The once-prominent Chongqing Caixin Enterprise Group Co., Ltd. (Caixin Group), which gained notoriety for its attempt to acquire the Chicago Stock Exchange, has ultimately met its demise.
On the evening of July 6, Casin Real Estate Development Group Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 000838) announced that it had received notice from the administrator of its controlling shareholder's restructuring. The Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People's Court had ruled to terminate the restructuring proceedings for the controlling shareholder, Chongqing Caixin Real Estate Development Group Co., Ltd. (Caixin Real Estate), and its parent company, Caixin Group, declaring both bankrupt.
This marks the failure of a restructuring process that lasted over a year, pushing Caixin Group, a former private-sector giant in Chongqing with interests spanning real estate, finance, and environmental protection, into bankruptcy liquidation.
Simultaneously, the group's sole listed platform, Casin Real Estate Development Group Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 000838), now stands at a critical juncture. With its parent company bankrupt, the company itself faces a pre-restructuring and restructuring application filed by creditors, casting enormous uncertainty over its future.
Adding to the poignancy, just a decade ago, this enterprise attempted to become the first Chinese company to acquire a US stock exchange. Its founder, Lu Shengju, once featured on the Hurun Rich List.
Now, with Caixin Group declared bankrupt, Lu Shengju faces immigration speculation due to his wife and child holding US citizenship, bringing a capital saga spanning over three decades back into focus.
Parent Company Bankruptcy and Listed Platform's Pre-restructuring
The bankrupt Caixin Real Estate is the controlling shareholder of Casin Real Estate Development Group Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 000838), holding 36.25% of its shares. However, this entire stake is currently pledged and frozen, preventing free disposal.
The listed company admitted in its announcement: "The declaration of bankruptcy for Caixin Real Estate and Caixin Group, and the subsequent judicial disposal of the shares held by Caixin Real Estate, will lead to changes in the company's equity structure, controlling shareholder, and actual controller."
In fact, the bankruptcy of Caixin Real Estate and Caixin Group was not entirely unexpected.
In October 2024, Caixin Group and Caixin Real Estate completed pre-restructuring filing. In February 2025, the Chongqing court formally accepted their restructuring applications.
In May 2025, the court ruled to implement a substantive consolidated restructuring for 13 companies, including Caixin Group and Caixin Real Estate, citing highly commingled funds, personnel, and assets.
Court documents revealed that over eight years, these 13 companies conducted internal fund transfers totaling 175.7 billion yuan and over 12,000 related-party transactions, mostly interest-free loans, making it impossible to distinguish true ownership from the books.
In October 2025, Jiangxi Zhongjiu Natural Gas Group Co., Ltd. was identified as the restructuring investor.
In early December 2025, Caixin Group and Caixin Real Estate signed an agreement. Jiangxi Zhongjiu planned to acquire 20% to 29.99% of Casin Real Estate Development Group Co.,Ltd.'s (ASX: 000838) shares through a holding platform. Upon completion, Yong Zhijun, the actual controller of Jiangxi Zhongjiu, would become the new controller of the listed company.
However, subsequent complications derailed Yong Zhijun's plan. Yong, aged 43, officially became the actual controller of Xinjiang Torch Gas Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 603080) in March 2025.
As the administrator's requests for creditors to vote on the draft restructuring plan in December 2025 and June 2026 both failed to pass, the restructuring investment agreement was formally terminated on June 29, 2026.
Approximately one week after the agreement's termination, the court ruled to terminate the restructuring proceedings for the 13 companies, including Caixin Group, and declared them bankrupt.
As the parent company collapsed, the listed company could not escape unscathed.
Also on July 6, Casin Real Estate Development Group Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 000838) disclosed that, based on an application from its creditor Chongqing Guijun Construction Engineering Co., Ltd., the Chongqing court had filed the company for pre-restructuring on the same day.
The announcement revealed that the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Chongqing Caixin Hongye Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., had previously issued two electronic commercial acceptance bills with a total face value of approximately 413,900 yuan (about $58,000 USD), guaranteed by the listed company.
The bills were dishonored upon maturity on June 1, 2023. The court had ruled that the subsidiary and Casin Real Estate Development Group Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 000838) should pay the amount plus interest to the creditor, but neither company fulfilled the obligation. After the creditor applied for compulsory enforcement, no executable assets were found.
The creditor believes that although Casin Real Estate Development Group Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 000838) cannot repay its debts and is clearly insolvent, it possesses restructuring value as a listed company, hence the pre-restructuring application.
For the company, this represents an opportunity. It stated that a successful restructuring would help optimize its asset-liability structure; failure would lead to bankruptcy liquidation and delisting risks.
Currently, the company's operational situation is severe. In 2025, revenue fell 65.80% year-on-year to 283 million yuan, with a net loss attributable to shareholders of 630 million yuan. Shareholders' equity at year-end was negative 200 million yuan.
Triggering relevant listing rules due to its financials, the company was placed under delisting and other risk warnings. Its stock abbreviation changed from "Caixin Development" to "*ST Development" in late April.
For the first quarter of 2026, revenue fell 67.80% year-on-year to 37 million yuan, and the loss widened 305.79% to 14 million yuan, with insolvency persisting.
As of the close on July 14, the company's total market capitalization was only 2.443 billion yuan, a nearly 90% decline from its peak of over 20 billion yuan in 2016.
As of the end of March, the company had approximately 44,700 shareholders. The quarterly report showed that Goldman Sachs, Société Générale, Barclays, UBS, and JPMorgan Chase were listed among its top ten shareholders.
