China’s Country Garden Holdings, one of the mainland’s largest property developers, has announced the long-awaited succession of its founder-chairman. Yang Guoqiang, also known as Yeung Kwok Keung in Cantonese, has stepped down from his position due to age reasons and has handed over the reins to his daughter, Yang Huiyan. This move adds to a series of founder-chairmen stepping back from their roles during China’s ongoing property crisis.
In a Hong Kong stock exchange filing, Country Garden announced that 68-year-old Yang Guoqiang would continue participating in corporate operations as a special advisor to the Guangdong-based group. Meanwhile, 41-year-old Yang Huiyan, who has served as co-chairman of the company since December 2018 and was managing day-to-day operations alongside her father, will succeed as chairman from 1 March and will remain an executive director of the group.
“This succession reflected Mr Yeung’s full trust and recognition of Ms Yang, and the company will achieve better development under the board’s and management’s leadership,” said Country Garden president Mo Bin in the filing.
Yang Huiyan has been with Country Garden since 2005 and inherited her father’s majority stake in the company. According to the filing, she currently holds 52.6% of the equity in Country Garden. Yang has enjoyed the title of Asia’s richest woman since at least 2012; her net worth plunged by more than 52% to $16.1 billion last year due to China’s real estate crisis.
In late December, a company wholly owned by Yang extended an interest-free loan of nearly HK$5.1 billion ($647 million) to Country Garden to support the operation and development of the group. Earlier that month, Yang had agreed to sell a portion of her controlling stake in Country Garden Services Holdings, the group’s property management arm, for HK$5.06 billion, cutting her stake in the company from 43.15% to 36.12%.
Yang Guoqiang’s resignation continues a trend of mainland founder-chairmen stepping back from everyday operations in the wake of China’s property turmoil. Last November, Beijing-based Modern Land announced that founder Zhang Lei would cease to be chairman and replace the company’s president and executive director, Zhang Peng. In September, Chinese billionaire couple Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin resigned as chairman and chief executive of Soho China shortly after the company’s CFO, Ni Kuiyang, came under investigation for insider trading associated with Blackstone’s abandoned buyout of the commercial developer.