--- title: "Sales fell below 100 billion, is state-owned enterprise Jinmao anxious? Can frenzied land acquisitions turn things around?" type: "Topics" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/31847637.md" description: "The once trillion-dollar Jinmao is desperately trying to get back to the table. On July 14, Nanshan District in Shenzhen auctioned off a residential plot in Qianhai, with a construction area of only 25,600 square meters, but it attracted 12 real estate companies to bid, including Jinmao, CSCEC First Division, Huafa, Tianjian + Shenye Consortium, Greentown, Yuexiu, China Railway, China Overseas, C&D, China Merchants, China Resources, and Poly Property. At a glance, almost all of them are state-owned enterprises. Among them, the long-absent Jinmao once again set its sights on Shenzhen's land market, but ultimately came away empty-handed. It lost to Shenzhen's local giant China Merchants Shekou..." datetime: "2025-07-16T05:36:47.000Z" locales: - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/31847637.md) - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/31847637.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/31847637.md) author: "[睿思中国](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/12624762.md)" --- # Sales fell below 100 billion, is state-owned enterprise Jinmao anxious? Can frenzied land acquisitions turn things around? The once trillion-yuan Jinmao is desperately trying to get back to the table. On July 14, Nanshan District in Shenzhen auctioned off a residential plot in Qianhai. The plot had a construction area of only 25,600 square meters but attracted bids from 12 real estate companies, including Jinmao, China Construction First Division, Huafa, Tianjian + Shenye Joint Venture, Greentown, Yuexiu, China Railway, China Overseas, C&D, China Merchants, China Resources, and Poly Property. At a glance, almost all of them are state-owned enterprises. Among them, the long-absent Jinmao once again set its sights on Shenzhen's land market, but ultimately came away empty-handed. It lost to Shenzhen's local giant China Merchants Shekou, which won the plot with a premium rate of 86.1%. Jinmao is not without ambitions for the Shenzhen market. According to media reports, Wang Jinglai, former deputy general manager of Yuexiu Property's Greater Bay Area marketing division, has recently joined China Jinmao's Guangzhou-Shenzhen company as deputy general manager in charge of marketing. By the end of 2024, Jinmao had a total of 14 projects in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, including 3 in Shenzhen and 11 in Guangzhou. Especially in the Shenzhen market, Jinmao's performance has been lukewarm. In 2016, Jinmao acquired Shenzhen's first pilot plot for ready-to-sell commercial housing, with a land price of 56,781 yuan per square meter, making it the highest-priced land at the time. It wasn't until three years later, in 2019, that Shenzhen Jinmao Mansion officially entered the market. However, affected by price control policies, the price of new homes in Shenzhen did not rise much, and the sales of Jinmao Mansion, priced at over 100,000 yuan per square meter, became a challenge, even leading to protests from buyers demanding refunds. From 2021 to 2023, Jinmao's performance in the South China region continued to slump, and in 2023, the original South China team was purged. In March of this year, China Jinmao reorganized its original five regional companies (North China, East China, South China, etc.) into 14 regional companies, with the "South China Region" renamed as the "Guangzhou-Shenzhen Company." After eliminating the regional level, the headquarters will directly manage the 14 newly established regional companies. Wang Jinglai's joining has also been interpreted by outsiders as a signal that Jinmao is trying to address its shortcomings in the Guangzhou-Shenzhen region. In March of this year, Jinmao acquired the fourth-phase plot of Guangzhou Tianhe World View for 1.077 billion yuan, with a land price of 47,317 yuan per square meter and a premium rate of 2.86%. However, the Guangzhou market has long been dominated by Yuexiu Property and Poly Development, while Shenzhen is controlled by top state-owned enterprises such as China Resources Land, Vanke, and China Merchants Shekou. As a former dark horse, Jinmao lacks brand recognition in South China, making it a significant challenge to break through in such a competitive environment. In fact, over the past three years, as the real estate listing platform of Sinochem Group, China Jinmao has been undergoing painful adjustments. On April 28, 2023, Li Congrui took over as chairman of China Jinmao. This key figure led the company to achieve sales exceeding 200 billion yuan in 2021, marking its peak moment. Li Congrui also broke the tradition of China Jinmao's chairman being concurrently held by Sinochem Group's chairman. However, less than two months later, Li Congrui was transferred, serving only 33 days, and was replaced by Zhang Zenggen of Sinochem Group as chairman of China Jinmao. Over the next two years, China Jinmao was not only troubled by the downturn in the industry but also faced challenges such as personnel changes and structural optimization, delivering mediocre results. In 2023, China Jinmao's sales performance was 141.2 billion yuan, but it also recorded its largest loss since listing, with a net loss attributable to shareholders of nearly 6.9 billion yuan. In 2024, China Jinmao's sales fell below 100 billion yuan, reaching only 98.25 billion yuan. In March of this year, Zhang Zenggen resigned as chairman of China Jinmao due to reaching retirement age and was succeeded by CEO Tao Tianhai. Tao Tianhai is a veteran promoted internally at China Jinmao. Compared to Zhang Zenggen's lack of real estate experience, Tao Tianhai has been with China Jinmao for 25 years, rising from manager of the corporate planning department and general manager of the strategic planning department to vice president, executive director, and CEO. Under Tao Tianhai's leadership, this state-owned enterprise has gradually regained its footing. Since the end of 2024, Jinmao has been actively acquiring land across the country, shifting from its previous strategy of acquiring land in lower-tier markets, with nearly 70% of its investments located in Beijing and Shanghai. In November and December of last year, Jinmao acquired 12 plots nationwide, with a total investment of 15.8 billion yuan. Among them, in Shanghai's last land auction of 2024, Jinmao and its partners acquired three plots for a total of 10.35 billion yuan. In April of this year, China Jinmao, together with Yuexiu Property and China Construction Zhidi, acquired a residential plot in Beijing's Chaoyang District for 12.6 billion yuan at the reserve price, with a land price of about 54,500 yuan per square meter, setting the highest price record for residential land in Chaoyang in nearly two years. Data from China Index Academy shows that in the first half of this year, China Jinmao's new land value reached 74.9 billion yuan, ranking third in the industry, with equity land acquisition exceeding 26 billion yuan. Jinmao's ambition to make a comeback is no longer hidden. For the six months ended June 30, 2025, China Jinmao achieved cumulative contracted sales of 53.347 billion yuan, including 15.6 billion yuan in June alone. However, Jinmao's internal adjustments seem to be ongoing, with new faces joining and old ones leaving. According to media reports, Li Feng, former general manager of marketing at China Jinmao, has recently taken up the position of marketing director at Jingtou Development Group. This marketing powerhouse, who led Jinmao's sales to jump from 30 billion yuan to 200 billion yuan, chose to leave his long-time employer at this time, adding a hint of doubt to Jinmao's path to revival. ### Related Stocks - [00817.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00817.HK.md) - [001979.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/001979.CN.md)