Sunac's "Ice and Snow" concept remains elusive to Huafa.
At the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, Sunac was looking for strategic investors everywhere. There were rumors about its "close contacts" with a certain central state - owned enterprise and several local state - owned enterprises, but in the end, nothing came of it.
After that, Sunac entered the stage of "self - rescue".
Actually, before the rumors of strategic investment, Sunac had already started to sell project equity to raise funds and tried hard to ensure that its public bonds did not default.
For example, in the South China region where Sunac entered relatively late, the Zengcheng plot in Guangzhou, which was jointly acquired with Xiamen International Trade in April 2021, had all its equity transferred to the partner in March 2022.
In April 2022, Sunac transferred 30% of the equity of the Zhongshan Mingsheng project to Zhongrong Trust.
The last major transaction in the South China region was the Shenzhen Ice and Snow Cultural Tourism City. In January 2023, Sunac transferred 51% of the project equity it held to the joint - venture partner Huafa, at a price of 3.58 billion yuan.
While transferring the equity, Sunac left itself a back door: it retained the right to repurchase before November 23, 2025, and the repurchase consideration included the capital occupation fee; the two parties established a joint - venture company to be jointly responsible for project development, sales, and the operation of the ice and snow stadium, and Sunac retained the management right of light - asset agency construction.
This means that if Sunac repurchases the equity in the future, Huafa's acquisition will turn into a loan. Therefore, this transaction was also described as a "cooperation paradigm of 'state - owned enterprise capital injection + private enterprise agency construction'" and an "innovative sample of 'bail - out + light - asset transformation'".
Project renderings
On January 3, 2023, the equity of the Qianhai Ice and Snow World project was changed, and Huafa took 100% control. At the same time, Tian Jun, the general manager of the Shenzhen and Dongguan Company of Sunac South China Regional Group, stepped down as the legal representative of the company, and Xiang Yu, the then executive vice - president of Huafa Co., Ltd. and the deputy chairman of the Zhuhai region, took over.
Xiao Jianghua, the general manager of the Investment and Development Center of Sunac South China Regional Group, Liu Ganglin, the general manager of the Shenzhen Company of Sunac Guangzhou and Shenzhen Region, Han Yaolin, the assistant president of Sunac South China Region, and others all withdrew from the project company.
After that, Li Ting, who joined Huafa 7 months ago and served as the general manager of the Shenzhen Company of the South China region, replaced Xiang Yu as the legal representative and general manager of the project company.
Source: Tianyancha
Shortly after Sunac got rid of the equity of the Qianhai Ice and Snow World project, it announced that it would no longer sell assets on a large scale and instead "preserve value".
After that, the real - estate industry declined at an accelerated pace, and Huafa began to bear the heavy burden.
By the middle of 2025, there was still no news about Sunac's repurchase, and Huafa couldn't wait any longer.
On July 28, Huafa Co., Ltd. issued an announcement saying that its subsidiary, Ronghua Real Estate, received a letter from the Shenzhen Land Reserve Center, "Letter from the Shenzhen Land Reserve Center on Negotiating the Repurchase of 7 Commercial Land Parcels of the Qianhai Ice and Snow World Project" (Shenzhen Land Reserve Letter [2025] No. 102). The Shenzhen Land Reserve Center plans to repurchase 7 commercial land parcels of the Qianhai Ice and Snow World Project held by Ronghua Real Estate at a price of 4.405 billion yuan (including the deed tax borne by the government for this repurchase).
Huafa also said that it is estimated that the loss generated from this transaction will exceed 50% of the company's audited net profit in 2024.
After calculation, the repurchase of 70,468.23 square meters of land in the Qianhai Ice and Snow World project brought a loss of 1.355 billion yuan to Huafa. Compared with the book value, the transaction price was discounted by - 24.59%.
Schematic diagram of the project location of the Qianhai Ice and Snow World
According to public information, the total floor area of the above 7 commercial land parcels is 461,000 square meters, including approximately 419,700 square meters of office buildings and approximately 36,400 square meters of commercial supporting facilities. The total floor area of the "land return" accounts for more than 60% of the planned office and commercial part of the entire Qianhai Ice and Snow World complex project.
According to the original plan, the office part of the office building was positioned as "Super - innovation Ark Office Cluster", which would introduce headquarters enterprises related to the ice and snow industry and modern service industries, such as ice and snow equipment R & D and cultural and tourism IP operation, to form an industrial agglomeration effect of industry - city integration.
When the project land was auctioned in 2020, the listing document stipulated that "the commercial and service land part of the auctioned land parcel must start construction within 2.5 years and be completed within 6 years from the date of signing the 'Auction Contract'."
But when the land was repurchased by the government, all 7 commercial land parcels were in an unbuilt state.
According to previous media reports, since Huafa Co., Ltd. started to jointly acquire the land with Sunac in November 2020, it was not interested in this part of the business. Huafa only took a fancy to the talent housing part of the complex.
One year before Sunac withdrew from the project in 2023, it had approached China Merchants Shekou and OCT, which had project developments nearby, to sell the project, but the latter refused to acquire it. Eventually, the partner Huafa took over the project.
When Huafa took over all the equity, there was still 6.355 billion yuan of land payment unpaid for the project. This part of the arrears was caused by Sunac's failure to make up the land payment. The arrears period had far exceeded the one - year limit usually agreed upon for publicly auctioned land in Shenzhen.
