Chen Guoqiang's ITC PROPERTIES attacks RWA Ruikai: It can become an asset issuance platform in the future

"Shell King" Chen Guoqiang's ITC Properties (199) is transitioning to Real World Assets (RWA) and has recently received increased investments from Legislative Council member Wu Jiezhuang and Ruikai Group. Ruikai Group Chairman Liu Haoran pointed out that he hopes to transform ITC from an "asset holder" to an "asset provider," becoming a digital asset issuance platform. Participating in RWA is in line with trends Chen Guoqiang, the 71-year-old co-chairman of ITC Properties, stated that the company's participation in RWA is mainly to align with trends, and the business needs to be led by the new generation. He humorously remarked that as he ages and his memory declines, many things will need to be handled by AI in the future, "Let's bring in young people and let the elderly sit aside as spectators." Liu Haoran, who is leading the business transformation, expressed his hope to assist ITC in adopting a unique model in RWA, aiming to become an asset issuance platform and act as an asset provider for the tokenization of residential and office assets. "As long as the assets are verifiable, can be put on the chain, and have traceable rights, they can become part of ITC and connect with digital assets." He further stated that this move would allow real estate to be unrestricted by geography, reaching investors globally, with liquidity higher than traditional real estate projects. Liu Haoran hopes that once the business model matures, ITC can become a case study frequently researched in the industry. The outlook for Hong Kong office buildings remains weak ITC Properties Chairman Zhang Hanjie stated, "Real estate is not popular now; (involved in) Web3 doesn't require going to the office," indicating that the outlook for office buildings in Hong Kong remains weak. The company has thus brought in experts to assist in the business transformation, and due to its small scale and clear finances, it is easier to develop Web3. Zhang continued to say that ITC has sold HKD 1.7 billion worth of real estate assets in the past 15 months, reducing debt by HKD 1.3 billion, and expects to eliminate the remaining debt of less than HKD 600 million within the next three months, while still retaining valuable real estate, hoping to tokenize it. Wu Jiezhuang and Ruikai recently invested in ITC Legislative Council member Wu Jiezhuang, who participated in the investment, stated that the current scale of the entire digital asset market is only USD 3 trillion, which is smaller than that of a large stock, with RWA accounting for only about 7% of that, and the proportion of real estate RWA is even smaller, indicating that the current development is just beginning. Recently, ITC allocated 11.5 million shares to Wu Jiezhuang and 130 million shares to Ruikai, raising over HKD 160 million; at the same time, it issued warrants to Ruikai, which could raise an additional HKD 307 million. If all warrants are exercised, Chen Guoqiang's shareholding will decrease from the current 52.48% to 39.79%, while Ruikai's shareholding could increase from the current 10% to 30.9%, potentially triggering a mandatory takeover