Wanhua Industrial Group

The predecessor of Wanhua Group Corporation, was Yantai synthetic leather factory (Chinese: 烟台合成革总厂 or Chinese: 烟台合成革厂).^[2] The plan to build the factory was approved by the State Development Planning Commission [zh] in 1978.^[3] The construction started in 1980 and completed in 1983.^[4] The manufacturing technology was imported from Japan (from Nippon Polyurethane Industry [ja] according to C&EN^[5]) and was the first synthetic polyurethane leather factory of China.^[6]

In 1988, the ownership of the factory was transferred from the Ministry of Light Industry of the People's Republic of China [zh] to the Yantai Municipal People's Government.^[2]

In 1995, the factory was re-incorporated as a limited company as 烟台万华合成革集团有限公司,^[7] or in short, Wanhua Group Corporation (Chinese: 万华集团公司).^[2]

In 1998, a subsidiary Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane (now Wanhua Chemical Group) was formed. The subsidiary owned the methylene diphenyl diisocyanate production line of the factory.^[2] However, Wanhua Group Corporation retained several production line such as the supply chain of liquid chlorine, sodium hydroxide, pure water, steam vapour and electricity.^[2] The subsidiary became a listed company in January 2001.

In October 2001, Wanhua Group Corporation formed another subsidiary Wanhua Industrial Group (see section below). In 2015, 39.497% shares of Wanhua Industrial Group was transferred from Wanhua Group Corporation to its parent State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the Yantai Municipal People's Government, making Wanhua Group Corporation and Wanhua Industrial Group were sister companies.^[8]

As of 2019, Wanhua Group is a live company. It owned the shares of Yantai Wanhua Hospital as well as other assets.^[9]

In October 2001, Wanhua Group Corporation formed another subsidiary Wanhua Industrial Group (founded as 烟台万华华信合成革有限公司, known as 烟台万华实业集团有限公司 since 2008) as part of a debt-to-equity swap. Central Government owned bad banks managers China Huarong (Chinese: 华融; pinyin: Huáróng) and China Cinda (Chinese: 信达; pinyin: Xìndá) were the minority shareholders.^[10] Cinda^[11] and Huarong^[7] later sold the shares of Wanhua Industrial Group.

According to the company itself, Wanhua Group Corporation injected all the assets to Wanhua Industrial Group at the time of the debt-to-equity swap, which including the shares of Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane, Yantai Huali (Chinese: 烟台华力热电股份有限公司; pinyin: Yāntái huálì rèdiàn gǔfèn yǒuxiàn gōngsī), Wanhua Microfiber (Chinese: 万华超纤), etc.^[7]

Wanhua Industrial Group was the direct parent company of the listed company Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane since 2001 and effective in March 2003.^[12] Wanhua Industrial Group still owned 47.92% shares of the listed company as of 31 December 2017, before another company shake up in January 2018.^[13]

Yantai Huali was a combined steam and electric power supplier of the listed company.^[14]

In 2007, the Yantai city-owned Wanhua Group Corporation sold a further 25% stake of Wanhua Industrial Group to a consortium of Pemex, Deutsche Bank and one other investor.^[10][15] After the deal, as of 2007, Wanhua Group Corporation owned 50.50% shares of Wanhua Industrial Group, the aforementioned consortium, via a BVI company Prime Partner International Limited, owned 25%,^[15][16] and the rest (24.58%) was owned by Yantai Huali.^[15]

By 2005, Yantai Huali was significantly (37.60%) owned by Wanhua Industrial Group. It was followed by Wanhua Group Corporation for 31.94% shares as well as employee stock ownership for the rest of the shares.^[7]: 19 But since December 2006, Yantai Huali was majority owned by the managers of the listed company.^[11] Yantai Huali acquired 15.04% shares of Wanhua Industrial Group from Huarong in 2005^[7] and 9.54% shares from Cinda in 2006.^[11] The change in ownership of Yantai Huali, as well as acquiring the shares of Wanhua Industrial Group, was considered as an indirect employee stock ownership of the listed company.^[11][17]

In 2013, Wanhua Industrial Group recapitalized another RMB4 billion and diluting the stake of the existing shareholders.^[18]

Wanhua Industrial Group was interested to buy Hungarian company BorsodChem in the late 2000s. By 2009, Wanhua Industrial Group already acquired about two-thirds of mezzanine capital of the BorsodChem.^[19]

In 2011, Wanhua Industrial Group formally acquired BorsodChem.^[20][21] It was the biggest Chinese outbound investment deal in Hungary.^[22] The buyout of BorsodChem from private equity firms Permira and Vienna Capital Partners came at a financially bleak time for BorsodChem and allowed the company to avoid laying off its 2700 employees.^[23][24] The parent companies of the listed company, also hired the listed company to manage BorsodChem from 2011^[25] to circa 2019.

In 2017, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the Yantai Municipal People's Government, transferred 39.497% stake of Wanhua Industrial Group to another city government-owned company Yantai Guofeng (Chinese: 烟台国丰投资控股有限公司; pinyin: Yāntái guófēng tóuzī kònggǔ yǒuxiàn gōngsī).^[13] Yantai's SASAC acquired the aforementioned stake from its subsidiary Wanhua Group Corporation in 2015. (see above section)

In January 2018 Wanhua Industrial Group was split into two companies: the surviving Wanhua Industrial Group as well as 烟台万华化工有限公司 (pinyin: Yāntái wànhuá huàgōng; lit. 'Wanhua chemical industry', 'limited company'). The latter became the new largest shareholder of the listed company instead.^[26] The latter also owned the assets that directly related to polyurethane production,^[1] including BorsodChem. However, the latter also reverse merged with the listed company in February 2019.^[27]

As of 31 December 2018, after the split, Wanhua Industrial Group had a net assets of RMB4.930 billion.^[1] It owned 33.07% shares of Wanhua EnergySave Science and Technical Group^[1][28] (Chinese: 万华节能科技集团 or known as WanhuaEnergySav Science Technical Group^[29][30]) The shares of that company were formerly traded in Chinese OTC system National Equities Exchange and Quotations as NEEQ:838261 until June 2018.^[31]

The company also owned 15.56% shares of Wanhua Microfiber as of 2018.^[1]

• Yang Bo (January 2015). 建设烟台合成革厂. 熔炉—从学徒工到共和国部长 (memoir) (in Chinese (China)). 中国轻工业出版社 [China Light Industry Press]. ISBN 9787501999170.

• Official website