Viewpoint Most people’s perception of Gu’an probably started from a billboard.
Starting from Beijing, driving south along the Jingkai Expressway, a red billboard came into view. One of them, a foreigner in a black suit, held a horizontal plaque in his hand and laughed with the words “I love Beijing, 50 kilometers south of Tiananmen Square”. A few large characters are particularly conspicuous.
When I first met Gu’an, it was just a little-known county industrial park, but with the efforts of Wang Wenxue and China Fortune Land Development, it has developed into a provincial key development zone and a benchmark for industrial cities in Hebei.
In a sense, Gu’an is the starting point of Wang Wenxue. He has also mentioned many times, “I am driven by ideals, and I am sincere and sincere to do a good job in the new industrial city.”
But now, the ideal is broken, and it seems that Gu’an will also become the end point of CFLD’s new industrial city.
On September 21, it was reported that the Gu’an County Government or the urban investment platform will take over the Gu’an Industrial New City project of China Fortune Land Development. The two parties have signed relevant agreements and will make relevant payments in October.
As a landmark project of China Fortune Land Development, the sale of Gu’an New Industrial City is tantamount to announcing to the market that the past heavy asset development model has officially come to an end.
And Wang Wenxue, who was “willing to admit defeat”, had to reload and set off again.
“Choose the new industrial city, no regrets in this life”
It is often found that a prime minister who has left office was nothing more than an outspoken orator; a general who was disarmed and returned to the field was nothing more than a bland city hero.
The so-called courageous and resourceful entrepreneurs were only young and full of enthusiasm back then.
In May 1967, Wang Wenxue was born in Bazhou, Hebei Province. His parents were ordinary farmers. He did not have a strong family background, nor was he born with a golden spoon in his mouth. He lived a normal life.
After graduating from technical secondary school, he came to the Langfang Transportation Bureau and became an ordinary driver. In those few years, he followed the steps every day, and his life did not have too many waves, as if he could see the end at a glance.
But Wang Wenxue, who was in his early 20s, had an unwilling heart even though he was born in an ordinary family and lived an ordinary life.
In 1992, Wang Wenxue, who was only 25 years old, resigned from his job in the Transportation Bureau and opened a store near the Langfang Municipal Party School, and the “Kawasaki Hot Pot Restaurant” officially opened.
The location is appropriate, and most of the customers who come to the hot pot restaurant for dinner are distinguished people, which provides Wang Wenxue with an opportunity.
Soon, Wang Wenxue found a new business opportunity – the Langfang Municipal Government Building was about to be renovated, and he took over this “porcelain work” through various channels.
From the owner of the hot pot restaurant to the foreman, Wang Wenxue has also been questioned and criticized, but he still brings a group of people to work in full swing.
This also made him famous, and since then, Wang Wenxue’s “contractor” business has begun to extend to surrounding cities.
It stands to reason that Wang Wenxue’s good days are coming soon, but good luck, the Asian financial crisis broke out in 1997, and local finances tightened, and then the People’s Bank of China emphasized that “credit funds are strictly prohibited for building buildings”, the Ministry of Finance It also expressly prohibits local debt funds from being invested in such projects.
For a while, Wang Wenxue was in a dilemma. On the one hand, it was difficult to recover the government project funds, and on the other hand, the salary of the construction team could not be paid.
In a difficult time, he made an astonishing move. He publicly burned the government’s 5 million decoration contract and arrears certificate, declaring that he would no longer ask for the government’s arrears; at the same time, for downstream suppliers and construction teams, he used the hot pot restaurant to repay all the arrears. .
In the eyes of outsiders, Wang Wenxue was “stupid and naive”, the 5 million contract was burned out, and the arrears could not be recovered, and the hot pot restaurant that had worked so hard also lost money.
But it is this courage that has laid the groundwork for future development.
After the economic crisis passed, it coincided with the cancellation of the welfare housing system and the budding of housing commercialization. At that time, the Langfang government planned to build dormitory buildings, but the funds were relatively tight.
This is not a fat job. Wang Wenxue still took the initiative to take over the project, but reached an agreement with the government. First, he spent money to help the government build dormitory buildings; Build a commercial house for him.
Years later, the “Huaxia Garden” in the northern part of the Party School has sprung up, and Wang Wenxue has transformed from a former hot pot restaurant owner to a developer.
Subsequently, Wang Wenxue successively undertook projects such as Huaxia Classic Garden and Fifth Avenue Commercial Street, and always found some inconspicuous business opportunities.
In the golden age of real estate, not only China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd., but also a large number of developers emerged in Hebei and even the whole country.
