Billionaire Wu Yajun Steps Down As Longfor Chair Amid Sector Disaster

Wu Yajun, the billionaire cofounder of actual property developer Longfor Properties, has stepped down as chair of the corporate amid an industry-wide disaster that’s exhibiting little signal of abating.

Shares of the Hong Kong-listed Longfor tumbled as a lot as 38% on Monday after the 58-year-old tycoon introduced her choice late Friday evening. As a consequence of age and well being causes, Wu has resigned as govt director and chairperson of the board, however will proceed to advise the corporate on its strategic improvement, Longfor wrote in a submitting to the Hong Kong Inventory Change.

She has handed the reins over to 40-year-old Chen Xuping, who has been with the corporate since 2008 and first labored as a building supervisor earlier than being promoted via the ranks. However the mogul, whose wealth plunged $1 billion to $6.1 billion in a single day, isn’t giving traders a lot to cheer.

“Longfor is experiencing administration adjustments when the {industry} is present process loads of difficulties,” says Kenny Ng, a Hong Kong-based securities strategist at Everbright Securities. “Traders are nervous about how it will address the challenges.”

The corporate, for its half, stated in a separate Friday submitting that the function adjustments had been outcomes of its company governance technique and focuses on nurturing senior managers via “tradition and mechanism.” It disclosed in the identical submitting that contracted gross sales stood at 59.8 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) within the third quarter of this yr, representing a mere 0.8% progress from the identical interval a yr in the past.

China’s actual property {industry}, in the meantime, continues to be mired in a deep disaster. Residence costs have sank for a 13^th straight month in September, as Beijing’s marketing campaign to cut back monetary leverage causes a wave of defaults, and purchaser confidence stays weak in a slumping financial system.

Longfor is taken into account to be on stronger footing than its debt-laden friends such because the now defaulted China Evergrande Group, due to Wu’s emphasis on monetary self-discipline and relative prudence with regards to borrowing. The corporate stated within the aforementioned submitting that it had no debt due this yr, and its monetary place “stays wholesome and steady.” It was allowed in August to promote $219 million price of yuan-denominated bonds which can be assured by the state, as Beijing sought to spice up market sentiment in direction of more healthy builders.

Nonetheless, the corporate’s shares have misplaced 70% of worth yr so far, underscoring traders’ pessimism towards the actual property sector. To forestall the present disaster from spiraling uncontrolled, officers have additionally introduced a collection of easing insurance policies together with tax exemptions and reducing mortgage charges. However Fitch Rankings stated in an October 24 report that the strikes are “selective and modest in scale,” and unlikely to spice up housing demand.