On 28 November, Wang Shuhui, chairman of Guangzhou Yuexiu Financial Holdings Group, delivered a keynote speech titled “Seeking Progress and Innovation while Ensuring Stability and Traditions” at the International Finance and Investment Cooperation Forum of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

The full speech is as below.

Dear dignitaries and friends,
Good morning! I appreciate the host for inviting me to take part in this forum so that I can share ideas with and learn from the dignitaries, friends in business, and young leaders.
The title of my speech today is “Seeking Progress and Innovation while Ensuring Stability and Traditions”. I'd like to speak from two aspects. Firstly, I will share with you how Yuexiu Financial Holdings is doing. Secondly, I will talk about some thoughts on future development.

Yuexiu Financial Holdings is a subsidiary of Yuexiu Group. Yuexiu Group was founded in Hong Kong in 1985. With 36 years' development, Yuexiu Group has four core businesses: finance, real estate, transportation infrastructure, and modern agriculture, with various side businesses. Yuexiu Group has total assets of 830 billion yuan, and the finance business have reached 380 billion yuan. Yuexiu Financial Holdings was established in 2012 and is an important part of Yuexiu Group's engagement in finance. Since the establishment of Yuexiu Financial Holdings, we have always upheld the philosophy of progress while ensuring stability and being ambitious and the approaches of overall consideration, separate operation, coordinated development, and isolation of risks. We adopt the operation methods of investment banking and management methods of banks. Our objective is to pursue diversified development that complies with regulatory requirements and boasts our own features and to pursue rapid growth through business operation and capital operation. Being active in exploration and bold in practice, we have grasped the opportunity brought by the national, provincial, and municipal policy of reform and restructuring of state-owned enterprises to restructure our company and go public in 2016, becoming China's first financial holdings company at local level. In 2020, we finished comprehensive strategic transformation and realigned our businesses to focus on asset management, financial leasing, investment management, and strategic investment in CITIC Securities.

Currently, we control a few financial companies including Guangzhou Asset Management Company, Yuexiu Financial Leasing, Yuexiu Industrial Fund, Yuexiu Financial Holding Capital, and Guangzhou Futures. And we are the second largest shareholder in CITIC Securities, with 7.09% of the shares. It is worth mentioning that our headquarters and all these subordinate companies are based in Nansha, with a total implementation capital of nearly 30 billion yuan. In the first three quarters of 2021, Yuexiu Financial Holdings generated a revenue of 9.9 billion yuan – with an increase of 41% than the previous year – and total profit of 3.5 billion yuan – with an increase of 43% the previous year – showing good development momentum. We are determined to empower the real economy and replace old growth drivers with new ones through financial services. We focus on our main businesses and regions. In terms of non-performing asset management, we have purchased 210 billion yuan’s worth of assets. We stay ahead in the share of the primary market in Guangdong Province. We have dealt with assets worth 110 billion yuan. We are steering our business model from non-performing loan management to distressed asset revitalization, making an important contribution to mitigating regional financial risks and maintaining regional financial stability. Guangzhou Asset Management Company has come to the fore among local asset management companies in major business indicators.

Our financial leasing business focuses on such fields as environment protection, water, cultural tourism, transportation and logistics, and health care. We are also extending the business to engineering machinery and car manufacturing. So far, we have leased over 140 billion yuan, supporting the development of the real economy and small and micro businesses. Yuexiu Financial Leasing, with its current capital, is among the best foreign-invested financial leasing companies in China, the first triple-A financial leasing company in Guangdong Province, and one of the first foreign-invested financial leasing companies in South China connected to the credit reference system of the People's Bank of China. Our joint-investment management business covers equity investment, fund-of-funds investment, S-fund investment, mezzanine investment, and ABS investment. Equity investment is mainly carried out in fields such as technology, medicine, and consumer goods. We have invested in over 100 leading businesses in their industry, such as Contemporary Amperex Technology, Cambricon, QI-ANXIN, Denovo Biopharma, and Pagoda. We have effectively supported the development of strategic emerging industries, managing funds of an accumulated worth of 85 billion yuan, with 30 billion yuan’s worth of funds currently under our management. Yuexiu Industrial Fund has been on the list of the best private equity investment companies several times.

Since this year, the Party Central Committee and the State Council made a series of decisions to develop the dual circulations, including promoting common prosperity, guarding against systemic financial risks, peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, improving cross-cycle policy adjustment, fighting against monopoly, and establishing a long-term mechanism for the real estate market. With these measures, the stable economic foundation has been further consolidated, and economic resilience has been enhanced. Meanwhile, multiple major measures have been taken to deepen reform in China's capital market, which heralds profound changes in and a golden age for the capital market.

Firstly, the Beijing Stock Exchange was established. This opens up direct financing channels for innovative SMEs and expand the development room for "little giants" that are highly advanced in technology. With the stable rollout of the registration system and the smooth operation of the Science and Technology Innovation Board and Beijing Stock Exchange, China's multi-tier capital market is more diversified. The equity market will be ushered in a new stage of development and become a major force to drive economic development.

Secondly, the Guangzhou Futures Exchange was inaugurated. Positioned as innovative, market-oriented, and international, the exchange will develop world-renowned futures products for green development, which will play an important role in improving China's capital market system, empowering the real economy, and promoting green development. 

Thirdly, Southbound Bond Connect was launched in September this year. Qualified mainland investors can now invest in Hong Kong's bond market, complimenting the existing northbound program. This will further enhance the connection and integration of financial markets in the mainland and Hong Kong. It will also improve the efficiency of issuing and trading direct financing tools such as bonds in mainland and Hong Kong. Moreover, market-oriented credit risk pricing will be more reasonable. 

We will seize this series of major opportunities to provide diverse financial services including equity investment, financial leasing, asset management, and risk management and turn them into investment opportunities in key areas such as technological innovation, health care, and consumption upgrading. We will strive to develop inclusive finance, green finance, cross-border finance, and other innovative financial services to support the development of strategic emerging industries.

Moreover, the prevention and mitigation of major financial risks is still the focus of financial regulators. Risk responses should stay ahead of the market curve, and financial risk disposal mechanism should be improved. Although China is faced with less major financial risks, the domestic and international situations are still concerning, and economic growth is still plagued with imbalance and uncertainties. Some industries are having issues with floatability and solvency. It is expected that there will still be a large amount of non-performing assets in banks and there will emerge faster non-performing assets in some non-financial intuitions such as trust companies. With frequent delisting and increase of credit default, providing solutions to difficulties in the capital market has become a new business.

On the whole, there is vast market space for non-performing asset disposal and restructuring. We will grasp the opportunities brought by supply-side financial reform and capital market reform to develop asset package purchase and disposal, restructuring consulting for enterprises with problems, special-opportunity investment, debt restructuring, and innovative businesses out of non-performing assets. We will strive to build a comprehensive asset management platform for discovering and generating values, making new contributions to reducing regional financial risks and optimizing capital resource reallocation.

Dear dignitaries and friends, 
The steady development of China’s macro-economy, the accelerated replacement of old growth drivers with new ones, the maturing capital market, and the effective building of the Greater Bay Area all provide great development opportunities for international financial and investment cooperation. Yuexiu Financial Holdings Group is willing to deepen exchange with colleagues in the industry. We strive to become a friendly partner for foreign institutions to invest in China and develop in the Greater Bay Area. We wish to create a new future of international finance and investment cooperation. That is all. Thank you.