Vanke's era of Yu Liang has officially come to an end.

Representative professional manager in the real estate industry, Yu Liang, says goodbye to Vanke. On the evening of January 8th, China Vanke Co., Ltd. (000002.SZ) announced in a statement that Yu Liang has retired due to reaching retirement age and has officially resigned from his position as a director and executive vice president of the company. After resigning from the aforementioned positions, Yu Liang will no longer hold any positions at Vanke. From now on, this key figure who has served at Vanke for 36 years will completely bid farewell to this benchmark company that once led the real estate industry in China. As the most influential leader of Vanke after Wang Shi, Yu Liang's name has long been closely associated with the fate of this real estate giant. From joining in 1990 to taking the helm in 2017, he played a significant role in driving Vanke to become the first real estate company in the industry to reach a billion yuan market cap, and from advocating to "survive", from being a benchmark in steady management to facing financial crisis, his major decisions and the direction of the company in Vanke have more or less affected the industry. As a finance background leader, he once shook the industry with the warning to "survive", and now he himself has taken the lead to "retire", leaving behind a Vanke standing on the edge of debt default. Whether the new generation of management at Vanke can lead the company through the cycle and revive it remains a focal point of everyone's attention. Industry insiders believe that regardless of how Yu Liang and Vanke's shared history is evaluated, it has become an important chapter in the history of domestic business. From a financial manager to a leader of a billion-dollar real estate company The story of Yu Liang and Vanke began in Shenzhen in 1990. At the age of 25, Yu Liang had just graduated from the International Economics Department of Peking University two years ago when he jumped from a foreign trade group in Shenzhen to Vanke, which was still in the early stages of development, responsible for securities and investment-related work. At that time, under the leadership of Wang Shi, Vanke was transitioning from diversified operations to specialized in real estate, and Yu Liang's financial background quickly made him stand out in the company's standardized management. Just two years after joining, Yu Liang was appointed as the company's director due to his outstanding business ability, he quickly became a leading figure in capital operations. In 1993, Yu Liang led Vanke's B-share listing and successful raised HKD 450 million, laying an important financial foundation for the company's early expansion. In 1994, Yu Liang entered Vanke's board of directors, officially joining the core decision-making layer of the company; in 1996, he was promoted to Vice President, and in 1999, he further became Executive Vice President and Finance Chief, heading the company's core finance and operations departments. At the beginning of the millennium, the Chinese real estate industry entered a golden development period. Yu Liang also faced a key turning point in his career when he was officially appointed as Vanke's General Manager in 2001, beginning to oversee the company's daily operations and becoming Wang Shi's most capable assistant. The two formed a golden partnership model of "Wang Shi sets the strategy, Yu Liang executes", paving the way for Vanke's subsequent rapid growth. Upon taking office, Yu Liang demonstrated forward-looking strategic vision, proposing to achieve a target revenue of one billion in 5 years, and boldly launched the "Ten Billion Plan" in 2004. At that time, Vanke's annual sales were only RMB 9.16 billion, this target sparked widespread controversy in the industry. Amid the spreading financial crisis in 2008, Yu Liang innovatively launched the "5986 model" to accelerate capital turnover, which involves starting construction within 5 months of land acquisition, opening for sale within 9 months, with ordinary residential units accounting for more than 80%, and achieving a sales volume of 60% in the opening month. With this rapid turnover strategy transcending market cycles, Vanke achieved sales of RMB 47.87 billion that year, further increasing its market share. In December 2010, Vanke achieved its billion yuan target four years ahead of schedule, with sales amounting to RMB 108.16 billion, becoming the first real estate company in China to break the billion yuan sales mark and officially establishing its leading position in the industry. Subsequently, from 2015 to 2017, Vanke went through the high-profile "Battle of Baoneng" equity crisis in the capital market. Yu Liang and Wang Shi introduced Shenzhen Metro as a strategic investor and stabilized control through mixed-ownership reform, seen as a classic case of market-oriented enterprises responding to capital "barbarians" attacks. After the conclusion of the "Battle of Baoneng", founder Wang Shi exited Vanke's board of directors and Yu Liang formally took over as Chairman of Vanke's board in 2017, also serving as President and CEO. After taking over, Yu Liang began to steer Vanke's transformation from a traditional residential developer to an "urban support service provider", while leading the introduction of career partners and co-investment systems, and proposing the "Trillion Vanke" vision to extend the business to diversified tracks such as logistics real estate (Vanke Logistics), commercial operation (Impression Group), long-term rental apartments (Boyu) and property services (ONEWO). At the same time, in 2017, Vanke achieved sales of RMB 529.88 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45.3%, setting a historic record. From a securities investment commissioner to the Chairman of the board, from a billion revenue to a five hundred billion scale, Yu