials in many places. In Li Hejun's vision, solar thin film will replace the polysilicon route due to its low cost and non-polluting production process. According to this plan, the production capacity of thin film will be 3 million kilowatts in 2012, and the final target is 10 million kilowatts, exceeding the annual production capacity of global thin film photovoltaic modules. Taking advantage of the photovoltaic policy in 2009, Li Hejun successively lobbied the governments and banks in Haikou, Shuangliu, Heyuan, Changxing and other places to join his 200 billion yuan investment plan. According to media reports, there is a saying within Hanergy that there is a "three-three system" for investment: Hanergy, local governments and banks each contribute one-third of the investment. However, in actual operation, Hanergy purchases equipment at medium and low prices through its holding company, quotes high prices to local governments, and increases the actual investment ratio of the government and banks. At the same time, the huge amount of total investment can provide Hanergy with low-cost supporting land, tax rebates, subsidies and other policies. The entry of the government and banks has boosted Li Hejun's confidence. Like a gambler, Li Hejun did not change his radical style, betting Hanergy's future on thin-film technology. Hanergy's official website once hung the title of "the world's largest silicon-based thin-film solar cell manufacturer" on its official website. However, the price of crystalline silicon modules began to decline in 2009. Hanergy’s thin-film products, which do not have a price advantage, failed to break through the 10% conversion efficiency bottleneck. Most of Hanergy’s projects could not be put into production as scheduled. No financial side is willing to swallow it. According to the IRENA report, the global market share of thin-film battery components was 14% in 2009, and dropped to 11% in 2010. From Jinshuiqiao to the film, the gambler Li Hejun calculated the outlets every step of the way, but he couldn't turn around once he made a mistake. Li Hejun rejected the mainstream crystalline silicon technology and bet on non-mainstream thin-film batteries. Without bank funds and government support, Hanergy finally came to the edge of the cliff. There have been rumors in the market that Hanergy is engaging in "left-handed and right-handed" related party transactions and manipulating stock price rises. Some foreign media questioned that Hanergy can always rise 10 minutes before the market close, and it has skyrocketed by 1048% within a year. On May 20, 2015, Hanergy held a general meeting of shareholders. 15 minutes after the shareholder meeting started, Hanergy’s stock price plummeted, falling 47% in 30 minutes, almost cut in half. One hour later, Hanergy's stock was suspended, its market value evaporated by 144.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, and Li Hejun's net worth plummeted by hundreds of billions. On May 28 of the same year, the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission announced an investigation into Hanergy thin film power generation. On July 24, China Investment Information Corporation issued an announcement on the Shanghai Stock Exchange stating that due to reasons such as the removal of Hanergy Thin Film Power, the stock will be transferred out of the "Hong Kong Stock Connect" stock starting from the 27th. In 2019, the crisis of Bank of Jinzhou, which had been supporting Li Hejun, broke out, and the Hanergy department collapsed. Some Hanergy employees said that the development of Hanergy is like "passing flowers by beating drums". Without the injection of new funds, the capital chain will be broken. This is why Li Hejun needs to lobby local governments and banks. In 2020, Hanergy reorganized and established Shinong Holding Group on the original basis, but the company has ceased operations on December 22, 2022. "We tend to overestimate the changes in one to two years and underestimate the changes in five to ten years." Li Hejun, who said this sentence, failed to see the outcome of Hanergy in the end. - Tencent Music will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for Trading on September 21 - Anker 45W Wall Charger with 5,000mAh 20W Portable Charger Review - Bridgee Certified Fiber 8k HDMI 2.1 Cable Hands-on Review - Under Your Bed (2019)-Film Review - China’s Popular EV Companies Enter Crucial Earnings Season Read the full article