Legend Holdings Corporation ( Stock Code: 3396.HK) announced that, Mr. Liu Chuanzhi, Chairman of the Board of Legend Holdings, Executive Director, and Founder of the Lenovo Group Limited will retire as the Chairman and Executive Director of the Company in accordance with a predesignated plan. He will serve as Honorary Chairman, Senior Advisor and the Member of Strategy Committee of the Board of Directors. Mr. Zhu Linan, Executive Director and the President of Legend Holdings, will resign as the President but continue to serve as Director of Legend Holdings, and he will be the Member of Strategy Committee of the Board of Directors. As a result of the recommendation from the Nomination Committee of Legend Holdings’ Board of Directors and resolution passed by Board of Directors, Mr. Ning Min, the current Executive Director, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Legend Holdings, will succeed Mr. Liu Chuanzhi as Chairman of the Board, and Mr. Ning Min is appointed as the Chairman of the Nomination Committee and Strategy Committee. Meanwhile, Mr. Li Peng, Senior Vice President, is appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), following the resolution passed by the Board of Directors, while the Board of Directors also recommends Mr. Li Peng to serve as Executive Director. As newly established core management team, Mr. Ning Min and Mr. Li Peng, will steer the Company towards its vision and mission and beyond.
The board of directors of Legend Holdings is convinced that Mr. Ning Min has experienced a number of transformations and ground-breaking transitional phases of the Company since 1991 when he joined Legend, and he also has in-depth understanding of the Company with extensive practical experiences. He deeply understands and appreciates our corporate vision and core values. He is blessed with grand strategic insight, solid ambition and learning ability, equipped with comprehensive capabilities. Mr. Ning Min has been a long-standing member of the executive committee of Legend Holdings and has served as CFO, overseeing the Company’s corporate finance and capital management, risk control and auditing and other works related to the capital market. He is also responsible for the operation and management of financial investments segment of Legend Holdings, playing a decisive role in strategy formulation, business development and organization framework building. Mr. Li Peng is considered as a distinguished senior management executive possessing a globalized perspective. During his 16-year experience in Legend Holdings, he has never failed to uphold our corporate culture and values. Moreover, he demonstrates a strong sense of obligation and has an innovative mindset. Mr. Li Peng has been providing indispensable assistance to Mr. Zhu Linan in governing strategic investments for many years. Mr. Li Peng has proved to be an outstanding senior management executive with professional judgement on and rich experience of both investment and corporate operations.
To develop corporate healthily and sustainably, “inheritance” is predominant, while talent recruitment, particularly the sourcing and nurturing of the leading figures, is one of the key engines during inheritance, which has been regarded as long-term strategic undertakings in Legend Holdings. Mr. Liu Chuanzhi said, “Legend Holdings is currently guided by a specific and concrete strategic blueprint, with experienced management team. This systematic inheritance plan was tailor designed and well prepared by Mr. Zhu Linan and me to satisfy the pressing needs of the overall corporate development and gained overwhelming support from the board of directors. This specific personnel re-assignment has been initiated in tandem with the pragmatic and long-standing development requirements of the Company. I am gratified to witness the plan was successfully implemented.”
“Both Mr. Liu and I hold the same view that the core management team of Legend Holdings should be comprised of members in the prime of their lives, brimming with more innovative inspiration; they must be the new blood with an international perspective,’ Mr. Zhu Linan stated, ‘both Mr. Ning Min and Mr. Li Peng are leading elites of strong integrity and qualification, ambitious and blessed with forward-looking insights. They are genuinely imbued with our corporate vision “serve the country with industrialization”, along with the guiding ideology “aim high and fly high but always keep your feet on the ground.” They both have also withstood severe challenges when serving on the front lines, making great contributions during the transitional phases of Legend Holdings. As a result, they have received full recognition from the board of directors as well as the general staff alike. We are confident with this new core management team made up by Mr. Ning Min and Mr. Li Peng.”
Curtain Call on the Founder’s Tenure with His Aspiration Inherited onto the Future
Mr. Liu Chuanzhi, the founder of Legend, was born in 1944. In 1984, at the age of 40, with the reform and opening-up in China, Mr. Liu Chuanzhi responded to the “industrialization of technology” initiated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and embarked on a voyage of entrepreneurship. During the past 35 years, Mr. Liu has kept aiming at higher targets and presiding over a series of successful reforms, which has laid a solid foundation for the Company’s sustainable development. This has allowed Legend to grow despite the inevitable boom and bust in the economic cycle.