Liang's career trajectory aligns closely with Vanke's growth path, making him a benchmark figure in the professional management realm of the Chinese real estate industry. From "industry first" to "survival" warning After taking the helm at Vanke, Yu Liang's most dazzling achievement was undoubtedly Vanke's rise to the top of the industry and its sustained leading position. From 2017 to 2018, Vanke's sales exceeded RMB 500 billion and RMB 600 billion, maintaining industry leadership for several years. During this period, Vanke, with its standardized product system, rigorous cost control, sound financial strategy, and strong execution, was hailed by the industry as a "real estate model student". However, this rational leader with a finance background, during the industry boom, issued a warning. In 2018, at the quarterly meeting of Vanke's southern region, a prominent slogan hung in the venue: "Survival". These few words were like a thunderbolt, shaking the real estate industry. Yu Liang bluntly stated at the meeting, "The first thing Vanke has to do is strategic reassessment, with 'survival' as the ultimate goal." At this time, most real estate companies were still aggressively acquiring land, leveraging, and expanding, Vanke's warning was at one point considered exaggerated. The following years proved the foresight of this warning. In the context of continuous market adjustments, some high-leverage real estate companies exposed risks, once leading industry giants into debt crisis. Vanke, with its strategy of early deleveraging and debt control, maintained a relatively solid financial position during the initial phase of market adjustment. However, the market adjustments and changes within the company exceeded expectations. Starting from the second half of 2021, the real estate industry entered a deep adjustment phase, even Vanke faced unprecedented pressure. At Vanke's 2021 annual performance meeting, Yu Liang apologized for the poor performance and decline in net profit, stating, "Vanke's performance in 2021 was not good, disappointing shareholders, I apologize to the 520,000 Vanke shareholders here." Sadly, as the pressure of Vanke's financial situation gradually became apparent, rumors of credit downgrades, negotiation of syndicated loans, and extension of bank debts circulated. Particularly in 2024, Vanke reported a significant loss in revenue, with a net loss of RMB 49.478 billion attributable to shareholders of listed companies. Although Yu Liang promised to reduce the debt size by RMB 100 billion in 2024 and 2025 to mitigate debt risks, market confidence was still significantly impacted. In January 2025, Yu Liang stepped down from his core management position for the first time, resigning as Chairman of the Vanke board of directors, retaining only the roles of director and executive vice president in preparation for retirement; in early 2026, upon reaching retirement age, Yu Liang officially resigned from all management positions, drawing a conclusion to his 36-year career at Vanke. With Yu Liang's departure, the future of Vanke faces challenges and difficulties to be resolved by the new management team. The most urgent and thorny issue currently facing Vanke is the debt extension problem. In November 2025, Vanke initiated the debt extension process for the first time, proposing an extension plan for RMB 2 billion, medium-term notes "22 Vanke MTN004" due on December 15, breaking the record of no debt extension since its establishment. Although Vanke has optimized the extension plan three times, adding interest payment arrangements and credit enhancement measures, the extension plan received only a 20.2% approval rate at the second holder meeting, with a high opposition rate of 78.3%. Only the proposal for a 30 trading day grace period was passed with a 90.7% approval rate, which granted a brief respite for debt restructuring. Similarly, another RMB 3.7 billion mature bond "22 Vanke MTN005" extension proposal was also not approved. According to Enterprise Early Warning data, Vanke currently has 16 outstanding bonds, including 7 corporate bonds, 6 medium-term notes, and 3 enterprise ABS, totaling RMB 21.798 billion. Among them, 8 bonds will mature within a year, totaling RMB 15.753 billion. According to Standard & Poor's monitoring information, in addition to the RMB 2 billion domestic bond, Vanke has about RMB 9.4 billion in bonds maturing in the next six months, with RMB 4.8 billion expiring in the remaining time of December 2025 and January 2026. On January 7th, according to an announcement from the Shanghai Clearing House, the holder meetings for "22 Vanke MTN004" and "22 Vanke MTN005" are scheduled to be held on January 21st. Can Vanke improve its credit enhancement measures and cash flow control to present specific and executable plans to reach an agreement with investors on the extension within the grace period, thus avoiding substantive defaults? "The current issue is whether Vanke can make its credit enhancement measures and cash flow control specific enough and executable. If they can provide substantial secured assets, receive actual cash, and present definite execution plans, the extension option is not entirely out of reach." said Huang Lichong, President of Hui Sheng International Capital. Analysts believe that Yu Liang's departure marks the end of an era. The current Vanke has shifted from being a market-oriented enterprise led by professional managers to a "semi-state-owned" enterprise led by the major shareholder, Shenzhen Metro. With Yu Liang's presence gradually fading, the era of rapid and unrestrained development in the real estate sector has come to an end. However, the crisis warning in Vanke has not been lifted yet, the future direction and whether Vanke will succeed in resolving this crisis still remains uncertain. This article is reproduced from "Cailianshe", author: Li Jie; GMTEight Editor: Feng Qiuyi.