Chairman of the Century-old Qiulin Group Has Lost Contact for 1 Year, Leaving 3 Doubts

The “lost contact” with the chairman also includes the whereabouts of billions of gold jewelry stocks, as well as who is the actual controller of the company.

The chairman and deputy chairman of Qiulin Group have been out of touch for more than a year. It seems that the whereabouts of the two have gone is a mystery.

The company’s 2019 annual report recently disclosed that its net assets have been negative for two consecutive years and the audited institution issued a “non-standard” audit opinion. The century-old Qiulin Group has reached a threshold of life and death. Within 15 trading days, the exchange will decide whether to suspend the listing.

Where did the chairman and vice chairman go?

The history of Qiulin Group (600891.SH) can be traced back to 1900. The Russian Ivan Jakolovich Qiulin opened the Harbin branch of Qiulin Ocean Bank to produce bread and colored wine, which concentrated on the Russian characteristics of traditional foods such as Barbados, Grande Bagvas, blackcurrant wine, jam.

Today, more than 100 years have passed, and there are still more than 200 varieties of nine categories of products in the food sector of Qiulin Group. Qiulin Daliba, black bean honey fruit wine, etc., still maintain traditional craftsmanship.

In February 2019, the company’s chairman Ya Li and vice-chairman Jianxin Li lost contact, dragging this century-old company to the brink of life and death.

Up to now, the two have lost contact for more than a year, and the company has never been able to know their whereabouts. In order to ensure the normal operation of the company, President Jianhua Pan has assumed the duties of chairman and legal representative of the company.

Strangely, the main person in charge had been silent for up to a year, and Qiulin Group did not disclose whether to report the case to the public security organs or to seek the two through other channels.

In 2011, Qiulin Group, which had been listed for 15 years, changed its controlling shareholder. Benma Investment became the largest shareholder, and Guijie Ping became the actual controller of the company.

In 2014, the company implemented a major asset reorganization. At the consideration of 1.35 billion yuan, Guijie Ping’s main business of gold jewelry processing in Shenzhen was included in the listed company. The company’s business expanded from department stores and food processing sales to the gold jewelry industry.

It was in this year that Ya Li became chairman of Qiulin Group, and two years later, Jianxin Li became vice-chairman of the company.

Guijie Ping indirectly controlled Qiulin Group through Tianjin Jiayi Industry, Heilongjiang Benma Investment, and Yihe Gold Products.

Where does billions of gold jewelry flow?

After the reorganization of “Shenzhen Jinjulai”, the gold jewelry segment has become the most important business of Qiulin Group. This business segment has been under the direct responsibility of Chairman Ya Li and Vice-Chairman Jianxin Li.

After the two lost contact, the company discovered that there were a large number of abnormal operating contracts in the gold business sector. Most of these contracts appeared in the second half of 2018, the single transaction amount was large, and the counterparties were mostly new partners, the contract period is up to six months to one year. By the end of 2018, the company’s accounts receivable totaled 3.932 billion yuan.

The company set up a special team to collect the accounts receivable. Only a few replies were received, and the content was “although the contract was signed, the two parties did not implement it, the goods were not received.

After checking the inventory, the company found that there were major problems such as a large amount of inventory being lost.

In the same year, due to fraud by the company’s related personnel, the company’s account receivables made provision for bad debts of up to 3.806 billion yuan, which directly caused a huge loss of 4.13 billion yuan for the year.

After the chairman and deputy chairman lost contact, a large number of staff members of the company’s gold sector left, and the business sector has basically stalled.

In 2019, the company’s operating income decreased from 4.73 billion yuan in the previous year to 336 million yuan, and net profit attributable to its mother continued to lose 531 million yuan.

So far, where does the company’s large inventory of gold jewelry flow? What role did Ya Li and Jianxin Li play in it? It has not been conclusive.

Who is the actual controller?

There is a more weird question: who is the actual controller of the Qiulin Group?

After joining the Qiulin Group in 2011, Guijie Ping has successively served as director, president, and vice-chairman, and the chairman has been giving away. In June 2018, he applied to resign from all positions in the company and directly became a “hands-out shopkeeper.”

The listed company that he actually controlled became what it is today. Guijie Ping did not appear anxious, and his shares of the company were frozen by multiple judicial proceedings.

What is even more bizarre is that Guijie Ping seems to know nothing about the operating conditions of the company under his name.

In reply to the exchange’s supervisory letter, Guijie Ping said that Ya Li and Jianxin Li were responsible for the licenses, seals, and specific operations and management of the three companies: Tianjin Jiayi Industry, Heilongjiang Benma Investment, and Yihe Gold Products. He is not involved in actual operations and is unknown to the company involved in the complaint, the use of equity pledged funds and the situation of equity freeze. However, it did not directly respond to whether there were any holding or other agreement arrangements with Ya Li and Jianxin Li.