The Board of Directors of Legend Holdings appraised Mr. Liu Chuanzhi: As both the founder and guiding force of Legend, Mr. Liu Chuanzhi led this company to build the vision “serve the country with industrialization” with his distinctive foresight and perseverance. The Company continues to expand its global footprint and put forth relentless efforts to cultivate new talents, and has therefore developed a business layout that covers strategic and financial investments as well as the Chinese and overseas markets. During this 35-year journey, Mr. Liu has pressed ahead with developing the corporate institutions and mechanisms, summarizing the management theory and building corporate culture. All these contributions have generated a profound influence on the long-standing development of the Company. At the same time, Mr. Liu advocates the commercial civilization in earnest and fulfills the corporate social responsibility. He is committed to passing down the spirit of “be a good person, do good deeds, and set a good example to society” from generation to generation in Legend. Beyond all the afore mentioned, Mr. Liu Chuanzhi has promoted China’s innovative transition toward an information-based society through Legend’s practice. Therefore, serving as the “Pioneer of Science and Technology Industrialization”, Mr. Liu was accredited with the honorable title “Reform Pioneer” awarded by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. Mr. Liu has also led Legend to gain the upper hand in facing fierce competition from international players in the domestic market. Applying strategies such as investments and mergers and acquisitions, the Company has succeeded in expanding overseas footprint, and accumulated valuable experience for Chinese companies to “go global”. Mr. Liu has successfully implemented the shareholding reform of enterprise and also blazed a trail of structural reform for high-tech enterprises under scientific research institutes in China. Mr. Liu keeps close sight on studying the corporate management, summarizing and proposing the “three elements of Legend-style leadership”, providing helpful references to many other companies.
“Legend is a creation of the era. It is China’s reform and opening-up that enabled us to make the best of our time, to become entrepreneurs, and to grow Legend from a small institution comprised of a dozen “book-worms” to a modern corporation brimming with talents, and we have made real and practical contributions to our society. During our course of development, we gained various supports from society. We appreciate the Chinese Academy of Sciences, our largest shareholder, who has given Legend enduring trust and support amidst all the crucial phases. Our gratitude also goes to the governments at all levels that have provided us with all the prerequisite resources and meticulous instructions as well as criticism and encouragement. We are also grateful to friends from all walks of life, who have been attentive to Legend and offered us helps whenever in need.” Mr. Liu Chuanzhi presented, ‘Within my 35-years’ career path, I have realized some goals, amidst many setbacks and mistakes. I owe a debt of gratitude to my colleagues who have fought shoulder-to-shoulder with me on many challenging fronts and have supported me despite a myriad of difficulties, sharing the bitter and sweet along the way. There will, of course, be various unexpected challenges we need to confront, and Legend Holdings is still young, yet all Legenders are united with their dynamic energy and fighting spirit. It is my strong conviction that our new core leading team is endowed with surpassing ambition and adequate capacities, learning from the past and treasuring our experience. They will inherit our legacy, stay proactive and never give up; they will confront pressure and embrace emerging opportunities bravely; they will stay true to the original inspiration and endeavor to contribute the best they can to our country.”
Build up Our Strength and Compose a New Chapter
Legend was collectively founded by 11 science researchers, including Mr. Liu Chuanzhi, with the investment of RMB200,000 from the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1984. Starting in the IT sector, the Company developed and commercialized its own branded micro-computers. In 1997, Legend PC climbed to the top market ranking in China. Currently, Lenovo has evolved into a globalized leader in the fields of consumer, commercial and corporate innovative technology sector, ranking first in the global PC market.
To mitigate risks, safeguard the Company’s stability and long-term development, and promote the ground-breaking innovation in science and technology, Mr. Liu Chuanzhi successfully led and completed Legend’s spin-off in 2001. The IT sector was handed over to the younger generation while Legend Holdings began its “second start-up” stage led by Mr. Liu Chuanzhi and Mr. Zhu Linan, a new journey of investment. Committed to the “capital + service” model, the Company continuously assists the real economy and innovative entrepreneurship in China.
Mr. Zhu Linan joined Legend in 1989. He is the main leader who has promoted and implemented our key strategic transformation and business upgrading. He has been responsible for routine operations of Legend Holdings since the spin-off, and was in command of setting up the first investment arm of Legend Holdings, namely Legend Capital, which provided a solid foundation for the successful investment transformation of Legend Holdings. Later on, Hony Capital and Legend Star were successively founded, forming a full investment chain that covers the entire lifecycle of a company. In 2010, Legend Holdings further expanded the strategic investments business focusing on long-run investment linked with IT, financial services, innovative consumption and services, agriculture and food, advanced manufacturing & professional services. With his deep understanding and rich experience in business operation and investment, Mr. Zhu Linan led Legend Holdings and creatively established a unique two-wheel-drive business model of “strategic investments + financial investments” to push forward the strategy and business. During these years, the Company has accumulated rich experience and resources of talents, organizations as well as investment and post-investment management. In 2015, Legend Holdings was successfully listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Now it has developed into a leading diversified investment holding company in China, with revenue of RMB358.9 billion and total assets of RMB558.3 billion in 2018, holding more than 20 portfolio companies. The board of directors of Legend Holdings would like to express their respect and gratitude to Mr. Zhu for his contributions.
