Wang Cuijun, 55, was last week named as the general manager of the company which controls a large number of publicly traded units in Hong Kong, including Hang Seng Index constituents CR Beer and CR Land.
Wang joined China Resources, which is under the stewardship of China’s State-owned Assets Supervision & Administration Commission (SASAC) in 2021, serving as deputy secretary of the party committee and director.
The senior engineer previously worked with China Merchants Group. The 150-year-old state enterprise founded and headquartered in Hong Kong, which started off in shipping, later branched out into real estate, banking and insurance among other businesses.
“Wang’s background definitely gives him a better understanding of Hong Kong as well as the business operating style here,” said Kenny Ng Lai-yin, a strategist at Everbright Sun Hung Kai Securities. “That would help greatly if the company boosts its presence here, which is what the market is expecting.”
China Resources was established as Liow & Co in Hong Kong in 1938 by Yang Lianan, with the backing of Zhou Enlai and Chen Yun – two of the Communist Party’s eight elders. Its original purpose was to use funds raised from the public to procure material to support Chinese resistance against the Japanese in the Second World War.
The company was renamed China Resources in 1948. The Chinese name, Hua Run, is composed of two characters, the first meaning China and the second adopted from the stylised name of Chairman Mao Zedong.
“The combination of the two characters means the great land of China is endowed with abundant resources,” according to the company’s website.
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China Resources was under the control of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation until 1999, when it was put under the direct administration of the central government.
Its Ng Fung Hong unit, set up in 1962, was the main supplier of livestock and frozen meat from the mainland to Hong Kong. Today, it still has a monopoly on fresh beef distribution in Hong Kong.
The firm gradually expanded into mainland manufacturing in the late 1970s, and invested in the retailing, property, power generation and infrastructure sectors in the 1980s and 1990s.
Its first listed company, retailing-to-brewing conglomerate China Resources Enterprise, was among the earliest mainland Chinese firms to float on the Hong Kong bourse, in 1992.
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Today, the state-owned conglomerate operates from two headquarters – the 48-storey China Resources Building in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district and the China Resources Tower, better known as the Spring Bamboo, in Shenzhen’s Nanshan district, where Tencent and ZTE have their offices.
“China Resources has been quite aggressive in expanding its business in Hong Kong and has become one of the better known state-owned companies familiar to Hong Kong people through its grocery chain U Select and St Regis hotel,” said Ken Lo, director of investment strategy at Grand Capital.
“It is an opportune time for financially sound state-owned Chinese companies to expand in Hong Kong to help boost the city’s economy. We expect others like China Resources to do the same.”
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