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xian yang, 51 years old,

he ended his life with many ups and downs.

author: dong shuo

editor: xu ye

he graduated from the police academy and worked as a drug enforcement police officer and customs police officer. he has been injured and has also won third-class merit.

he turned to the business world, focusing on coal. in just seven years, he managed to get his company listed on the hong kong stock market, earning him the nickname "prince of black gold".

he is xian yang, the founder of hengding industrial.

recently, hong kong-listed company hengding industrial issued an announcement stating that the company's chairman of the board, executive director and major shareholder xian yang passed away due to illness.

·on september 10, hengding industrial released an announcement on its official website.

the sudden death of this billionaire has caused great sorrow among the public, and former classmates and subordinates have also expressed their regrets. someone commented on social media: "i joined hengding right after graduation, and it has been 16 years now. i have seen hengding's glory, and also felt the difficulties of the company. chairman xian turned things around at the most difficult time, he is an amazing entrepreneur!"

at the age of 51, xian yang has come to an end a life of ups and downs. while the outside world is sighing, they are also concerned about the future of hengding industrial, which he founded.

a police officer who has won the third-class merit

xian yang was born in 1973 in sancun, taiping town, xichong county, sichuan province. his father worked in the panzhihua municipal government and his mother was the head nurse of a panzhihua hospital, so xian yang was born and raised in panzhihua.

like most ordinary civil servant families, xian yang's family is not rich, but they have enough food and clothing.

in 1994, 21-year-old xian yang graduated from sichuan provincial people's police school and subsequently became a police officer in panzhihua city police force, engaged in drug control-related work and was awarded the third-class merit by the ministry of public security. in his spare time, he also studied law at southwest university of political science and law. a few years later, he transferred to the panzhihua customs department.

xian yang once revealed to investors during the company's roadshow before its ipo: "i was injured while working as a police officer. my family was very worried about my safety, so they asked me to change jobs, and then i joined the customs department. however, the nature of the job was boring, so i decided to go into business soon after."

in 2000, when the clarion call for the development of the western region was sounded, xian yang took this opportunity to establish panzhihua sanlian industrial co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as sanlian industrial) and officially plunged into the business world.

at first, he only did some coal-related trading business with little profit. after careful consideration, he decided to transform into coal production and sales and run a coal mine himself.

in 2002, xian yang successfully acquired dahegou coal mine with 1.1 million yuan borrowed from relatives and friends, and started coal mining and washing business. the following year, he continued to increase investment, acquired taiping township coking plant in renhe district, and established panzhihua hengding coal coking co., ltd. to enter the coal coke business.

·a coal plant under hengding industry. (screenshot from hengding industry's official website)

in just a few years, xian yang acquired 20 coal mines, 2 coal washing plants and 1 coking plant in sichuan and guizhou provinces, leading the company to gradually become a leader in the coal industry in the southwest region.

in 2005, sanlian industry was officially renamed sichuan hengding industry co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as hengding industry). in the same year, in order to improve his management ability, xian yang went to sichuan university to study for a master's degree in business administration.

two years later, hengding industrial was successfully listed in hong kong. xian yang became a new business elite and ushered in the peak moment of his life.

in 2008, at the age of 35, he became the only sichuanese billionaire on forbes' list of "asia's youngest billionaires". at the same time, he ranked 41st on the "hurun rich list" with a net worth of 14 billion yuan, ahead of cao dewang, ma huateng and others.

although xian yang's family lives in panzhihua, they have deep feelings for their hometown, sancun village, taiping town. xian yang's father xian jilun goes back to visit relatives and friends almost every year, and xian yang often donates money and materials to help the village's infrastructure construction. according to local village cadres, in 2005, because he couldn't bear the villagers stepping on mud every day to go out, xian yang, who had just started his career, donated a cement road to his hometown.

but xian yang was a very low-key person, and most people in the village didn't know what he was doing. the nanchong daily reported on him, but only mentioned "xian jilun and his son working in a mine in panzhihua." when the news that xian yang had become a billionaire came, the villagers couldn't believe it.

became a billionaire at the age of 34

xian yang's journey to becoming a wealthy man was not smooth.

since the company changed its name in 2005, he began to prepare for the listing on the hong kong stock market. he first registered hengding investment holdings co., ltd. in the cayman islands, and then acquired 100% of hengding industrial's equity through the company through foreign equity mergers and acquisitions. hengding industrial has transformed itself into the largest foreign-invested enterprise in panzhihua city.

however, just when xian yang was confidently preparing to list hengding industrial, it failed to even pass the first round of hearings before listing.

at the critical moment, cai hongping, then chairman of ubs investment bank china, took action.

