China Everbright Group, China’s state-owned financial giant,has been embroiled in continuous turmoil, with two top executives falling from grace this year.
The conglomerate is also an investor in Googut Spirits, a Chinese drinks company known for its vintage Baijiu and the owner of YesMyWine.com, which was once dubbed the “number one global wine e-commerce platform” by Bordeaux École de Management.
China Everbright Group was established in Hong Kong in 1983. It is a centrally managed state-owned enterprise, with business operations spanning two major sectors: finance and entities. It owns listed companies such as China Everbright Bank, China Everbright Securities, China Everbright Holdings, and CTS International.
On September 25, 2024, the Intermediate People’s Court of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, heard the corruption and bribery case of Tang Shuangning, the former Party Secretary and Chairman of China Everbright Group. From 2000 to 2017, Tang Shuangning was found to have accepted bribes totaling over CNY 11 million (US$1.54 million). The court announced that the sentencing would be scheduled later.
Tang is not the first high-ranking executive of this state-owned enterprise to be investigated this year. Over the past three years, there have been a few disgraced falls in the China Everbright Group leadership. On April 5 of this year, Li Xiaopeng, former Chairman of China Everbright Group, was reported to be under investigation for serious violations of discipline and law. Just four months later, Tang also came under investigation.
Notably, Li was Tang’s successor, with both of them serving as the heads of the group from 2014 to 2017 and from 2018 to 2022, respectively.
In 2019, through its RMB Mezzanine Fund, China Everbright Group invested CNY 1 billion (US$140.4 million) in Googut Spirits, which was valued at CNY 5.01 billion (US$703.4 million) prior to the investment. This cash injection was earmarked to aid Googut Spirits in further refining its strategic layout in the trillion-level liquor distribution market, establishing a diverse and multi-level ecosystem value system that connects brand owners, distributors, and end retailers based on the culture of aged liquor.
Googut Spirits specializes in the investment and sales of vintage Baijiu. It was established in March 2012, with net assets exceeding CNY 1.6 billion (US$224.6 million). In addition to operating vintage liquor, it distributes branded liquors and engages in investments and acquisitions within the liquor industry. Headquartered in Beijing, Googut Spirits has branch offices and storage bases in major cities in China, such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu. The company has also been actively expanding overseas by establishing a subsidiary in Hong Kong, taking its operations of aged liquors onto the international stage.
In the wine industry, Googut Spirits is also a prominent player. The company once spent CNY 600 million (US$84.2 million) to acquire YesMyWine, a Chinese wine e-commerce giant that has gradually phased out from China’s wine scene.
YesMyWine, founded in 2008, collaborated with over a thousand wine merchants and wineries globally, boasting 8.5 million registered members. In 2015, its sales reached around CNY 1 billion (US$140.3 million), and it was named as the “number one global wine e-commerce platform” by Bordeaux École de Management.
In 2013, YesMyWine and the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux jointly organized a wine-tasting event featuring 83 Bordeaux wine estates, attended by nearly a thousand people. This was the first cooperation between UGCB and a B2C website on a global scale.
In 2015, Googut Spirits acquired YesMyWine and swiftly followed with the acquisition of “Jiu Laoban,” a well-established Shanghai liquor retail chain, to kickstart its liquor O2O business. Googut also opened physical stores under the YesMyWine brand.
However, the subsequent developments of these two acquisitions faced challenges. Due to differences in operational philosophies, rumors emerged of a split between the executives of Jiu Laoban and Googut Spirits, and YesMyWine experienced frequent high-level personnel changes post-acquisition, including the resignation of Vice President Luan Dawei.
In recent years, YesMyWine has been relatively quiet in the industry. Earlier this year, when the Australian winery group invested by Yuan Jiang, the founder of YesMyWine, faced a crisis, people began to recall this once-prominent wine e-commerce platform. Although Googut Spirits’ official website still mentions YesMyWine. Our attempts to visit the YesMyWine website revealed that the e-commerce platform is no longer accessible.
Insiders suggest that Googut Spirits’ acquisitions of YesMyWine and Jiu Laoban were primarily aimed at expanding channel advantages and advancing towards an IPO. It remains unclear whether the unsuccessful operations hindered their IPO progress. In 2022, Googut Spirits made another move towards entering the capital market when a subsidiary under its control intended to invest in the listed company Kairuide Holding for a “backdoor listing.”
However, due to alleged illegal information disclosure issues, Kairuide came under investigation, leading to the collapse of the deal this April. Subsequently, in September, Kairuide’s Chairman and General Manager, Ji Xiaowen, was investigated for alleged bribery.
Regarding the turbulence within China Everbright Group, it seems that it has not visibly affected the operations of Googut Spirits. In early September, rumors circulated online that, due to the disappearance of Yu Zengyun, the executive director of Overseas Chinese Holdings Group and the actual controller of Henan Liquor Easy Trading Corporation Limited (JBL), a warehouse associated with Googut Spirits had been sealed off. Googut Spirits’ Chairman, Liu Xiaowei, personally dismissed these rumors, stating that all business operations of the company were running as usual.
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