Author | Cao Anxun

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Two years after the accident, Yiju China, one of China's largest real estate transaction service providers, accelerated the pace of integrating assets, saving itself, and starting again.

On April 11, Leju Holdings, a subsidiary of Yiju, announced that it would be delisted from the NYSE after receiving a notice from the New York Stock Exchange.

A few days ago, on April 2, Yiju announced that Ding Zuyu and his investor consortium plan to buy 65% of the shares of Eju's indirect subsidiary Kerui Information Group for 520 million yuan and resign as CEO of Yiju. Ding Zuyu will continue to be the chairman of Kerui Information Group and the executive director of Yiju's board of directors.

According to industry insiders, this move will help Easyhome to supplement capital and promote debt restructuring.

On the same day that Ding Zuyu announced his intention to acquire Kerry, Yiju announced a new debt restructuring plan.

The eResidence Program pays cash to holders of senior notes due in 2022, senior notes due in 2023, and convertible notes, and $90 for every $1,000 (or HKD equivalent) of registered debt.

In order to obtain more support, Yiju plans to pay a restructuring guidance fee. The total amount is equivalent to 0.5% of the total principal amount of the old notes or convertible notes.

Meanwhile, Alibaba Hong Kong, the holder of Yiju's convertible bonds, has confirmed that it supports this restructuring plan in principle.

At the same time, if Ding Zuyu completes the acquisition of Kerui, it will also allow this “cash cow” owned by Yiju to break out of the shadow of Yiju's adventures and go into battle lightly under the leadership of a core veteran, and may even make up for Yiju.

According to Yiju's financial report, in 2023, the revenue from real estate data and consulting services, which mainly consists of the Kerui sector, was 444 million yuan.

In fact, since housing enterprises took extensive risks and the Yiju capital chain, which is closely tied to housing enterprises, was broken, Zhou Xin, chairman of the board of directors of Yiju, has been actively saving himself.

Zhou Xin reflected at the 2022 annual results meeting that the problem with Yi Ju had nothing to do with the team's professionalism; it was his own problem in grasping the strategy and making decisions.

He said that he will face up to creditors with the utmost sincerity. The most important thing for Yiju in 2023 is to make every effort to complete debt restructuring and let Yiju start again.

Over the past year, Zhou Xin accelerated the overseas debt restructuring plan and planned to sell Kerui to return the favor to TM Home. However, the deal was aborted due to opposition from the bank. As a result, the preconditions for restructuring were not met, and the overseas debt restructuring plan was put on hold.

Zhou Xin had no choice but to find other methods; he constantly proposed new restructuring plans and found new buyers for Kerry.

As Zhou Xin's henchman for nearly 30 years and a core veteran of Yi Ju and Kerui, Ding Zuyu's loyalty to Zhou Xin is well known in the industry.

In addition, even if the deal is completed, Yi Ju will still hold 35% of Kerry's shares. This makes Ding Zuyu “stand alone” this time more like Zhou Xin left behind to turn over later. It seems like they split up, but they actually help each other.

In itself, Ding Zuyu's professional ability, market insight, and industry recognition have made him one of the most suitable candidates to lead Kerry back on track.

His annual speech, with his frequent golden sentences, has become a window for real estate people to learn about the general trend of the industry. Sun Hongbin, chairman of the board of directors of Sunac, and many other heads of leading real estate companies also have a lot of trust in him.

Next, this marathon runner is about to start a new “marathon” for his career.

According to the guarantee agreement between Yiju and the Bank of China, the sale plan still requires the approval of the Bank of China.

If it were to succeed, Ding Zuyu would need to lead China's leading integrated real estate information service provider to continue to use its professional advantages in the second half of the real estate market and explore new opportunities to revive its performance.

This will be an important support for whether Ding Zuyu and Zhou Xin can join forces to go ashore again. Judging from the current market situation, this may take years or more.

On the other hand, Zhou Xin wants to use his hard-earned capital in the future to push creditors to pass the restructuring plan.

Zhou Xin seems to have planned the path after losing his controlling interest in Kerry as early as a year ago, saying, “Even if Yiju becomes a company with only traditional marketing agencies and channel business after the debt restructuring is over, Yiju can maintain its original intention and start again.”

At that time, he will definitely no longer pursue scale, but rather pursue the quality of the project, pursue good cash flow, pursue good accounts receivable and good account age, and mitigate operational risks as much as possible.

The cards are shuffled once a cycle. Once upon a time at Yiju's 16th birthday party, leaders such as Sun Hongbin, Yu Liang, Guo Guangchang, Li Silian, and Chen Zhuolin personally came to congratulate them and discussed the prosperity of the golden age of real estate during a cup exchange.

Eight years have passed, and they have had various encounters, but they are all busy trying to survive. Zhou Xin and Ding Zuyu now also have to run fast before they can hope to grab a “ticket” for the second half.