360 Group's first board secretary and former chief legal counsel, Zhang Fan, has publicly demanded a seven-year-old equity incentive payment of approximately 26.49 million yuan from her former employer.
On July 24, Zhang Fan published a lengthy post on her personal WeChat public account, directed at 360 Group (601360.SH). She claimed that after repeated failed attempts to resolve the matter, she was even blocked on WeChat by the company's actual controller, Zhou Hongyi. This incident has quickly drawn widespread market attention to the unresolved equity incentive issues in 360's history.
In response on July 29, 360 Group stated: "Ms. Zhang Fan is a professional lawyer who deeply participated in and even led the design of the transaction structure and rules at the time. She knows better than anyone who to claim rights from and on what basis." The company added that the most direct and effective approach is to pursue legal proceedings, with both sides submitting evidence for court trial and judgment. It expressed support for her resolving the dispute through legal means, calling it the clearest and fairest method.
Zhang Fan's account described that she gave up her partnership at a law firm in 2013 to join 360 full-time, overseeing the entire process of the company's US stock privatization, domestic and overseas restructuring, and A-share backdoor listing. She stated that her 2.016 million shares of equity incentives were legally "flipped" from US-listed restricted stock to a domestic shareholding platform under the privatization agreement, supported by legal documents including the Merger Agreement, SEC filings, and a Capital Contribution Confirmation Letter. However, after leaving the company in 2019, despite the shareholding platform selling shares for over 2 billion yuan in 2021 and making payments to some employees, she has received nothing for seven years. She has now decided to seek public support, hoping to pursue her rights through litigation and arbitration under public supervision.
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