Behind China Merchants Property's personnel changes: The story of the acquisition of Hong Kong Chuangyi Holdings

Guandian.cn As April begins, China Merchants JYC still has its own matters to take care of.

On April 2, China Merchants JYC held its 11th session of the board of directors’ 5th meeting. After deliberation, the meeting approved a series of proposals, including reducing registered capital, adding the position of vice chairman, the resignation and appointment of directors, and having a director concurrently serve as the general manager of an affiliated party, among others.

In terms of registered capital, China Merchants JYC repurchased 6.6262 million shares of the company cumulatively in 2025 and completed the corresponding cancellation procedures. The company’s total share capital of 1.06B was changed to 1.05B. This meeting was also the board’s approval to change the company’s registered capital from 1.06B to 1.05B.

All other major matters were related to personnel changes within the management team. Specifically: Huang Jian resigned from positions including that of the company’s director due to a work reassignment. The board also agreed to add the position of vice chairman, to nominate Pan Jianliang as a candidate director for the company’s 11th board of directors, and to have the company’s director and general manager, Chen Zhiheng, concurrently serve as a director and chairman of the board of directors of Chuangyi Holding.

Among these, the most closely watched by the market is the organizational structure and business dealings between China Merchants JYC and Chuangyi Holding, linked together as a pivot through the position adjustments of Pan Jianliang and Chen Zhiheng.

Tales of the Acquisition

Chuangyi Holding’s business mainly focuses on Hong Kong. Compared with China Merchants JYC, its brand recognition in the mainland market is clearly much lower.

According to the company’s website, Chuangyi Holding is a property management services supplier for public housing in Hong Kong. It provides property management-related services for public and private properties, mainly including general management services, tenancy management (for public housing estates), rent and management fee collection services, security/guard services, cleaning services, small-scale repair and maintenance services, project management services, and more.

Chuangyi Holding first obtained a property management services contract issued by the Housing Authority in 2001 and began providing services to public housing estates (Tai Yuen Estate). In 2004, it first obtained a private property management contract and provided services to a private residential estate in Kwun Tong.

Through years of business development, in 2017, Chuangyi Holding became the largest property management services supplier for Hong Kong public housing with about a 12.6% market share. At the same time, with about a 1.5% market share, it became the third-largest property management services supplier in Hong Kong’s residential property management services market.

In July 2018, Chuangyi Holding submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and on December 11 of the same year, it was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The next year’s annual report for the listing showed that in fiscal year 2019, the company achieved revenue of 716 million yuan and operating profit of approximately 20.3 million yuan. Year over year, revenue increased by 7.1% while operating profit decreased by 54.4%, resulting overall in an upturn in revenue but not in profits, and its profitability “b” experienced a significant decline.

In the following two years, the company’s revenue scale expanded steadily, and operating profit recorded an increase of about 75.7% in fiscal year 2021. The financial report indicated that the sharp increase in operating profit was mainly because during the outbreak of the pandemic, the company obtained cleaning services contracts for quarantine centers, thereby promoting business growth.

Source of data: company announcements and compiled by Wuliang She (物聊社)

Just as the market believed Chuangyi Holding would follow its original development trajectory and further develop independently in the Hong Kong property services market, the company published a statement announcing that it would soon be “sold” to China Merchants Group.

In December 2020, Chuangyi Holding announced that its controlling shareholder, Genesis Group Limited, had signed a memorandum of understanding with Sinotrans Shipping, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Merchants Group. As a potential buyer, Sinotrans Shipping intended to purchase approximately 268 million shares of Chuangyi Holding that Genesis Group Limited planned to sell, representing about 53.51% of the total share capital.

The announcement further pointed out that China Merchants JYC, as an indirect subsidiary of China Merchants Group, might be viewed as a potential buyer under the share purchase agreement. However, it needed to be noted that before the announcement period ended, Sinotrans Shipping had not made a final decision on the identity of the potential buyer.

China Merchants JYC said that Chuangyi Holding’s property management business falls within the company’s main scope of business. For this acquisition opportunity, China Merchants JYC would conduct feasibility research and, as needed, carry out due diligence, transaction negotiations, and other work.

It can be seen that China Merchants JYC’s acquisition intent was not yet fully determined. Market participants also arrived at the key factors for the acquisition through multi-dimensional analysis.

On the one hand, Chuangyi Holding’s unique business scale in Hong Kong would help the reorganized China Merchants JYC seize the Hong Kong property services market, bringing new revenue and profit growth points;

On the other hand, Chuangyi Holding’s relatively low profit margin may also drag down China Merchants JYC’s overall profit margin, putting pressure on the company’s profit level in the short term.

Three months later, China Merchants JYC provided a definitive response to this “proposed acquisition”—it would give up the opportunity to acquire equity.

“After repeated discussions and comprehensive considerations, the company believes that the conditions for implementing this equity acquisition are not mature. Based on the principle of prudence, the company has decided to abandon this project acquisition opportunity.”