cai hongping is known as the "father of chinese private enterprises' overseas listing". after the asian financial crisis in 1998, he listed hengan international in hong kong, which was rated as the "best asian ipo (initial public offering) in 1998" by a financial magazine. in 2002, during the downturn of the hong kong stock market, he built byd, which was still unknown at the time, into a star company. in 2003, he took hualian supermarket, weiqiao textile and great wall motors to hong kong for listing, with a total financing amount of up to us$800 million (about rmb 5.6 billion).

after that, he also pushed companies such as nine dragons paper, country garden, and soho china into the hong kong capital market. cai hongping was behind the "birth" of many mainland tycoons.

after the failure of the first round of hearings of hengding industry, cai hongping, with his rich experience and extensive connections, quickly adjusted the original person in charge of the project and personally led xian yang to communicate with the hong kong stock exchange. in the end, hengding industry was approved for listing and the ipo size was determined to be us$600 million (approximately rmb 4.2 billion).

during the ipo process, hengding industrial was sought after by the four richest people in hong kong. according to the international financial news, henderson land development chairman lee shau-kee, bank of east asia chairman david li, chinese estates chairman joseph lau and kerry group chairman robert kuok each invested us$20 million (about rmb 140 million), causing hengding industrial's share price to soar on the opening day of september 21, 2007.

overnight, xian yang became one of the billionaires.

after the company went public, his career also saw rapid development. according to a report by china entrepreneur, from october to december 2007 alone, xian yang spent 1.543 billion yuan to acquire nine coal mines in guizhou province. that year, hengding industrial's revenue increased by 27.9% and its profit soared by 535.8%. the following year, revenue and profit continued to rise, increasing by 138.7% and 75.9% respectively.

since 2008, xian yang has been on the "forbes china 100 rich list" for four consecutive years, and his wealth should not be underestimated.

deep in debt crisis

just when everyone was marveling at the rise of hengding industrial, little did they know that the "landmines" had already been laid.

most of the coal mines acquired by xianyang are undeveloped raw coal mines. although the cost is low when they are acquired, the cost of later development and construction is relatively high. in the "golden age" of coal, coal prices are high, and these costs are harmless to the powerful hengding industrial.

however, in 2012, due to a large amount of investment and production in the previous few years, the coal market was oversupplied and coal prices plummeted. at this time, facing problems such as high costs, hengding industry began to be stretched, and at the end of the year, it suffered a loss of 147 million yuan.

·the transportation corridor of hengding industrial.

however, xian yang believed that this situation was only temporary. as long as he could hold on, the situation would improve greatly in the next few years. in order to survive, he began to gradually reduce the scale of assets and sell his minerals to survive.

in 2013, xian yang successively sold 50% of the shares of his subsidiary yunnan hengding and the largest spodumene mine in asia. in addition, he also integrated industries to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and even borrowed money from banks through personal guarantees.

however, this effort only treated the symptoms and not the root cause. although the debt ratio was adjusted back in 2013, the losses started to increase again in 2014.

in 2015, the debt crisis that hengding industrial had suppressed for a long time finally broke out. according to china entrepreneur, that year, hengding industrial's losses expanded to 2.285 billion yuan, and its net current liabilities surged from 3.4 billion yuan to 7.5 billion yuan. in the following years, the debt crisis has never been resolved.

in 2018, the sichuan provincial banking association convened some cooperative banks to hold a coordination meeting to promote the overall debt restructuring of hengding industrial. however, such a large debt scale makes debt restructuring complicated and arduous. it was not until 2023 that hengding industrial issued an announcement stating that its domestic debts had been successfully restructured.

it is worth mentioning that with the arrival of the commodity cycle, coal prices have rebounded. hengding industrial has achieved profits for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022, which has also accelerated the implementation of debt restructuring. however, in 2023, hengding industrial's operating conditions began to decline again, with a full-year net loss of 746 million yuan.

until xian yang passed away, he never saw the day when hengding industrial would achieve greater glory.

three days after xian yang's death, hengding industrial issued an announcement appointing mr. xian fan as the company's executive director, chairman of the board, member of the nomination committee and remuneration committee, and ms. qiao qian as the company's non-executive director.

xian fan is xian yang's younger brother, and qiao qian is xian yang's wife.

xian fan has been working at hengding industrial since 2005 and became the deputy general manager in 2009. over the years, he has been following xian yang and acting as his brother's right-hand man. after taking over the heavy responsibility of the enterprise, how he will lead hengding industrial to revive will continue to attract attention from the outside world.

source: international financial news, china entrepreneur magazine, national business daily, etc.