Huang Qisen In The Whirlpool

"At present, almost 85% of the projects have resumed work... This year, financial institutions have given us some time to give us such space and room. But only when the project is covered can it be of value and the crisis can be resolved. If you stop here, there's no value. So now our most important work is to return to work and production. " Recently, Huang Qisen, chairman of Taihe Group, talked about the current situation of the company to the 21st century economic reporter.

On the same day, Huang Qisen was wearing a sky blue polo shirt and dark grey sports pants, feeling quite relaxed. Compared with a year ago, Huang Qisen has more white hair on his temples, but his mental state is still good and he is still very talkative.

Since Taihe fell into the debt crisis for more than a year, Huang Qisen has not appeared in public. During this period, he closely communicated with financial institutions to seek debt rollover; At the same time, he promoted the resumption of work and production, and frequently went to the project to "supervise the war".

Since the beginning of this year, the news that the project will resume work has been reported in succession. However, some creditors still failed to reach an agreement with Taihe, which is the main reason why Vanke has not formally invested in shares. In July last year, Vanke announced that it would help Taihe in the form of shares, but it set three preconditions, one of which is to reach an agreement with creditors.

Not only that, a corporate bond "H8 Taihe 01" of Taihe recently defaulted, bringing a trace of pessimism again.

Huang Qisen knows that the solution of the problem is not overnight, but his confidence is beginning to recover. In July this year, Taihe's Internal Journal "Taike club" resumed publication. Huang Qisen published a signed article entitled "situation and task of Taihe", saying that Taihe "began to enter the mountain road", and looked forward to the prospect of the company's "second venture".

Huang Qisen is also thinking about the past of Taihe. "Objectively speaking, in the process of our rapid expansion, management and other aspects still fail to keep up." This kind of reflection originated from his deep pain. It seems that it is not timely enough, but it still has positive significance for Taihe at this stage.

Trapped in debt, Huang Qisen is trying to survive the Jedi.

"Try to get out"

Since this year, Huang Qisen has spent a lot of time and energy on the front line of the project. He went to a number of project sites, while urging the resumption of work and production, while controlling the quality. He will make suggestions on many details of the project and strive for perfect delivery.

According to the official statement of Taihe, as of the end of July this year, dozens of projects have been resumed, accounting for about 85% of the total number of projects.

Since the outbreak of the debt crisis, Taihe's project has been suspended for a long time. Although there are some factors affecting the epidemic situation, the situation of the project has deteriorated rapidly due to the bank run of financial institutions and the intention of withdrawing from some shareholders and partners. Some owners also use various ways to exert pressure.

During this period, several real estate enterprises and institutions contacted with Huang Qisen to discuss the issue of shares, but failed to reach an agreement due to various reasons.

The contact between Taihe and Vanke began in May last year. After several rounds of communication, Vanke decided to take a conditional stake in Taihe and quickly got involved in the negotiation between Taihe and its creditors. In the second half of last year, Huang Qisen had intensive communication with financial institutions, and people from Vanke attended many occasions. To facilitate negotiations, he once stayed in a hotel in Beijing's financial street.

By the first half of this year, most financial institutions have agreed to roll over their debts, and some of them have given preferential loan interest rates. With the relief of financial pressure, Taihe's projects have also begun to resume work.

Returning to work can not bring immediate performance and cash flow. Recently, the debt overdue scale of Taihe is still increasing. But Huang believes that compared with a year ago, Taihe is climbing out of the debt mire. The company's operation has also stabilized a lot, and it is no longer the state of "people's minds moving and work not moving forward".

Huang Qisen believes that "the current Taihe is in the process of struggling to get out of the mire." Therefore, the resumption of work and production must not be relaxed.

"Creditors" are also very concerned about the trend of Taihe. Huang Qisen often receives calls from financial institutions, asking about the progress of the project, the company's development, and his own situation. In the process of communicating with reporters, Huang Qisen got up to answer a phone call from a financial institution.

The negotiations between Taihe and financial institutions were generally smooth. Huang Qisen revealed that some financial institutions could not accept the conditions proposed by Taihe at first, but with the gradual exposure of systemic risks in the real estate industry, these institutions are also lowering their expectations.

But so far, some financial institutions have failed to reach an agreement, and Taihe even faces some legal proceedings. Huang Qisen admitted that it was indeed Taihe who broke the contract first, but he also expected financial institutions to understand and solve the problem from the perspective of reality.

In view of the current situation, Huang Qisen is ready to "fight a protracted war"“ Different projects take different solutions, step by step, although it is difficult. "

Reflection and remedy

In 2017 and before, Taihe frequently took land in the open market, and quickly made large-scale land acquisition by way of high-rise taxi, but since then, it has stopped suddenly. By 2019, Taihe's debt problem is beginning to emerge. In that year, some institutions and enterprises had negotiated with Huang Qisen on acquisition matters, but failed. The next year, the debt problem became apparent, and Taihe officially embarked on the road of war.

In Huang Qisen's view, the foreshadowing of the debt problem has long been buried.