At that time, the Beisan counties around Langfang had developed quite maturely due to their high degree of integration with Beijing, while Gu’an had a geographical advantage, but it was still “wild”.
“Opening up wasteland” is not an easy task. At that time, the executive team of China Fortune Land Development rejected Wang Wenwen’s idea of moving to Gu’an without exception. However, he defied public opinion and resolutely devoted himself to the construction of Gu’an Industrial New City.
Due to its proximity to Beijing, it coincides with the historical opportunity for the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei to relieve non-capital functions, and Gu’an Industrial New City ushered in a magnificent turn. In December 2014, this new city, located 50 kilometers south of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, attracted more than 400 enterprises, ranking among the top five in Hebei Province in terms of GDP.
For CFLD, the new industrial city model is a traditional business, and it is also the skill of starting a business and looking after the family. Wang Wenxue has also said many times, “If you choose an industrial new city, you will have no regrets in this life!”
“Today I did this, I am willing to admit defeat”
The 5 million contract that was torn up at the beginning gave Wang Wenxue an opportunity to enter the real estate market; it was also the original courage that created an opportunity for China Fortune Land Development’s PPP model.
In fact, after starting in Gu’an in 2002, CFLD began to focus on the new industrial city model, and at the same time continued to explore the developmental PPP market-oriented operation mechanism of “government-led, enterprise-operated”.
The developmental PPP model refers to the cooperation between China Fortune Land Development and the local government. The former acts as the main body of investment and development, and the latter acts as the decision maker for the development and construction of the park. The two parties cooperate to provide planning, design and consultation, land consolidation, infrastructure construction, and public supporting construction for specific areas. , industrial development services and urban operation services, a total of six categories, a comprehensive solution for the whole process of integrated operation.
To put it simply, the local government provides land, and CFLD is responsible for land consolidation, development and construction of new industrial cities, and services.
However, this kind of production and city model is usually relatively large in volume, with large initial investment, long development cycle, and slow payment collection speed. Wang Wenxue adopted the solution of “building a garden with a house”, and the feasibility of this solution was previously When helping the Langfang government to build dormitory buildings, it was effectively certified.
Wang Wenxue is lucky. The losses he has suffered in the past few decades seem to be all made up by China Fortune Land Development. In the following ten years, this PPP development model was expanded to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, Central Plains urban agglomeration, Chengdu-Chongqing metropolitan area and other regions.
According to data, before 2015, China Fortune Land Development had only signed contracts for about 20 parks, nearly 7 of which were in the mature and development stage; Over 30 stages.
As of the end of 2019, China Fortune Land Development had deployed nearly 80 new industrial cities in 15 core metropolitan areas across the country. In addition, the company’s sales outside Beijing accounted for more than 50%. Therefore, he succeeded in becoming the richest man in Hebei and became famous for a while.
But life is alive, how can there be no wind and waves, how can there be no ups and downs.
While Wang Wenxue made a drastic copy in different places, it coincided with the background of property market regulation, and the development and sales business of China Fortune Land Development was adversely affected, and the closed loop of “building a house with a garden” was broken. In 2018, CFLD’s financial situation deteriorated rapidly, and the liquidity crisis broke out.
In the same year, the company introduced the second shareholder Ping An in exchange for a chance to breathe. However, with the increasingly strict real estate regulation and the unsustainable asset-heavy development model, CFLD’s new industrial city business stepped on the brakes. From 2019 to 2022, the company signed 7, 1, 0, and 0 new industrial PPP project agreements, showing a decreasing trend year by year.
More than that, in 2021, China Fortune Land Development experienced a second thunderstorm and finally embarked on the road of debt restructuring.
After a big somersault, some people say that China Fortune Land Development’s crisis stems from macro-control; others say that it stems from Wang Wenxue’s expanding ambitions.
In the face of more than 200 billion debts, Wang Wenxue also bowed his head and choked up, and even publicly stated: “Today I have done this, and I am willing to admit defeat.”
Now, CFLD is negotiating with the Gu’an County Government on the acquisition of Gu’an Industrial New City. It is mentioned that the Gu’an County Government will acquire the Gu’an Industrial Park by acquiring the equity of two companies, namely Sanpu Weite Construction and Development Co., Ltd. and Gu’an Jiutong Xinsheng Park Construction and Development Co., Ltd. related assets, and the two parties have signed the relevant agreement on the above transaction and made the relevant payment in October.
For Wang Wenxue, Gu’an is not only the place where the production-city model started, but now it will also be the place where it ends…
Opinion People | We focus not only on a character’s story, but also his and her business legends and ups and downs.