The total transaction value amounts to approximately 18.258 billion yuan, marking one of the largest mergers and acquisitions in China's A-share gold mining sector in recent years. Four years after the death of Inner Mongolian mining tycoon and founder of Chifeng Gold (600988.SH/06693.HK), Zhao Meiguang, due to illness, his widow, Li Jinyang, who is in her 40s, has ended the situation of "holding control without managing operations" and has ultimately chosen to exit completely.
Chifeng Gold has released a significant announcement indicating a major change in the company's actual controller. Upon completion of the transaction, this privately-owned mining enterprise from Inner Mongolia will become part of the massive "Zijin Group," with its actual controller changing to the Finance Bureau of Shanghang County, Fujian Province.
The announcement reveals that Ms. Li Jinyang, the controlling shareholder and actual controller of Chifeng Gold, along with her acting-in-concert parties, has signed a share transfer agreement with Zijin Gold (Group) Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited. Concurrently, the company plans to conduct a private placement of H-shares to Zijin Gold.
According to the disclosed transaction plan, the change in control will be executed through a combination of "agreement transfer and private placement." Li Jinyang and her acting-in-concert party, Zhejiang Hanfeng Venture Capital Partnership, intend to transfer all of their 242 million unrestricted tradable shares, representing 12.73% of the company's current total share capital, to Zijin Gold at a price of 41.36 yuan per share. The total consideration for this share transfer amounts to 10.006 billion yuan.
Following the transfer, Li Jinyang and Zhejiang Hanfeng will no longer hold any shares in the company, exiting the shareholder roster entirely.
Simultaneously, Chifeng Gold has entered into a Strategic Investment Agreement with Zijin Gold, proposing a private placement of 311 million H-share ordinary shares to Zijin Gold. The subscription price is set at 30.19 Hong Kong dollars per share, approximately 83% of the average price of Chifeng Gold's H-shares over the sixty full trading days prior to the trading halt. The total subscription amount is 9.386 billion Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to approximately 8.252 billion yuan.
The combined value of the two transactions is about 18.258 billion yuan. Upon completion, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Zijin Mining will hold a total of 572 million shares in Chifeng Gold, representing approximately 25.85% of the company's total share capital after the share issuance, making it the single largest shareholder group. Notably, prior to this transaction, Zijin Mining already held 19 million shares in Chifeng Gold through other wholly-owned subsidiaries, representing a 0.99% stake.
After the transaction concludes, Zijin Mining will formally obtain control of Chifeng Gold and will consolidate its financial statements. According to the agreement, Zijin Gold has committed not to transfer the acquired shares for 18 months following the transfer's completion. Furthermore, within five working days after the investment is finalized, it will facilitate the election of its nominated director candidates, ensuring they secure no less than two-thirds of the board seats.
This signifies that post-transaction, Chifeng Gold will transition from a privately-owned enterprise controlled by an individual to a company controlled by a listed entity with local state-owned background. The actual controller will change to the Finance Bureau of Shanghang County. The Finance Bureau of Shanghang County, a significant shareholder of Zijin Mining, holds a 22.88% stake in Zijin Mining and is its actual controller.
Three days before the transaction announcement, Chifeng Gold had just disclosed its 2025 annual report, presenting its strongest performance to date. The report showed that the company achieved operating revenue of 12.639 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 40.03%. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company reached 3.082 billion yuan, a 74.70% increase from 1.764 billion yuan in the previous year. The company's gold production reached 14.51 tons, with an average annual compound growth rate of 26% over the past five years, surpassing the industry average.
Zijin Mining stated in its latest announcement that the company adheres to a resource-first strategy and has actively sought merger and acquisition opportunities among high-quality listed peers globally in recent years. The advantage of this acquisition model is that the company can access more project resources at a lower acquisition cost, effectively diversify investment risks, and enhance the level of asset securitization. Additionally, leveraging its proprietary "Ore Flow Five-Cycle Integration" technology and management system, Zijin Mining can deeply empower the invested enterprise, fully unlock its resource potential, reshape its market valuation, and achieve favorable investment returns.
Zijin Mining believes that the gold mining projects under Chifeng Gold are all operational, capable of contributing to production and profits in the year of acquisition. There is potential for further improvement in production operational levels and capacity. Significant economic benefits from the investment are anticipated. Furthermore, Chifeng Gold's core mines are located in globally significant gold metallogenic belts with favorable geological conditions and excellent resource endowment. However, due to insufficient previous investment in geological exploration, the overall resource exploration progress has lagged, and the potential resource value has not been fully realized. Subsequent increased systematic exploration investment, combined with Zijin Mining's industry-leading geological exploration and deep prospecting technologies, is expected to unlock substantial potential for resource reserve growth.
Regarding this transaction, Lin Hongfu, Vice Chairman and President of Zijin Mining, publicly responded during a performance briefing held on March 23. He stated that while gold prices may experience sharp fluctuations in the short term, from a medium to long-term perspective, fundamental issues such as the global governance order and the oversupply of fiat currency remain unresolved. The logic supporting high gold prices or further increases remains unchanged, making this acquisition consistent with the company's resource-first strategic arrangement. He also noted that Chifeng Gold's mines in Ghana, Laos, and domestically possess good prospecting prospects and potential for capacity enhancement.
It is noteworthy that in recent years, China's gold market has shown a trend of accelerated concentration towards leading enterprises. In 2023, Shandong Gold spent 12.76 billion yuan to acquire control of Yintai Gold, thereby gaining access to high-grade, low-cost mining assets.
As a leading privately-owned listed gold mining company in China, Chifeng Gold is primarily engaged in gold mining and sales, with operations covering China, Southeast Asia, and West Africa. Its founder was the Inner Mongolian mining magnate Zhao Meiguang, who passed away in December 2021 at the age of 59 due to illness.
According to Zhao Meiguang's will, all personal assets, including the controlling stake in Chifeng Gold, were inherited solely by his spouse, Li Jinyang. After inheriting the estate, besides holding shares in Chifeng Gold, Li Jinyang also invested in several other enterprises through her platforms, including Hygon Information and Ningcheng Rural Commercial Bank. In 2025, the 41-year-old Li Jinyang ranked 647th on the Hurun Rich List with a fortune of 11 billion yuan.
Li Jinyang suddenly became the actual controller of Chifeng Gold but did not intervene in the company's operations. In terms of corporate governance, Chifeng Gold maintained a "family控股 + professional manager management" model, entrusting operations entirely to the management team led by Wang Jianhua. This change in control of Chifeng Gold has been interpreted by outsiders as Li Jinyang's "cashing out and exit."
Wang Jianhua, a veteran in the mining industry born in 1956, previously served as Chairman of Shandong Gold Group Co., Ltd. and as Director and President of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited. He joined Chifeng Gold in 2018 and has been serving as Chairman since December 2019. In November 2020, Wang Jianhua acquired 98.17 million shares of Chifeng Gold from founder Zhao Meiguang for 1.669 billion yuan, becoming a significant shareholder of the company.
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