Oceanwide Holdings disclosed its Annual Report 2019 on April 28, saying the company posted an annual revenue of RMB12.5 billion and increased the net profit attributable to equity holders of the listed company by 17.62% year on year to RMB1,095 million.

In 2019, Oceanwide Holdings pursued further strategic transformation by placing more focus upon the financial business. In January 2020, upon approval by the CSRC, Oceanwide Holdings officially changed its industrial classification to finance (sub-category: other financial) from real estate, a milestone of great significance to the company which had engaged in strategic transformation for almost five years.

In February 2020, Minsheng Securities was permitted by the CSRC to establish Minsheng Fund, adding the mutual fund business to the diversified financial services segment of Oceanwide Holdings and thereby further enriching its financial business mix.

The financial segment represented by the troika—Minsheng Securities, Minsheng Trust and API reported a year-on-year growth of 30.18% and 25.26%, respectively in annual revenue and net profit to RMB9,629 million and RMB1,594 million. Financial business revenue contributed 77% to total revenue, making 2019 the second straight year for the contribution of financial business to far overtake that of real estate business.

Specifically, Minsheng Trust raked in a revenue of RMB2,344 million and net profit of RMB933 million throughout the year; Minsheng Securities registered an annual revenue of RMB2,688 million and net profit of RMB532 million, up 84.28% and 461.08% year on year, respectively, exceeding the industry’s average growth, and it ranked ahead in the industry in terms of many investment banking indicators; the year-on-year premium income growth of API, at 28.20%, was higher than the overall growth of the industry, and its composite cost ratio was on a decline, helping it accomplish the goal of being in the black for three consecutive years.

On the real estate business front, facing the continuously tight real estate control policy and market environment, Oceanwide Holdings has remained committed to the strategy of “focusing on development at the same time of optimization and disposal.” It sold No. 1 plot of Oceanwide International Residential District in Beijing and the Dongjiadu Project in Shanghai in early 2019, rapidly unleashing the value of existing assets.

Meanwhile, it channeled resources into development, construction, sale and operation of Wuhan CBD-centered domestic real estate projects and continuously pushed for the transformation and upgrade of real estate business from development- and sale-oriented to integration of “investment, development and operation.”

In 2019, Oceanwide Holdings lowered both gearing ratio and liability volume and witnessed a decline of about 33% in its interest-bearing liabilities from RMB110,251 million at end-2018 to RMB73,883 million at end-2019 and a drop of its gearing ratio from 86.60% to 81.39% in the same period. Oceanwide Holdings said in its annual report that it would walk firmly toward “cutting leverages” and “reducing liabilities” in efforts to ensure its finance is safe and sound and overall risks are controllable.

Looking into 2020, Oceanwide Holdings “will still put transformation and development at top priority”; while fighting against the coronavirus, the company will go all out to resume work and production in an orderly way, and accelerate the drive of “introducing strategic investors” into its financial subsidiaries for the purpose of making effective use of existing financial licenses and improving diversified financial services.