Among these five major international banks, apart from Goldman Sachs, which increased its stake by 158.22% that quarter, the other four were all new shareholders. What does this imply?
Failed US Exchange Acquisition and Suspected Family Emigration
Despite its current bankruptcy, Caixin Group had its moment of glory.
Its website shows the group was founded in 1992, with main businesses including infrastructure investment and operation, environmental protection, real estate development, and financial investment.
Real estate was once its most prominent label. Caixin Real Estate was once known as one of the "Five Tigers of Chongqing" alongside LONGFOR GROUP (ASX: 00960), Jinke Property Group Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 000656), Dongyuan Real Estate, and Huayu Group. From 2018 to 2022, it was consecutively ranked among China's Top 100 Real Estate Enterprises.
In 2010, Caixin Group began its capital market foray, becoming the second-largest shareholder of listed company Guoxing Real Estate by acquiring a 19.9% stake in December.
In 2013, Caixin Real Estate became the new largest shareholder of Guoxing Real Estate by acquiring shares from its largest shareholder and Caixin Group, holding a 29.9% stake.
In November 2015, Guoxing Real Estate was renamed "Caixin Development," achieving a backdoor listing for Caixin Group's real estate business.
Concurrently, Caixin Group expanded its financial footprint, venturing into banking, insurance, and trust businesses.
Its subsidiary Hua'ao International Trust Co., Ltd., which holds a trust financial license, was considered its most valuable financial asset, managing trust assets worth 127.9 billion yuan at the end of 2018.
However, what truly brought Caixin Group and its controller Lu Shengju into the spotlight was the attempted acquisition of the Chicago Stock Exchange.
In early February 2016, the Chicago Stock Exchange announced it had reached a definitive acquisition agreement with an investment consortium led by Caixin Group, expecting the deal to close in the second half of the year.
Although the exchange handled only about 0.5% of US stock trades at the time, it had over 130 years of history. The completion would have marked the first acquisition of a US stock exchange by a Chinese enterprise.
The subsequently disclosed plan showed Caixin Group would obtain a 20% stake, while Castle YAC Enterprises, controlled by Lu's US-citizen son Jay Lu, would hold 19%, giving them a combined 39% ownership, though voting rights were capped at 20%.
However, the deal quickly faced resistance. The same month it was announced, then-US presidential candidate Donald Trump publicly opposed it during a campaign event.
In February 2018, the US Securities and Exchange Commission ultimately rejected the approximately $25 million acquisition, citing insufficient transparency. In April that year, Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange, announced its acquisition of the Chicago Stock Exchange.
With the acquisition's failure, Caixin Group gradually entered a downturn, and its controller Lu Shengju attempted self-rescue.
Public records show Lu was born in 1966 in Dazu, Chongqing, and is now 60. He reportedly graduated high school in 1980 and became a purchasing agent at the Dazu County Ironware Processing Factory. As the timeline suggests he graduated and started working at age 14, this resume sparked external discussion.
In 1992, Lu became manager of the Fuling local state-owned enterprise Shudong Industrial Development Company, which later restructured into the private Fuling Dongda Industrial Co., Ltd.
In 1997, the year Chongqing became a municipality directly under the central government, Lu seized the opportunity of urban expansion to establish Chongqing Caixin Economic and Trade Development Co., Ltd., which later evolved into Caixin Group, beginning its capital expansion.
Amid the golden age of real estate and rising financial license values, Caixin Group's total assets once exceeded 60 billion yuan at its peak. In 2016, Lu Shengju featured on the Hurun Rich List with a fortune of 10.5 billion yuan.
However, starting in 2019, the financial segment under Caixin Group performed poorly, with some financial equity stakes being pledged or sold. That same year, its stakes in Ancheng Insurance and Huatai Insurance were transferred.
In 2022, multiple commercial bills issued by Caixin Group entities defaulted, lawsuits involving financial businesses erupted intensively, and some assets were seized.
That same year, Lu Shengju, who had disappeared from the Hurun Rich List, began his retreat. Incomplete statistics show he cashed out nearly 1.8 billion yuan through transfers and share reductions between 2022 and 2023.
In March 2024, citing a 2023 court judgment, Chongqing's Huangjue Tree Finance reported that the publicly registered name of Lu's wife, Chen Jing, had changed to the English "KELLY CHEN," with her nationality listed as American, suggesting she had likely emigrated to the US.
Currently, Lu Shengju's whereabouts are unknown. Based on the 2023 document, it is unclear whether Lu, like his wife Chen Jing and son Lay Lu, has also obtained US citizenship.
Conclusion
As of now, data shows Caixin Group faces 37 consumption restriction orders, with total involved amounts of approximately 9.514 billion yuan, entangled in various lawsuits.
According to a previous report, as of December 16, 2025, the total declared claims against Caixin Group amounted to 45.397 billion yuan, with the bankruptcy restructuring administrator preliminarily confirming 37.712 billion yuan.
Simultaneously, according to sources, creditors questioned related-party claims exceeding 17 billion yuan.
The capital market has witnessed the fall of this local private giant, from assets worth tens of billions to debts of tens of billions and bankruptcy.
Now, with its parent company bankrupt, whether Casin Real Estate Development Group Co.,Ltd. (ASX: 000838) can achieve self-rescue through restructuring remains the final suspense for the market.
For Lu Shengju, the business legend spanning real estate, finance, and the capital market has largely drawn to a close.
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