Decision is a bookend to an 18-month takeover tussle that redefined the rules of corporate China, leading to an overhaul of its insurance industry and even the ouster of the industry’s regulator
Wang Shi, who founded the world’s biggest builder of residential homes, said he’ ll step down by the end of June as chairman of the company he founded three decades ago, handing the baton to China Vanke Co’s chief executive Yu Liang. “I believe it’s the best timing. They are younger, but mature enough, ” Wang said in a post on the account of his social network on Wednesday. The Shenzhen-based developer is scheduled for its annual shareholders meeting on June 30, when 11 candidates will stand for election to Vanke’s board of directors. Wang will not be among the candidates. The decision by Wang, 66, is a bookend to an 18-month takeover tussle that redefined the rules of corporate China, leading to an overhaul of its insurance industry and even the ouster of the industry’s regulator. Vanke shares rose as much as 1.9 per cent to 21.43 yuan in Shenzhen, advancing 2.9 per cent in Hong Kong to HK$21.55 after Wang announced his decision. Wang, an avid mountaineer, marathoner and philanthropist, has established a reputation as the elder statesman of corporate China. Since October 2015 however, he’ d been embroiled in a boardroom tussle fending off a hostile takeover by the insurance-property group Baoneng, an unprecedented feud in the country’s corporate history, which ultimately laid bare governance issues at Vanke for the world to see.
