His wife just cashed out HK$ 2.7 billion, and Zhang Yong has borrowed no more than 100 million yuan from Haidilao.

The billionaire founder of Haidilao is borrowing money from the listed company.

On October 12, Haidilao International Holding Ltd. (06862.HK) issued an announcement on providing financial assistance to Zhang Yong, the controlling shareholder, executive director, chairman of the board and chief executive officer.

According to the announcement, Haidilao will provide Zhang Yong with a short-term Hong Kong dollar loan facility capped at the equivalent of RMB 100 million, with a loan term of 30 days and an interest rate of the 1-month Hong Kong dollar interbank offered rate plus 60 basis points. Interest accrues from the date of drawdown and shall be paid together with the principal on the maturity date; overdue amounts will be charged overdue payment fees at the loan interest rate plus 2% (or other overdue interest rates that the contracting parties may agree).

However, Zhang Yong cannot use this sum of money arbitrarily. According to the agreement, the loan can only be used for Zhang Yong's personal financial arrangements, including not being used for any illegal activities; not being used to purchase Haidilao shares; not being used to provide loans, guarantees or financial assistance to any third party; and not being used for any purposes that violate listing rules or regulatory requirements. The announcement points out that Haidilao has the right to supervise Zhang Yong's use of the loan, but no security is set for this loan.

Since Zhang Yong has multiple identities including controlling shareholder, executive director, chairman of the board and CEO, this loan constitutes a connected transaction of Haidilao. However, since the highest applicable percentage ratio of the transaction is between 0.1% and 5%, it is only required to issue an announcement in accordance with the regulations, no need to prepare a circular, appoint an independent financial advisor, nor submit it to the general meeting of shareholders for voting.

Regarding the reason for lending, Haidilao stated in the announcement that the company has sufficient funds, and the loan can bring interest income to the company, which is in line with the overall interests of the company and its shareholders.

In the A-share and Hong Kong stock markets, the operation of listed companies directly providing loans to individual controlling shareholders is not common.

In 2025, Country Garden Services also announced that it would lend 1 billion yuan to enterprises controlled by major shareholder Yang Huiyan to ensure property delivery, but the funds flowed to the operating entities under the actual controller with share pledge security, which is obviously different from Haidilao directly lending money to the founder himself for personal capital turnover.

It is worth mentioning that not long ago, the Zhang family just completed a large-scale cash-out.

On September 8, Shu Ping, Zhang Yong's wife, through her family trust shareholding platform SP NP Ltd., sold 259 million shares of Haidilao in block trade at a price of HK$10.62 per share, a discount of about 6.7% from the previous closing price, accounting for about 4.65% of the total share capital, cashing out about HK$2.751 billion at one time. The reason given in the announcement is also "the shareholder's personal capital needs and financial arrangements".

After the news of share reduction came out, the sentiment of the secondary market was immediately impacted. On September 9, Haidilao's share price plunged 12.13% at one point during intraday trading, and finally closed down 9.14%. After the completion of the share reduction, the shareholding ratio of the controlling shareholder group controlled by Zhang Yong and his wife dropped to 45.49%.

Regarding Shu Ping's share reduction move, some analysts linked it to the new regulations on individual income tax for offshore trusts.

On July 24 this year, the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration issued the "Announcement on Matters Concerning Individual Income Tax for Offshore Trusts" (No. 21 of 2026), which is China's first systematic rule issued for individual income tax on offshore trusts. For existing trusts, the announcement sets a 90-day declaration window: the income generated during the existence of offshore trusts before January 1, 2026, as well as the unpaid taxes involved in assets loaded into the trusts since 2023, must be declared and paid before October 22, otherwise late payment surcharges will be added.

The shares sold by Shu Ping are held through the full discretionary trust "Rose Trust" established by her as the settlor and protector. According to Morgan Stanley's calculation, the proceeds from this share reduction are equivalent to about 31% of the cumulative dividends Zhang Yong and Shu Ping have received since Haidilao's listing.

In fact, as the helmsman of a leading Hong Kong stock consumer enterprise with a market value of over 50 billion yuan, Zhang Yong's net worth is not to be underestimated. According to the "2026 Hurun Global Rich List" released by Hurun Research Institute in March this year, Zhang Yong and Shu Ping ranked 425th with a fortune of 63.5 billion yuan.

According to Haidilao's financial report, from 2023 to 2025, Zhang Yong's salary income reached 54.936 million yuan, 87.906 million yuan and 87.479 million yuan respectively, making him the highest-paid director among all directors. At the same time, his dividend income is much higher than his salary. Since its listing in 2018, Haidilao has mostly maintained a high dividend payout ratio. In 2023, Haidilao paid a total dividend of 4.05 billion yuan, with a dividend payout ratio of 90%, of which Zhang Yong and his wife received more than 2 billion yuan; in 2024, the dividend payout ratio further increased, and Zhang Yong and his wife received more than 2.5 billion yuan.

As for why Zhang Yong chose to borrow short-term from the listed company he helms instead of financing through banks and other channels, the announcement did not explain, and the announcement did not disclose the drawdown time point and specific capital destination, so the outside world has no way to know for the time being.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Times Finance APP" (ID: tf-app), written by Li Weiqi and Li Qian, edited by Li Qian, published by 36Kr with authorization.