Mainland movie star Zhao Wei was officially banned last year, and her husband, Singaporean businessman Huang Youlong, was charged with debts of nearly 600 million yuan. The whereabouts of the couple became a mystery.
The four French wineries owned by the Huangs have changed this year.
Huang Youlong resigned in January this year as the manager of two wineries and two companies that held shares in the wineries. He was suspected of handing over the wineries to "confidants" to take care of them and faded out of the business.
The "confidant" who took over the business was also surnamed Huang, whose identity was unknown, and he was only in his early 20s, but the reported address was the duplex unit in Tsuen Wan Huangbi, which the Huangs and his wife changed their names last year, with a market value of over 100 million yuan.
Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong have repeatedly increased the share capital of French wineries in recent years. The total book value of the three wineries exceeds 400 million yuan.
Zhao Wei married businessman Huang Youlong in 2009 and bought several French wineries after marriage.
(Weibo picture)
Zhao Wei's businessman Huang Youlong has had many financial disputes in recent years. In June last year, a financial company filed a lawsuit with the High Court to recover the principal and interest of nearly 300 million yuan. In January this year, another financial company filed a lawsuit for debt recovery. 300 million yuan.
Huang Youlong's CG Pay Hong Kong Limited submitted an application for deregistration to the Companies Registry at the end of December last year; another company, Live Energy Group Limited, was also dissolved in February this year.
At the same time, Huang Youlong also resigned from the French winery and is suspected of fading out of business.
Huang Youlong and Zhao Wei bought four wineries in France in their early years. The most well-known of them is Château Monlot in Bordeaux, France, which they bought for about HK$40 million in 2011.
In the following year, Huang Youlong registered a Chateau Monlot Hospitality Group Limited (Chateau Monlot Hospitality Group Limited) with the same name as the winery in Hong Kong and served as a director.
However, the company applied for deregistration at the end of December last year.
In 2011, Huang Youlong and Zhao Wei bought the French Bordeaux Monlong Chateau for about HK$40 million.
(Menglong winery official website)
Huang Youlong resigned as manager of two wineries at the beginning of the year
According to the French company registration record, Huang Youlong awarded all the shares of Chateau Menglong he indirectly held to the French company New Star in May last year.
In January of this year, Huang Youlong resigned as the manager (gérant) of Chateau Menglong and Château La Vue, and instead appointed Huang Mingzheng, the representative of New Star.
The manager of a French company is legally responsible for the company and functions like a legal representative.
In the past, Zhao Wei also served as the manager of the winery, until December 2020, he resigned, and Huang Youlong was replaced.
The official website of Menglong Winery still shows that Zhao Wei is the owner of the winery.
(Menglong winery official website)
In January of this year, registration records showed that both wineries were held by Huang Youlong and Zhao Wei, with Huang Youlong indirectly holding 30% of the shares and Zhao Wei indirectly holding 70%.
By May, the beneficiary (Bénéficiaire effectif) on the registration record of Menglong Winery had changed to Huang Mingzheng, but the winery's official website still showed that Zhao Wei was the owner of the winery.
The company that took over the winery, New Star, was originally wholly-owned by Huang Youlong, but he also resigned as chairman of the company in January and was replaced by Huang Mingzheng. There is no document to show whether Huang Youlong still holds shares.
Zhao Wei has been taking care of the French winery business with a high profile in recent years.
(Menglong winery official website)
Huang Mingzheng reported to live in the Huang family's mansion in Tsuen Wan
In addition, Huang Youlong and Zhao Wei set up a French company, Bordeaux Vineyard & Wine Investments, to hold shares in several wineries.
Huang Youlong resigned as chairman of the company in January this year, while Huang Mingzheng took over as a representative of a Luxembourg company held by a Cayman Islands company and took over 30% of the shares originally held by Huang Youlong.
Zhao Wei has signed a document to appoint Huang Mingzheng, and her 70% shareholding in the company through the Hong Kong company will remain unchanged.
In the registration of taking over as chairman, Huang Mingzheng reported to live in the high-rise unit of the Royal Wall, a luxury mansion in Tsuen Wan.
The unit is a duplex unit, which was purchased by Huang Youlong in 2012 for 72 million yuan under the name of "Wei Xin International Investment Co., Ltd.".
▼Tsuen Wan luxury mansion Huangbi▼
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"Hong Kong 01" reported earlier that Huang Youlong suddenly resigned as the director of "Weixin" in August 2020, and was replaced by a person from the securities industry.
"Weixin" is still controlled by the British Virgin Islands (BVI) registered company "Xingsheng Investment Co., Ltd.". Zhao Wei was a director of "Xingsheng" in 2012. It is unknown whether the Huangbi unit has been sold, or the name change is only a financial arrangement , the unit is still held by the Huang family behind it.
