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​Blue Whale News, August 6 (Reporter Hao Yan)Half a year after the Changshi Tea bankruptcy incident, another star tea bankruptcy occurred in Fangcun, the "Wall Street of Tea".

Financial tea crashes again

Recently, Pantea Holdings (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. issued a "Reorganization Announcement", stating that due to various rumors, the market was unstable and a large amount of funds were restricted, so the company had to carry out debt or equity restructuring, and the restructuring plan would be announced after the assets were liquidated. For a time, many dealers were quite emotional.

According to on-site videos posted by many netizens, dozens of people flocked to the "Guangzhou Pancha R&D Center" and demanded that the founder of Pancha make repayments.

As early as late July, some netizens posted on social media that the memberships of Pancha that expired between the 17th and 19th of that month could not be redeemed. The project owner claimed that the platform and dealers’ cards were frozen, and the order delivery was postponed for 10 days. However, the “debt or equity restructuring plan” announced recently directly shattered the last hope of investors.

In the past three years, Fancha has been the "star" of Fangcun, claiming a monthly interest rate of more than 15%. People who don't buy Fancha in Fangcun are under certain mental pressure, and the sayings around them are "It's okay to buy a little" and "Buy everyone, no need to worry that the net won't close so quickly"...

It was in this atmosphere that Jiawei from Fangcun endured for three years, and finally "went to jail" two months ago. "I only bought one cake (of tea) at the beginning, but then everyone said it was very stable and there would be no problem before National Day, so I bought some more. The dealers I know have lost even more, some have lost millions."

A senior Fangcun tea shop owner told Blue Whale News that the collapse of Pancha was not sudden. "This is not regular Pu'er tea. It is a Ponzi scheme and has been operating for several years. It could collapse at any time." He said that Pancha's impact was very wide this time. "Eighty percent of those around me participated, and many invested millions."

How the legend of Hermes in the tea industry was created

Like Changshi Tea, Pancha also had its own moment of crazy expansion in the tea roasting circle.

The announcement shows that Pancha Holdings (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. was established in 2022. In less than two years, the number of offline physical dealers has exceeded 500, with an average of one Pancha store opening every day. At its peak, Pancha had 119 stores open at the same time, setting a new industry record.

The person who wove the Pan-Cha network is Zheng Chaogen from Xiping Town, Anxi County, Fujian Province. He once said in a public speech that Pan-Cha aims to be a luxury brand in China, so most of Pan-Cha's products are very expensive.

According to dealers, one of the tea cakes, Yilu Changhong, was sold for 120,000 yuan a piece, and many other products were priced at tens of thousands of yuan. At its peak, Changshi Tea, which had previously gone bankrupt, was sold from around 30,000 yuan per box (a tea trading unit, with each piece weighing 357 grams and 7 pieces per box) to a maximum of more than 70,000 yuan.

Xiping Town is nearly 700 kilometers away from Fangcun, but Zheng Chaogen has successfully set off a "tea speculation storm" in both places.

An investor from the same town as Zheng Chaogen told the Blue Whale News reporter that Zheng Chaogen once vowed in front of his fellow townsmen that "the plate is very stable" and that "many of my fellow townsmen invested because they listened to him."

Tianyancha APP shows that Zheng Chaogen, chairman of Pancha, is associated with more than 10 companies, 6 of which are still in existence. In addition to the above 3 companies, they also include Guangdong Panfu Industrial Holdings Co., Ltd. established in April last year, Panjiang Liquor (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. established in May last year, and Yunnan Pancha Tea Co., Ltd. established in April this year. Zheng Chaogen serves as an executive director or supervisor in all 6 companies. In addition, it is worth mentioning that Zheng Chaogen and Zheng Haihua also established Guangzhou Yiqi Brand Management Co., Ltd. in May last year, but the company was deregistered in February this year.

Why is the funding so large?

Stories associated with Guangzhou Fangcun and tea always mean huge amounts of money involved.

In March 2021, the market price of Dayi tea continued to rise. The price of a 2003 "Ban Zhang Six-Star Peacock Green Cake" even reached a "sky-high price" of 65 million yuan per piece; in 2023, Changshi Tea involved funds of over 100 million yuan in just three months. Now the dominoes of financial tea have come to "pan-tea" again.

Why does the tea speculation scam always attract huge amounts of money? Where does the money of investors come from?

Blue Whale News reporter found that on platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, there are staff involved in the lending industry who claim to provide relevant lending services. Blue Whale News reporter contacted a staff member, who said that the recent increase in business volume due to the "Pancha incident" "I received an order of more than 6 million yesterday, and he was exposed because of this incident, so if you want to come to do business, you have to make an appointment in advance."

It is understood that there are many intermediary agencies specializing in providing lending services near Fangcun, Guangzhou, which is known as the "Wall Street of Tea". They not only help "tea speculators" solve "investment funds", but also provide follow-up loans for those who have failed in the tea market.

The staff member said that although banks are currently very cautious about financial businesses, because his institution has "connections" that can help customers complete lending work, "if it involves tea speculation, we can do it. Because banks are now more sensitive to the flow of funds, tea speculation is a financial business, and many banks have stopped lending when it comes to finance, especially now that banks have received notices that this market (tea speculation) has exploded. But we have good relationships with some banks here, and we can help you solve this problem." He said, "We will help you determine the purpose of the funds and get the relevant contracts ready for you. Once the funds are released, you can use them flexibly. If not, then the loan conditions are basically stuck here."

The other party even said that they could lend money no matter what the purpose of the loan was, and they were well-known in Guangzhou. As for why they were able to "loan repeatedly", the other party revealed that they had an "acquaintance" who was the president of the bank.

It is reported that such intermediary institutions will formulate loan plans for borrowers based on their actual conditions, and most of the loan types are consumer loans and business loans.

A participant in the "pan-tea incident" told the Blue Whale News reporter that many people around him took out loans to "speculate in tea". "Many people in our town took out loans to mortgage their shares, and many of them were in their sixties or seventies."

From Changshi Tea to Pancha, the tragedy of Fangcun may not stop because there is a saying that will always be circulated in Fangcun: If you get on the train early, you will make a lot of money, but if you get off late, you will be fooled.