"I have realized this problem in 2017, and the pace is getting bigger and the management can't keep up with it." Huang Qisen said that at that time, Taihe suddenly expanded to more than 20 cities, and talents were very scarce. In terms of management, there was also a gap between Taihe and some large real estate enterprises.

At that time, regulators also began to pay attention to the systemic risk of the real estate industry, and required real estate companies to control leverage. Huang Qisen also caught the signal.

Huang Qisen said that Taihe has made adjustments since 2018, which are mainly reflected in three aspects: 1. Stop taking land and withdraw from Hainan and other regions; 2. Withdraw from the region around Beijing; 3. Exit the old project with long investment return period. At that time, Taihe also "refined troops and simplified administration", in Huang Qisen's words, "in fact, it was in retreat.".

In order to reduce leverage, Taihe also paid off 100 billion debts in 2018 and 2019“ If this debt is not paid off, there will be no chance for Taihe today. "

But it still doesn't solve the problem completely. Due to various reasons, the sales of some projects of Taihe failed to meet the expectation and could not bring enough cash flow. In 2020, the outbreak of new crown pneumonia will further affect sales and become the fuse of the outbreak of debt problem.

The industry attributed the crux of Taihe as "management out of control in rapid expansion". In the communication with reporters, Huang Qisen also mentioned the word "management" many times, which obviously became his immediate pain. A few years ago, Taihe employed a number of professional managers with high salary, but some professional managers made wrong judgments on project acquisition, resulting in project stagnation and low efficiency of fund utilization. Huang Qisen was disappointed that the original intention of high salary and clean government could not be realized and the management mode of Taihe was still extensive.

One detail is that the Construction Party of Taihe project is relatively scattered, which is not conducive to unified management. In the process of resuming work and production, the company spent a lot of energy communicating with different construction parties, and finally promoted the current situation of resumption of work.

Nowadays, many senior professional managers have left Taihe, and Huang Qisen has paid more attention to management with unprecedented investment. Since the end of last year, Huang Qisen has "slimmed down" personnel and projects. In the current "second venture", he not only directly controls all aspects of strategy, operation and product, but also transforms the "three-level control" of group region project into the "secondary control" of group city company.

Huang Qisen is pleased that in the most difficult year of Taihe, the top management team has remained stable, which is conducive to solving the difficulties.

Huang Qisen's control measures are beginning to show results. In the first half of this year, the loss amount of Taihe was significantly narrowed compared with the same period of last year, "mainly because the company strictly controls various expenses and fixed costs".

The ideal of "small and beautiful"

"Second venture" was put forward by Huang Qisen at the beginning of this year. Its purpose is not only to boost morale, but also contains some strategic ideas for the future development of the company.

At present, the resumption of the project is developing in a better way. Vanke is also helping Taihe improve its management, and the company is gradually stabilizing the situation. According to Huang Qisen's idea, after gradually reviving, Taihe will give up some projects and gradually shrink the front line.

"We'll probably end up in less than 10 cities, going north, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and my hometown Fuzhou and Xiamen." Huang Qisen said that in terms of product positioning, Taihe will mainly do "high-end products" in the future; In terms of scale, "30 billion to 50 billion is enough.".

Huang Qisen's logic is, "China has 400 million middle class (class), and there is a lot of room for improvement demand in the future."

According to this plan, Taihe will be built into a "small and beautiful" real estate enterprise specializing in high-end products, specializing in the "high-end improvement" market segment.

Considering the current situation, it is not easy to realize this idea. However, Huang Qisen believes that "Taihe has this gene", which mainly comes from years of product ingenuity. In recent years, Taihe has been mainly engaged in "courtyard system" products, and has been replicated in many cities. Huang Qisen believes that Taihe has led the trend of Chinese style products in the real estate industry, and the property service level is second to none, which has become the core competitiveness of the company.

On the other hand, according to Huang Qisen, Taihe has more than 300 billion worth of land reserves in the core first and second tier cities, "the land funds have basically been paid off.". This also laid the foundation for future development.

But it's not easy to make a comeback. In addition to the pending creditor negotiations, the impact of the crisis on the brand value of Taihe can not be ignored. After the crisis, the recognition of customers will inevitably be discounted.

For this reason, Huang Qisen requires that the products and services of Taihe can exceed the expectations of the owners when the house is handed over, so as to make up for the loss of reputation caused by the debt crisis. At the same time, Taihe also began to sort out the products and re select the construction enterprises, striving to create more refined products after bidding farewell to high turnover and high leverage.

Fortunately, new breakthroughs have been made in some projects that began to be re sold, especially those in Beijing and Fuzhou. According to the Taihe Internal Journal, there was a case of a family buying four sets at a time in Beijing Jinfu compound recently. All these news are boosting Huang's confidence.

In fact, for Huang Qisen, who is deeply passive, building products is one of the few things he can take the initiative to control, and it is also an important grasp of whether Taihe can "turn over".

Recently, Huang Qisen often takes the design team, marketing team and brand team to hold meetings, "one set of house type by one house type", and strives to perfect every detail. He often holds meetings until two or three o'clock in the middle of the night. Huang Qisen thinks that although it is very hard now, compared with the most difficult time of the company, it is much better.

This time, can Huang Qisen in the whirlpool create a miracle?