On National Day in 2017, Xiao Yongming, the richest man in Qinghai, who had a net worth of 15 billion yuan, personally drove a helicopter and returned to his hometown Qiyuan Village, Shiyang Town, Anyue County, Sichuan to visit relatives.
As soon as he settled down, he began to distribute big red envelopes in the village. The people-friendly and generous demeanor attracted the admiration of the villagers, and envied the smoke from the ancestral tomb of the old Xiao family.
But at this time, Xiao Yongming, who was proud of the spring breeze, did not expect that this return with the "showing off wealth" color would become the highlight of his life.
From then on, he took a downhill road.
First was held accountable and detained, and later sentenced. Just when the public thought that Xiao Yongming could no longer turn over, his case reversed and he was acquitted.
But Xiao Yongming's life trajectory has been changed and he can no longer reproduce his former glory.
This entrepreneur who made money from the mine and once benefited the countryside, his ups and downs of life are legendary. How is he doing now?
Xiao Yongming is young and famous because he is a local "rich second generation".
In 1981, 17-year-old Xiao Yongming began to help manage business in a plastic factory run by his father, and worked as deputy factory director for 15 years, accumulating certain corporate management experience.
At the age of 32, Xiao Yongming and his wife bid farewell to the stable life of "small wealth is safe" and went to Golmud, Qinghai to start a business.
They opened a hotel there, named "Little Restaurant", and their business was booming and gained a good reputation. At that time, veteran drivers who traveled between Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai and other northwestern provinces and cities praised this hotel.
Just as welcoming and seeing off, Xiao Yongming got news that he could get rich.
It turns out that the Charhan Salt Lake in Golmud contains a variety of natural minerals, especially rich in potassium.
And potassium fertilizer is an indispensable "food" for crops and has huge development potential.
At that time, it happened to be in the early stages of the Western Development, and there were many good news.
Xiao Yongming saw the huge market behind potassium fertilizer and the opportunities brought by the times, and resolutely took out the savings he had accumulated over the years and invested in a new field.
After several years of exploration and testing, Xiao Yongming has become familiar with various links such as the production and sales of potassium fertilizers.
In 2002, he formally registered and established Golmud Zangge Potassium Fertilizer Co., Ltd. and decided to show his strength in this world.
A few years later, Xiao Yongming's potassium fertilizer business was booming, and he spent more than 500 million yuan, integrating Kunlun Mining, the then-large state-owned enterprise, into his own.
From then on, Xiao Yongming's development rights for almost half of the area of Charhan Salt Lake were taken in.
In 2016, Zangge Potassium Fertilizer was successfully listed after operation. Xiao Yongming ranked first in Qinghai with a net worth of 26.5 billion, and was known as the "King of Potassium Fertilizer".
On the National Day of the second year, Xiao's richest man returned to his hometown and actively returned to his local fellow villagers.
First, he took out a lot of cash to distribute welfare to villagers, including 1,000 yuan per person for the elderly over 60 years old and 400 yuan per person for the elderly under 12 years old.
In addition, he also built roads and bridges for the village and invested in the construction of two schools.
However, I never expected that this time, returning home in glory was the pinnacle of his life. When he returned to Golmud, he was about to encounter countless troubles.
I have to say that Xiao Yongming has a very strategic vision.
While operating Zangge potassium fertilizer, he also invested in and developed a copper mine called the "national heavy weapon".
In 2006, Tibet Julong Copper Company, the "No. 1 Copper Mine in China", was officially established, and Xiao Yongming was already the largest shareholder.
He has raised funds from multiple sources, invested a total of 15 billion yuan, held 78% of the shares, and held control firmly in his hands.
However, mountain mining is much more complex and difficult than salt lake mining.
The funds are constantly investing, but they are rarely recovered. From 2017 to 2019 alone, there was a cumulative loss of 665 million yuan. This "dragon" is like a "gold-swallowing beast", and the capital gap of the company is getting bigger and bigger.
In order to raise funds, Xiao Yongming tried his best.
He went to several banks to make loans and invested the funds raised from the listing of Zangge Potassium Fertilizer, but it was still far from enough to fill the hole.
Later, he pledged Zangge shares many times and borrowed loans from multiple banks again, but even so, it still could not promote the normal operation of Julong Copper.
For the Zangge side, in order to offset the investment, Xiao Yongming had to include 37% of Julong's shares in Zangge in order to make an explanation to the company.
But his series of operations have been suspected of serious violations.
In 2019, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Qinghai Securities Regulatory Bureau successively warned Xiao Yongming and Zangge shares of violations, announcing that Xiao Yongming had banned the market for five years and had a cumulative fine of 1.5 million yuan.
