Yonghong Li
Quick Facts
Biography
Li Yonghong (born September 1969) is a Chinese businessman, co-owner and chairman of Italian football club A.C. Milan.
Li Yonghong also had a citizenship in Hong Kong S.A.R. of China by migrating there in 1994 (claimed by himself), which was considered as a "foreign" investor in mainland China due to separate legal jurisdiction of Hong Kong from the rest of China. Li Yonghong's ancestral home was located in Maoming, Guangdong Province. However, the actual place of birth was not known.
Career
According to a C.V. provided by Li Yonghong to Duolun Industry, Li Yonghong was the director and general manager of a Hong Kong incorporated company Enson Enterprises Limited (Chinese: 安順企業有限公司) from 1994 to 1997 (a company dissolved by striking-off in 2000); the director and general manager of a Chongqing-based company (Chinese: 爱普科技; literally: "Aipu Technology") from 1997 to 2005, as well as chairman and CEO of Hong Kong-incorporated "Grand Dragon International Holdings Co., Ltd." from 2005.
However, according to the filings in Hong Kong Companies Registry, there was no such Li Yonghong in the board of directors of Enson Enterprises, nor in Grand Dragon.
Instead, Li Yonghong was the director of China Power Group (HK) Limited (Chinese: 華力寶集團(香港)有限公司), Hong Kong China Power Books Publication Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 香港華力寶圖書出版有限公司), Noble Wisdom Development Limited (Chinese: 卓彥發展有限公司) and LYH Investment Limited, according to the database of Hong Kong Companies Registry.
A.C. Milan
In August 2016, Fininvest, the parent company of Italian football club A.C. Milan, signed a preliminary agreement with a Chinese investment management company Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 中欧体育投资管理长兴有限公司) to sell the club for €740 million (including €220 million indebtedness of the company), valued on 30 June 2016 (A further €90 million cost of the club from 1 July to the closing date was added to the valuation). Sino-Europe Sports paid Fininvest €100 million immediately after the deal as a deposit, and the closing date of the deal was set at December 2016.
Sino-Europe Sports, registered in Changxing County, according to Chinese Government's National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, was solely owned by mainland Chinese citizen Chen Huashan (Chinese: 陈华山) with a share capital of just CN¥100 million. However, it was reported that Li Yonghong and a private equity fund (Chinese: 海峡中欧私募投资基金) of Haixia Capital Management were the true owner of Sino-Europe Sports. Moreover, Sino-Europe Sports was represented by David Han Li in the signing of the contracts with Fininvest.
In the same month Sino-Europe Sports found a private equity fund (incorporated as a limited partnership as Chinese: 中欧体育投资长兴合伙企业) to raise fund to acquire Milan, which Chinese listed company Rongyu Group (formerly known as Jilin Yongda Group) signed an agreement to subscribe CN¥300 million deferred share, which would only paid-in the capital when the fund raise enough capital in ordinary and preference share.
However, Sino-Europe Sports failed to pay the residual sum in December, and the deal was delayed to March 2017. Sino-Europe Sports paid a second deposit of €100 million (making the total deposit was €200 million) to Fininvest via Hong Kong subsidiaries of Sino-Europe Sports: Rossoneri Sport Investment Co., Ltd. and Rossoneri Champion Co., Ltd.. However, according to the filing in Hong Kong Companies Registry, Rossoneri Sport Investment borrowed HK$830 million (around €100 million according to exchange rate at that time) from a mystery BVI-incorporated company Willy Shine International Holdings Limited (Chinese: 威陽國際控股有限公司) on 13 December 2016. The loan was refurbished on 23 January 2017. In February 2017, Rossoneri Sport Investment (of Hong Kong) was recapitalised by yet another mystery BVI-incorporated company Rossoneri Advanced Co., Ltd. for HK$864.5 million, making Sino-Europe Sports became a minority shareholder on Rossoneri Sport Investment (of Hong Kong) for HK$100 million share, or 10.37%, although Chen remained as the sole director of Rossoneri Sport Investment and 100% owner of the entire share capital of Rossoneri Champion. The two BVI companies had raised a concern in Italy on who was the actual investors.
It was reported that the private equity fund had received a loan from Elliott Management Corporation to finalised the closing, after Sino-Europe Sports failed to pay the residual sum again in March 2017.
On 13 April 2017, the sale was officially finalised, which Rossoneri Sport Investment Luxembourg Sàrl became the new direct parent company of the club. Rossoneri Luxembourg, as of January 2017 was owned by Hong Kong-company Rossoneri Sport Investment. On 14 April Li Yonghong was confirmed as the new chairman of the club, with Marco Fassone was confirmed as CEO (Italian: Amministratore Delegato). It was reported that the final price of the club was €606 million (the price included a refurbishment of a €90m credit line of Fininvest to Milan), excluding the refurbishment of the club debt. The club had planned to issue 2 tranches of corporate bonds for a total of €128m, (ISIN: IT0005254435 and ISIN: IT0005254443) as well as a recapitalization of a maximum of €60m, in order to funding the club in 2017 after the takeover.
