Vanke founder Wang Shi says he’ll step down after long power struggle

China Vanke Co Chairman Wang Shi, 66, will step down from the board after a long power struggle saw the nation’s No. 2 property developer fall under State control.

Wang said that it was time to hand over the reins of the company he founded in 1988 and built into a real estate powerhouse that rode on the back of China’s economic boom.

The move was widely expected af- ter China Vanke was taken over by the government of Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, in March, ending a struggle for boardroom control and raising questions about to what extent the company will remain market- driven.

“I decided not to be re- elected as Vanke’s director at the start of the discussion of a new board,” Wang wrote in his blog.

“Today, I’m handing the leadership to ( President) Yu Liang. I believe it’s the best time.”

A shareholders’ meeting to elect new board members is scheduled to be held on June 30, and the fi rm said that it had nominated three senior executives of major shareholder Shenzhen Metro, including its chairman, general manager and chief fi nancial offi cer, as non- executive directors.

The State- owned subway operator’s control over Vanke was affi rmed this month after it raised its stake to 29.38 percent, surpassing conglomerate Baoneng Group, which had sought to oust Vanke’s management.

Wang has been an unusually colorful fi gure in China’s corporate sec- tor, an entrepreneur who also rows, climbs mountains and hit gossip headlines when he began dating a much younger actress. He is the fi rst Chinese man to climb the highest mountains in all seven continents.

He set up Vanke, now valued at $ 34 billion, from an offi ce equipment company and donated his shares to a charity early in its transformation into a private company.

“Someone who got rich overnight could be in danger, probably even be killed … and I didn’t know what to do with so much money,” he was quoted as telling a seminar.