Greenland Hong Kong chief Chen Jun focused on expansion
In order to better tap the mainland market, Greenland chief Chen Jun has set his sights on first-tier cities and provincial capitals while also expanding into the commercial sector
Chen Jun took the helm of Greenland Hong Kong Holdings after state-owned Shanghai Greenland Group completed a back-door listing, buying a 60 per cent stake in SPG Land (Holdings) in a share placement in August last year.
Before he was appointed chairman and chief executive of Greenland Hong Kong, Chen, 39, had been at Greenland Group for more than 12 years. Between 2001 and 2003, he was tasked with building the group's headquarters and overseeing a redevelopment in the suburban Kangqiao area of Shanghai.
Chen won acclaim from the management during a 10-year stint at Greenland Group's operations in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province. Under his leadership, the company recorded good sales amid Beijing's go-west campaign and he was even nominated as a key contributor to Shaanxi's economic development.
Since Greenland Hong Kong engineered the back-door listing last year, how did you adjust the company’s strategy to better tap the property market on mainland China?
We did make some changes in our strategies after taking over a public company in Hong Kong. First of all, we took advantage of the Hong Kong financial market to issue a three-year US$700 million bond, a move to help optimise our debt structure. We also decided to invest less in mainland Chinese cities such as Ningbo and Wuxi where competition is fierce while planning to focus on only first-tier cities and some provincial capitals such as Kunming and Nanning.