According to insiders, one of the reasons for giving up the acquisition opportunity was that Chuangyi Holding mainly manages Hong Kong public housing, which would involve issues related to regional management. Coupled with factors such as room for profit and business fit, Chuangyi Holding was not the best target for an acquisition at that time.

A few days later, Sinotrans Shipping planned to acquire 53.51% of Chuangyi Holding’s shares—an aggregate of 268 million shares—through its subsidiary, at a consideration of HK$1.456 per share.

But that did not mean China Merchants JYC fully exited.

Regarding the acquisition, Sinotrans Shipping stated that to support the development of China Merchants JYC, if China Merchants JYC believed the conditions for acquiring Chuangyi Holding were mature, China Merchants Group would actively coordinate Sinotrans Shipping and its subsidiaries to transfer the Chuangyi Holding equity they held to China Merchants JYC.

So, in 2026, when China Merchants JYC announced that there would be some changes in the management positions of two executives—Pan Jianliang of Chuangyi Holding and Chen Zhiheng of China Merchants JYC— the acquisition from several years ago, which appeared to have reached an endpoint but still had uncertainties, once again became a focus of discussion.

A New Chapter in Personnel

On April 2, China Merchants JYC released a series of announcements regarding personnel changes. The main figures are Huang Jian, Pan Jianliang, and Chen Zhiheng. The position changes correspond to a “retreat,” an “entry,” and a “concurrent appointment,” respectively.

Due to work reassignment, Huang Jian resigned from his roles as director of China Merchants JYC and as a member of the nomination and remuneration committee under the board of directors. After resigning, he would no longer hold any position.

Pan Jianliang, executive director and general manager of Chuangyi Holding, was nominated as a candidate director for the 11th board of directors of China Merchants JYC. The board submitted the proposal to the company’s shareholders’ meeting for election. His term runs from the date on which the shareholders’ meeting approves the proposal until the term of the current board of directors expires.

China Merchants JYC’s director and general manager Chen Zhiheng will concurrently serve as a director and chairman of the board of directors of Chuangyi Holding. Chuangyi Holding is an affiliated party of the company.

Judging from the two protagonists taking up new roles, first, Pan Jianliang has been involved throughout the first half of Chuangyi Holding’s history.

Pan Jianliang was born in 1955 in Hong Kong. Later, he studied to obtain a master’s degree in housing management from The University of Hong Kong. From 1979 to 2000, he worked for the Hong Kong Housing Department (Housing Authority). His final position was deputy housing affairs manager.

After leaving the Housing Department, Pan Jianliang, together with several other former Housing Department employees, founded Chuangyi Property Services Consulting Co., Ltd. At that time, the Hong Kong government gradually outsourced part of its property management services to the private sector for operation. Chuangyi Property, leveraging the founders’ team experience and industry connections, quickly captured a large share of the market.

In 2018, Chuangyi Holding went public. Pan Jianliang and his fellow partner, Li Zhaohua, attended the bell-ringing ceremony. Pan Jianliang served as Chuangyi Holding’s executive director and chairman of the board of directors, while Li Zhaohua served as Chuangyi Holding’s executive director and chief executive officer.

After Sinotrans Shipping completed the equity acquisition of Chuangyi Holding, a large number of Sinotrans Shipping executives entered Chuangyi Holding’s management team. Yet Pan Jianliang, who is over 70 years old, still serves as Chuangyi Holding’s executive director and general manager.

If it could be said that having Pan Jianliang from Chuangyi Holding enter the board of directors of China Merchants JYC was already adding a clear link between Chuangyi Holding and China Merchants JYC, then having Chen Zhiheng—who has been promoted step by step at China Merchants JYC over the past two years—enter Chuangyi Holding as well may further clarify the direction of future integration between the two.

Earlier, when Chen Zhiheng was appointed general manager of China Merchants JYC, some views pointed out that this person is the widely recognized “practical operator” from the China Merchants system, with a dual capability matrix for operating multiple business formats and coordinating corporate headquarters strategy.

In 2007, Chen Zhiheng joined China Merchants Shekou. He successively served as assistant general manager of the China Merchants Property Foshan company; deputy general manager of the China Merchants Shekou Foshan company; deputy general manager of the Guangzhou company and general manager of the Zhanjiang company; general manager of the Changsha company; general manager of the operation management department; and general manager of China Merchants Shekou Digital City Technology Co., Ltd.

In March 2025, Chen Zhiheng was hired as general manager of China Merchants JYC. Combined with the fact that China Merchants JYC’s then chairman, Lü Bin, had also served as general manager at China Merchants Shekou Digital City Technology Co., Ltd, speculation about China Merchants JYC’s digital transformation to address the difficulty of improving gross profit margin continued to emerge.

In September of the same year, Chen Zhiheng succeeded Lü Bin to become China Merchants JYC’s new legal representative, further increasing the weight of Chen Zhiheng’s role in China Merchants JYC.

From this, it appears that by tightening its connections with Chuangyi Holding, China Merchants JYC is also adding more bargaining chips to help the company open up new territory and build momentum.

Disclaimer: The contents and data in this article have been compiled by Guandian based on publicly available information and do not constitute investment advice. Please verify before use.