Controversies
Jade Valley Group
It was reported that Li Yonghong is the son of Li Naizhi (Chinese: 李乃志) and younger brother of Li Yongfei (Chinese: 李勇飞), which were arrested in 2003 for illegally raising funds in Huazhou, Maoming. According to legal proceeding, Li family had set up a company in mainland China as Jade Valley Development (Chinese: 绿色山河开发) to invest in farmland. However, they also made false dividend forecast to attract investment as a pyramid scheme.
According to the legal proceeding and Hong Kong Companies Registry, Li family had set up a Hong Kong company Jade Valley Group Limited (Chinese: 綠色山河集團有限公司, formerly known as Lis Consortium (International) Limited, Chinese: 利事集團投資有限公司) to channel the assets, which was 95% owned by Li Yonghong's eldest brother Li Hongqiang (Chinese: 李洪强); the rest of the share was owned by a Honduras citizen, with unknown relation with Li family. Chinese police failed to arrest Li Hongqiang as he also had Hong Kong citizenship and evaded from mainland China. It was reported that Li Hongqiang had emigrated to Honduras. Jade Valley Group Limited was dissolved by striking off from the register by the government of Hong Kong in 2005.
According to 1993 Hainan Yearbook, Li family's Jade Valley Group Limited incorporated two subsidiaries in Hainan (Chinese: 海南首力房地产开发有限公司; literally: "Hainan Chief Power Real Estate Development Co., Ltd." and Chinese: 海口首力酒店有限公司; literally: "Haikou Chief Power Hotel Co., Ltd."), to develop Chief Power Building (Chinese: 首力大厦; pinyin: Shǒulì Dàshà), which Li Yonghong was the general manager and his eldest brother Li Hongqiang as the chairman. In 2010 Chief Power Real Estate was dissolved by strike-off from the registry by the administration bureau, as the bureau failed to inspect the company. Chief Power Hotel Co., Ltd. was also involved in numerous legal dispute with others, including the selling of a unit in Chief Power Building without disclosing the unit had been mortgaged, contract dispute with a pawn shop in the sell and bought back of a unit of Chief Power Building, and fail to repayment of loans to China Construction Bank (the bad debt was later transferred to China Cinda Asset Management) and China Investment Bank (for US$1.1 million; the bank business was received by China CITIC Bank). Chief Power Hotel Co., Ltd. was also suffered from a scam that another person falsify a document to sell unit A2 of 12/F of Chief Power Building.
Duolun Industry
Li Yonghong was also sanctioned CN¥600,000 in 2013 by the Chinese regulator China Securities Regulatory Commission for failing to disclose the sale of the entire share capital of the parent company of a Chinese listed company Shanghai Duolun Industry Co., Ltd. (SSE: 600696, now known as "P2P Financial Information Service Co., Ltd.").
The holding company, known as "Duolun Investment (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd." at that time (now known as "P2P (China) Co., Ltd.") was incorporated in Hong Kong. The holding company owned 11.75% shares of the listed company as the largest shareholder at 31 December 2011. Li Yonghong acquired the holding company in December 2011 for CN¥360 million and sold in May–June 2012 for CN¥340 million. Before the deal, the holding company had already faced financial difficulties, which pledged 11.75% shares of the listed company to Bohai Trust in October 2011, as well as selling a further 15.22% shares from April to September 2011 and an additional 9.53% shares in November 2011. A pledge of 35.82% shares of the listed company (to Hua Xia Bank and New China Trust) were only released in April and September 2011.
In July 2013, the pledge of the 11.75% share of the listed company by the holding company was released by Bohai Trust. However, the holding company, under the new owner Xian Yan (Chinese: 鲜言), pledged the entire 11.75% shares back to Li Yonghong. Half of the pledged shares were released in April 2014 and May 2014, only sold by the holding company on the same day. In August 2014, the shares pledged to Li Yonghong were released, only re-pledged to Ping An Securities on the same day.
A news report by China Securities Journal, Chen Jianyong (Chinese: 陈建勇) and Xian Li (Chinese: 鲜栗), the relatives of Li Yonghong and Xian Yan respectively, had formed two companies (Chinese: 广东鸿远能源投资 and Chinese: 湖北精九投资) respectively, which were the investors in a private equity fund (as a trust) to buy the shares of Duolun Industry, which was accused by other investor (Chinese: 江苏沐雪) of the fund as insider trading.
Using alias
According to news report by Securities Times (a newspaper of People's Daily), Li Yonghong may used an alias Li Bingfeng (Chinese: 李秉峰) to do business in some companies, such as Beijing Dahe Zhizhou Group (Chinese: 北京大河之洲集团) and Li family's Chief Power Real Estate.
Grand Dragon International Holding
Li Yonghong alleged himself as the chairman of Grand Dragon International Holdings (Chinese: 龍浩國際集團). The company falsely claimed itself as the official Chinese side representative to build the Thai Canal.