Zhao Wei, Huang Youlong and his wife, Tsuen Wan's mansion with more than 100 million yuan bizarrely changed its name
Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong have had a marriage change in recent years, and they have a daughter "Huang Xin".
(Dream Builder: Dragon Travel World Weibo picture)
The identity of Huang Mingzheng is a mystery and the age of Huang Youlong's eldest son is similar
After the director of "Weixin" changed his name, Huang Youlong and his wife still reported to live in the duplex unit of Huangbi, which shows that Huang Mingzheng has a close relationship with the two.
Huang Mingzheng is 21 years old this year, born in Guangdong, holding a Hong Kong identity card, and took over Huang Youlong's position in the Hong Kong company in the past.
In August last year, Huang Youlong resigned from the directorships of Yonghao International Industrial Co., Ltd. and Luyu Investment Group Co., Ltd., and was succeeded by Huang Mingzheng.
Huang Youlong also transferred all the shares of Luyu Investment Group to Huang Mingzheng.
Huang Mingzheng succeeded Huang Youlong as director of Yonghao International Industrial last August, which is one of the shareholders of French winery Château Senailhac.
(Instagram: chateau_senailhac)
Yonghao International Industrial is one of the shareholders of the Huang couple's French winery Château Sénailhac, but there is no document showing whether Huang Youlong transferred the shares to Huang Mingzheng when he resigned as a director of the company.
Huang Youlong has a son and a daughter. The son born to his ex-wife is nicknamed "Huang Xiaobao" and is similar in age to Huang Mingzheng, but he has never disclosed his real name; Huang Youlong's daughter is "Huang Xin" born by Zhao Wei, who was born in Singapore in 2010.
The reporter went to many of Huang Youlong's registered addresses in Hong Kong to find out. The staff working on this floor said that the place is not the address of Huang Youlong or Zhao Wei's company.
(Photo by Hong Kong 01 reporter)
Directly hit the Hong Kong company address on-site staff: non-Huang Youlong company
Huang Youlong is currently a director of 14 companies in Hong Kong, and Zhao Wei is also a director of 4 Hong Kong companies, most of which are registered at the 45th floor of One Midtown, Tsuen Wan.
In addition, Shunlong Holdings (0361), of which Huang Youlong is a major shareholder, also listed the Tsuen Wan address as its main business location in its annual report published at the end of April this year.
The reporter went to the 45th floor of One Midtown to learn that the floor is rented by the same company, and the frosted glass doors of the two entrances and exits are equipped with password locks, which have a high degree of privacy.
The staff working on the floor said that the place was not the address of the company owned by Huang Youlong or Zhao Wei, nor the business location of Shunlong Holdings, and they did not know the Huang and his wife.
She also pointed out that her company moved to this floor about two months ago, and she did not know what business the "previously" leased company was engaged in.
Zhao Wei's husband, Huang Youlong (second from left), has a close relationship with Alibaba's Jack Ma (front row left) and China Evergrande's Xu Jiayin (front row right), and accompanied Jack Ma to Guangzhou Evergrande Center in June 2014.
(file picture)
It is rumored that Zhao Wei was listed as a "bad actor"
Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong have been accused of having close ties to Jack Ma of Alibaba (9988) and Xu Jiayin of Evergrande.
In 2016, when the “Tibet Longwei Culture” controlled by the two acquired “Xiangyuan Culture”, there were violations in the performance of information disclosure, and they were accused of superimposing factors such as celebrity effects, which seriously misled the market and investors.
In November 2018, the Shanghai Stock Exchange took disciplinary action against the company involved and the person in charge, and publicly determined that Huang Youlong, Zhao Wei and others were unsuitable to serve as directors of listed companies within five years.
Zhao Wei (left), Ruby Lin (middle), and Fan Bingbing (right) have caused controversy in the mainland.
The picture shows the stills of the trio's debut work "Huanzhugege".
Zhao Wei appeared in Hong Kong in December
As of August last year, news broke that Zhao Wei was officially banned and included in the list of "bad actors", and all film and television works were removed from the shelves.
The whereabouts of Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong have become a mystery since then. There was news that the two had already flown to France. Zhao Wei later posted a post on Instagram, suspecting that she was still in Beijing, but then deleted the post and there has been no update.
In December last year, some media found that Zhao Wei and a young man appeared at a gas station on Castle Peak Road in Tsuen Wan, but Huang Youlong was not seen.
Zhao Wei, Huang Youlong, and his wife changed their name to a mansion of over 100 million yuan in Tsuen Wan.