“Legend Holdings is blessed with a deep-rooted foundation and our investment holding business also has consolidated bases. Our future is confronted with challenges from new changes, new technologies and new operation models, while there is still plenty of room for innovative imagination,” Mr. Li Peng, the newly appointed CEO of Legend Holdings noted, “Supported by the board of directors, Legend Holdings will respond to current external circumstances, adapt to changes of external situations, continuously improve and optimize development strategy, and fully leverage on the unique competitive advantage of ‘Two-wheel Drive’ model. We will continue to engage in the current operating segments, further refine on asset allocation and increase returns, while dynamically grasp emerging opportunities through in-depth research on the macro-industry and proper resources allocation and continue to build pillar assets. We are also obliged to contribute to the real economy while enhancing overall corporate value. Meanwhile, we have to put forth our best efforts to develop the organizational capabilities and to perfect the tiered talent pool.”
Mr. Ning Min, the newly elected chairman, put forward the three distinctive genes deeply rooted in Legend Holdings: unswerving persistence against the countless headwinds, perseverance to reach higher goals while marching forward, and learning capacities to absorb, improve and transform.
“Mr. Liu and Mr. Zhu have exerted their full enthusiasm and wisdom on Legend Holdings amidst the stormy circumstances, steering us along the right path, while laying a sound foundation for the long-term development of our Company. Our Company has always stressed the concept of “putting people first” and provided a platform for all young talents to fully tap their potentials. By means of a carefully designed and restructured mechanism, we steadfastly allowed more junior and senior Legenders to own share rights, in order to form a close link between the growth of staff members and our Company’s long-term prospect. It is our hope that a close bond will form amongst all the Legenders to better compete on the world stage. We want to offer a helping hand to entrepreneurs and to be in the same mind as faithful collaborating partners and allies. It is fortunate for me to witness and to play a part in this thrilling cause. All thanks go to Mr. Liu and Mr. Zhu for their contributions, and I am also grateful to the board of directors for their trust and affirmation.” Mr. Ning Min stated, “Legend Holdings holds true to the vision – ‘with the mission of serving the nation and society through developing successful businesses across industries, Legend Holdings is committed to becoming a respected and trusted global holding company, with equity in leading enterprises in multiple industries with international influence.’ To achieve this is by no means an easy task; it will necessitate hard work amassed across generations. Yet, as the saying goes, ‘A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step,’ our strategic blueprint should be based on a detailed and careful study on the macro-environment to solve crucial issues and formulate a future strategy landscape. The board of directors will firmly support the management team to make long-term strategies and put them into practice; the board will also encourage the management team to make constant improvements like entrepreneurs and to create better performance and returns to the shareholders and society.”
Biography of Mr. Ning Min
Mr. Ning Min joined Legend in 1991 and currently serves as chairman of board of directors at Legend Holdings Corporation.
Mr. Ning Min has been a member of the executive committee and CFO of Legend Holdings for a long time. He is in full charge of the finance and funds, risk control and auditing, capital market as well as public relations, and oversees the financial investments business. He plays an important role in formulating the corporate strategy, business development, and organization construction. During his tenure as CFO, he made outstanding performance in the fund and financial management, as well as capital market operation, including the completion of the listing of Legend Holdings and H-share full circulation program. Mr. Ning Min also contributed great value to the Company when he oversaw the Company’s financial investments, leading to the rapid progress of Legend Capital, Hony Capital and Legend Star and the direct investment business of Legend Holdings.
Mr. Ning Min is also the director of Legend Capital, Hony Capital, Legend Star, EAL, Joyvio Group, and Levima Advanced Materials.
Mr. Ning has served successively as assistant to the president, assistant president & secretary of board, vice president, senior vice president & chief financial officer, executive director, and is now chairman of board of directors in Legend Holdings.
He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Renmin University of China.
Biography of Mr. Li Peng
Mr. Li Peng joined Legend Holdings in 2003 and is now CEO of Legend Holdings Corporation.
As a member of the executive committee, Mr. Li has long engaged himself in the strategic investments business and post-investment management. At the preliminary phase of the Company’s strategic investments business, he participated in the formulation and implementation of investment strategies, and was responsible for the investment in and management on diversified sectors, including the successful optimization of the Company’s real estate business. The financial services business landscape is full-fledged under his leadership of financial services and overseas investments. He has also set up a team specialized in overseas investment. With his international perspective and professional knowledge, Mr. Li led his team and completed the acquisition of Banque Internationale a Luxembourg (BIL), building a new pillar asset as an outstanding contribution to the healthy development and value enhancement of Legend Holdings.
Mr. Li Peng was also responsible for the Company’s domestic and overseas financing operations.
He is now the vice chairman of BIL, and director of Lakala Payment, Zhengqi Financial and Koala Technology.
Mr. Li served as general manager of the Investment Management Department, director of the Strategic Investments Business, assistant president, vice president, senior vice president, and is now CEO.
He received a bachelor’s degree in international finance from the University of International Business and Economics and a master’s degree in business administration from New Hampshire State University. Before joining Legend, he worked in Sinotrans as well as Teradyne Connection Systems.