The situation has developed to this point, and Xiao Yongming had to announce his resignation from all positions and withdraw from the board of directors.
He thought this would help calm things down and suspend troubles, but the matter was far from over.
On January 29, 2021, Xiao Yongming was forced to be criminally detained and then approved for arrest.
A year later, the court announced the criminal judgment: Xiao Yongming was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal mining and four years of reprieve, and fined 2 million yuan, and the illegal income of 292 million yuan was handed over to the state treasury in accordance with the law.
Xiao Yongming and Zangge Group expressed dissatisfaction with this result and filed an appeal.
In 2023, Xiao Yongming was declared innocent in the second instance.
But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, just one year later, he was placed under residential surveillance by the designated residence of the public security organs for suspected criminal cases.
Although he regained his freedom after half a year, only he himself knew what it felt like to have suffered for six consecutive years.
After Xiao Yongming announced his resignation, his two sons took over the management of the group company.
In the following years, under the leadership of two "second-generation entrepreneurs", Zangge developed steadily and its performance also rose year by year.
In 2022, its net profit was only 230 million yuan, but it reached 3.42 billion yuan by 2023.
The group naturally needs to pay a lot of dividends after making money. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, when Xiao Yongming was plagued by lawsuits, Zangge accumulated dividends of 7.58 billion yuan for shareholders.
With Xiao Yongming's Tibetan character, is it because he has opened a plug-in to easily resolve huge debts?
Of course not. There are two main reasons why the Zangge can be smoothly handed over and develop steadily.
On the one hand, after Xiao Yongming's many years of layout, Zangge has long had three main business segments: "potassium fertilizer, copper industry and lithium carbonate".
If you take out any one, you can create a listed company.
Another main reason is that some big shots have extended a helping hand to Zangge.
In June 2020, Zijin Mining acquired 51% of Julong Copper, which slowed down more than 3.8 billion yuan in financial pressure for Zangge.
After Zijin Mining took over, the dragon quickly resurrected with full health, and it took only a year and a half to turn losses into profits.
The net profit in 2021 was only 770 million yuan, and by 2024, the total net profit in four years exceeded 10 billion yuan.
In this way, Zijin Mining, Julong Copper and Zangge Potassium Fertilizer have achieved a win-win situation.
Especially, Zangge Potassium Fertilizer, a large part of the funds used to distribute dividends to shareholders in recent years come from Julong Copper, because it still has 30.78% of Julong's dividend rights.
It can be seen that the addition of Zijin Mining has greatly alleviated the financial pressure of Zangge Potassium Fertilizer.
Unfortunately, due to the huge pledge data before, huge debts are still the main problem facing Zangge.
It is said that Zijin Mining, known as the "Gold King of China", will take over 24.82% of Zangge shares under Xiao Yongming's name.
If the transfer is successful, Xiao Yongming's debt pressure will be further alleviated, but if you want to completely solve the debt problem, Xiao Yongming and Zangge still have a long way to go
The young people in the small town spent 20 years working hard and became the richest man in the provincial level. For more than 10 years, they have been dealing with various lawsuits and disputes and trying every means to repay their debts.
The digital debts in the financial account may be paid off, but the anxiety and helplessness that entangles Xiao Yongming will become a scar, and it will be difficult to heal after exhausting for a lifetime.
The ancients said: Everything is planned and not planned, and it will be abandoned.
If Xiao Yongming only manages the Zangge series of industries well, the mining rights of nearly half of the Charhan Salt Lake under his command will be enough for him to easily play with flowers.
But his forward-looking vision only saw the "gold content" of the copper mine in the snowy plateau, but did not make enough predictions about its mining process and the funds needed.
Blindly optimistic and cross-border expansion have made the situation beyond our control. Not only does the capital chain break, it also causes lawsuits. It is too late to regret it!
Do what you can and how much hair you have, how big a curl you have, these words from my ancestors apply to everyone, even if you are the richest man.
-END-
References:
1. The wisdom and heart are good at gravity: Another rich man fell! I once bought a helicopter and went back to my hometown to spend money, but now I live a life under surveillance
2. No. 1 story: Qinghai's richest man failed in a cross-border situation, and the lost copper mine became someone else's money tree
3. Hawkeye Business Observation Room: Qinghai's richest man "dark willows and flowers": three years of wealth, with a net profit of 7.4 billion yuan in dividends five times
4. Changjiang Business Daily: Xiao Yongming was backfired by capital or sold to Zangge Mining for 8.1 billion yuan, and the capital mining industry plans to take over to show the ambition of lithium salt giant
Author: Xibei
Editor: Liu Ye Taotao