To pay off the land payment, Huafa Co., Ltd. lent 6.355 billion yuan to Shenzhen Ronghua Real Estate Investment Co., Ltd. (the main company of the Qianhai Ice and Snow World project), which had become its wholly - owned subsidiary. Together with the acquisition cost, it was equivalent to Huafa's additional investment of more than 10 billion yuan in this project.
Two and a half years later, Huafa returned the above 7 commercial land parcels and recovered approximately 4 billion yuan of working capital.
Every change in the Qianhai Ice and Snow World project has attracted high attention. Firstly, well - known real - estate enterprises have successively handled the project. Secondly, when the project land was auctioned, it was positioned as a business card of Shenzhen's cultural and tourism industry and was planned to build the world's largest indoor ice and snow stadium and the largest ice and snow cultural and tourism city. After the successful land auction, in 2021, Shenzhen Bao'an District included it in the "Major Project Plan".
Source: Shenzhen Government Online
When the project land was auctioned, it was clearly stipulated that "after the completion of the project on the auctioned land parcel, the amusement facilities and supporting hotels are limited to overall transfer." So the ice and snow world and hotel parts are still in Huafa's hands.
According to the latest news officially released by Huafa, currently, the project has advanced to the stage of snow - track construction and curtain - wall installation, and the cold - storage panels have been installed. Sunac's ReSnow is still the main operating partner.
This means that Huafa is still handling the project in the traditional real - estate development model, following the sales - turnover route. Huafa has not learned the core operating ability of the ice and snow stadium, or it has no intention of getting involved in long - term operation by itself.
Source: Official website of Shenzhen Qianhai Huafa Ice and Snow World
Huafa once wanted to stage a high - turnover counter - attack story during the downturn of the real - estate industry.
Three years ago, in 2022, when the real - estate industry started to decline, Huafa began to expand counter - cyclically crazily. Let's take a look at Huafa's land - acquisition data from 2021 to the present:
- In 2021, the equity land - acquisition amount was 14.2 billion yuan, ranking 54th in the industry. The land - acquisition - to - sales ratio was 17.72%;
- In 2022, the equity land - acquisition amount was 29.9 billion yuan, ranking 10th in the industry. The land - acquisition - to - sales ratio was 39.81%;
- In 2023, the equity land - acquisition amount was 28 billion yuan, ranking 10th in the industry. The land - acquisition - to - sales ratio was 32.08%;
- In 2024, the equity land - acquisition amount was 6.8 billion yuan, ranking 31st in the industry. The land - acquisition - to - sales ratio was 18.92%.
In 2022 and 2023, Huafa aggressively acquired land and also carried out a series of mergers and acquisitions. It continuously thickened its assets through consolidation to dilute its debt level.
During the same period, Huafa actively recruited talents in the industry. More than 20 marketing executives with backgrounds in enterprises such as China Overseas Land & Investment, Vanke, Longfor, and Seazen, including Li Ting, Zhang Wen, Zhang Jian, Wang Xiaofeng, Meng Wei, Shao Changkui, Zhang Daoyuan, Xu Ke, Shi Yu, Liang Jun, Zhou Chao, Zheng Feng, Du Xiaohui, Bao Liaoxin, Zhang Xin, and Guo Renyi, successively joined Huafa.
The "crazy" period only lasted for two years, and then it lost its momentum. Because Huafa did not have its own star product line. Marketing planning could be quickly solved by introducing talents, but product - building ability requires a certain amount of time to accumulate.
Since 2024, Huafa has actively shrunk its layout, no longer taking on projects in second - and third - tier cities, and only focusing on about 10 first - tier and quasi - first - tier cities.
Huafa is rarely seen in the land market. In the first half of 2025, Huafa only bid for and obtained 2 residential land parcels in Chengdu, with a total equity amount of approximately 1.26 billion yuan.
However, the previous counter - cyclical expansion has left a "drag" on the financial statements. After 2022, Huafa's net profit has declined at an accelerated pace. The cash - flow ratio, which measures the enterprise's financial risk, has dropped to 0.05.
With a large number of projects like the Qianhai Ice and Snow World being tied up, Huafa's inventory turnover rate at the end of 2024 dropped to 0.07 times per year, far lower than the average of about 0.3 times per year for listed real - estate enterprises, and there is a large amount of inventory to be digested.
Source: Xueqiu
On July 15, Huafa Co., Ltd. issued a semi - annual performance forecast. In the first half of 2025, its sales amount was 50.22 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 11%, and the sales area was 1.898 million square meters, a year - on - year increase of 14%.
However, despite the performance growth, it has fallen into the dilemma of "increasing revenue but not increasing profit". After preliminary calculation, Huafa Co., Ltd. estimates that its net profit attributable to the parent company's owners in the first half of 2025 will be approximately 168 million yuan, a year - on - year decrease of about 86.69%.
Huafa Co., Ltd. explained that the main reason for the profit decline is that "the gross profit margin of real - estate project transfer has decreased year - on - year, and the company plans to make provisions for asset impairment for some projects based on the market situation."
In other words, the land - acquisition and acquisition costs in the previous three years were too high, and the projects made no profit or even suffered losses.
However, if we look at Huafa's annual reports for 2023 and 2024, we will find that the provisions for project impairment during the high - speed expansion period were not sufficient, and there are still a large number of hidden financial risks.
Even the highly - concerned Qianhai