Yang Huiyan, China’s richest woman, has taken her father’s title as chairperson of developer Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd. after serving alongside him as co-chair since December of 2018, the company announced Wednesday.
Yeung Kwok Keung has resigned from his positions as chairman and executive director of Country Garden, one of China’s largest property firms, according to a company filing to Hong Kong’s stock exchange. The 68-year-old will stay on as a special advisor to the company.
Forty-one-year-old Yang, who now controls 52.6% of Country Garden, will also step into her father’s shoes as the head of several board committees, including the executive and remuneration committees, according to the filing.
The filing noted that Yeung is resigning due to his age, and remains on good terms with the board. The succession reflects his full confidence in Yang, it said.
Country Garden is coming out of a tough year. According to the company’s latest financial results, its net profit plunged 62.8% to 17.2 billion yuan (2.5 billion) for the first half of last year, while revenue fell 30.9% to 162.4 billion yuan.
China’s ongoing property crisis hurt the bottom lines of most companies in the industry last year, when real estate investment fell 10% to 13.3 trillion yuan, the first decline since records began in 1997, official data showed.
Yeung founded Country Garden in 1992 and took the company public in Hong Kong in 2007.
The IPO made Yang the richest woman in China, as Yeung had transferred all of his holdings in Country Garden to her in 2005, according to a Reuters report.
In 2022, Yang held assets worth an estimated 75 billion yuan, according to Hurun, a company that tracks rich people’s fortunes.
The 41-year-old is the second of Yeung’s three daughters. While at Country Garden, she has served as an executive director and as vice chairman before becoming co-chair in 2018.
After that, she worked closely with Yeung on the company’s daily operations, according to Wednesday’s filing.
This story has been corrected to reflect that Yang controls 52.6% of Country Garden.
Contact reporter Ward Zhou (nanyuzhou@caixin.com) and editors Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com) and Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com)
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