Country Garden Services Executive Resigns, Share Option Scheme Cancelled

Country Garden Services Holdings on Wednesday announced the resignation of an executive director and the cancellation of the company’s 2020-era share option scheme.

The property management arm of troubled Chinese developer Country Garden said Guo Zhanjun stepped down with immediate effect to devote more time to human resources and marketing management as a result of adjustments to the company’s internal work division.

The company concurrently named Zhao Jun, executive director and manager of investment firm China Fellow Partners, as an independent non-executive director, according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The moves follow the resignation of Li Changjiang as president last October — with Xu Binhuai succeeding him as president and executive director — and result in the Country Garden Services board continuing to operate with seven members led by chairwoman Yang Huiyan.

New Programme

Country Garden Services plans to scrap its share option scheme adopted in 2020 and replace it with a new programme, the company said Wednesday in a separate HKEX filing. More than 25 million outstanding options were granted by the 2020 scheme but have yet to be exercised, according to the document.

The current share option scheme was launched on 28 September 2020 and is valid and effective for a period of 10 years from the date of adoption, said Country Garden Services, which has no intention of granting any further options under the existing scheme.

The termination of the current scheme and adoption of the new programme are subject to approval by shareholders at a general meeting on a date to be announced, the company said.

The stated purposes of the new scheme are to motivate eligible participants to work hard and to enhance the company’s ability to attract and retain individuals with outstanding skills and extensive experience.

Shares of Country Garden Services closed Friday at HK$4.73 ($0.60), down 4.3 percent on the session and more than 94 percent from the stock’s peak in June 2021.

Dividend Jackpot

The latest announcements come after Bloomberg reported last week that Yang Huiyan and her family foundation stood to reap $50 million in dividends from their combined stake in Country Garden Services, even as the company reported an 85 percent dive in 2023 net income.

Yang, who is the daughter of former Country Garden boss Yang Guoqiang and also chairs the parent group, has been trying to right the ship at the Foshan-based developer, which missed a RMB 96 million ($13.3 million) coupon payment on onshore borrowings last month after defaulting on $11 billion in offshore bonds in October.

In February, Country Garden was hit with a winding-up petition in Hong Kong filed by a unit of Kingboard Holdings, due to non-repayment of a term loan worth HK$1.6 billion ($204 million) including accrued interest.