Mainland Developer China Overseas Land & Investment Names New CEO

Hong Kong-listed mainland developer China Overseas Land & Investment (COLI) announced this month that it had named a new chief executive to work alongside chairman Yan Jianguo.

Zhang Zhichao took over as CEO of the subsidiary of state-owned giant China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCEC) on 11 February, with Yan ceding executive leadership of the top 10 developer after just over three years in the role.

The change in leadership for COLI comes after the developer saw its contracted sales rise in value by more than 20 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year, as the developer found buyers for more than HK$377 billion ($48.5 billion) in property during the 12 months ending 31 December.

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Having worked his way up at CSCEC since graduating from Nanjing’s Southeast University in 2001, Zhang steps up to the CEO role at COLI after being named a vice president in January 2019.

Now 40 years old, Zhang has served as general manager of COLI’s northern China division since May 2017, with his region contributing just under 12 percent of the developer’s total contracted sales last year. COLI’s contracted sales in Zhang’s former territory, which includes the cities of Changchun, Qingdao, Dalian, Shenyang, Yantai and Harbin, rose by just over 12 percent during 2019.

With Zhang having ascended to the CEO role last week Yan Jianguo, now 53, will retain the executive chairman position that he took over in May 2017. COLI made the shift in leadership so that Yan can concentrate on his duties as chairman and focus on formulating long-term strategies, according to the announcement.

COLI executive director and COO Luo Liang was also made a vice chairman of the development giant.

In a published commentary credit ratings agency S&P Global said that it expects the board reshuffle not to have an immediate impact on COLI’s long-term development or on its daily operations.

COGO Leadership Shuffle

At the same time that COLI named its new CEO, the company also introduced new leadership for its China Overseas Grand Oceans Group (COGO) subsidiary.

As part of the reorganisation Yan Jianguo stepped down as chairman of COGO, but will continue to serve on the developer’s board as a non-executive director. With Yan departing his leadership role at COGO, Zhuang Yong was named company chairman at the same time that he joined COLI’s board as non-executive vice chairman.