A businessman from Fujian's Longyan, Yao Xiongjie, who already controls two A-share listed companies, has now extended his capital reach to the Hong Kong stock market. On April 27, Malaysian building contractor Rimbaco Group Limited (Stock Code: 01953.HK) resumed trading after a two-week suspension. The market did not respond enthusiastically to this change in control on the first day of trading. The company's stock price opened lower and continued to weaken throughout the session, at one point falling to HK$0.425. It finally closed at HK$0.455, marking a single-day decline of 30%, which reduced its total market capitalization to HK$573 million.
For a stock long hovering below HK$1, such volatility is not uncommon. However, what truly captured market attention was not the stock price but Rimbaco's new owner—Yao Xiongjie.
Acquiring a Hong Kong-listed Company at a Low Price According to an announcement on the evening of April 24, Aureole Halo Limited, controlled by Yao Xiongjie, has completed the acquisition of 945 million shares from Rimbaco's controlling shareholder, RBC Venture Limited. This represents 75% of the listed company's issued share capital.
The total cash consideration for the transaction was HK$157.5 million (approximately RMB 137 million), translating to a price of only about HK$0.167 per share. This represents a discount of approximately 74.31% compared to the closing price of HK$0.65 before the trading halt. This means Yao Xiongjie effectively acquired control of a Hong Kong-listed company at a heavily discounted price.
A Hong Kong Exchange filing shows that the seller, RBC Venture, is a limited company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. It is beneficially owned by Rimbaco executive directors Low Seah Sun, Seah Peet Hwah, Cheang Wye Keong, and Lau Ah Cheng, holding 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10% interests, respectively. The buyer, Aureole Halo, is a limited company incorporated in the Cayman Islands on November 21, 2017, primarily engaged in investment holding. It is ultimately beneficially owned by Yao Xiongjie, Yao Juanying, and Chen Dong, holding 70%, 20%, and 10% interests, respectively.
Rimbaco disclosed that Aureole Halo is a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of Cheng Tun (Singapore) Holdings Pte. Ltd. Further ownership tracing reveals that Cheng Tun Singapore is wholly owned by Shenzhen Shengdun Group Co., Ltd., which is in turn 100% held by Shenzhen Shengdun Industrial Development Co., Ltd.
Corporate records show that Shengdun Industrial is held by three individual shareholders: Yao Xiongjie holds 70%, Yao Juanying holds 20%, and Chen Dong holds 10%. Yao Juanying is Yao Xiongjie's elder sister, and Chen Dong is the current chairman of Shengdun Group.
Yao Xiongjie is not an unfamiliar name in capital markets. Currently, through Shengdun Group, he controls two A-share listed companies: one is Shengdun Mining Co., Ltd. (Stock Code: 600711.SH), focused on non-ferrous metals, and the other is Shenzhen Shengxin Lithium Energy Co., Ltd. (Stock Code: 002240.SZ), concentrated on lithium battery and new energy business.
Although Yao Xiongjie and his associates have no background in the construction industry, they view the acquisition of Rimbaco as a highly attractive investment opportunity. They believe it can expand Shengdun Group's global footprint and enhance the company's long-term sustainable development. Rimbaco stated in its announcement that the extensive experience of Yao Xiongjie and others in business operations and management will help the company formulate effective business strategies to further enhance its competitiveness. This suggests that what attracted Yao Xiongjie may not be the Malaysian construction company itself, but rather the value of its Hong Kong listing platform.
After all, Rimbaco's business scale is not large, and its performance has been poor in recent years, with both declining revenue and recorded losses. For the fiscal year ending October 31, 2025, Rimbaco reported revenue of approximately 260 million Malaysian Ringgit (about RMB 449 million) and a net loss of 1.447 million Ringgit (about RMB 2.499 million), representing year-on-year decreases of about 10.12% and 6.77%, respectively.
Rimbaco was founded in 1985 and is primarily engaged in the construction of factories, institutional, commercial, and residential buildings. When it listed on the Hong Kong Exchange in April 2020, its IPO issue price was only HK$0.4, with net proceeds raised amounting to HK$73.5 million. After listing, the company's stock price briefly surged, reaching a high of HK$1.162 on September 4, 2020, but subsequently spent most of the time trading below HK$0.31.
As of the close on April 27, despite the 30% single-day plunge, Rimbaco's stock price still showed a cumulative increase of nearly 200% for the year and remained more than 70% above its IPO issue price.
For many mainland capital players, such Hong Kong-listed companies with low market capitalization, poor performance, and concentrated ownership are often seen as ideal shell resources. This time, Yao Xiongjie clearly seized this opportunity.
From Shenzhen Migrant Worker to Seasoned Capital Player Compared to this Hong Kong stock acquisition, Yao Xiongjie himself is a greater source of market curiosity. The "Hurun Global Rich List 2026" released last month showed Yao Xiongjie Zuo ranking 2311st with a fortune of RMB 14 billion. Although the ranking is not high, it marked his first appearance on the list.
The "Hurun Rich List 2025" released last October showed him ranking 905th with a fortune of RMB 8 billion, up 114 places from the previous year.
In just over four months, Yao Xiongjie's wealth increased by RMB 6 billion, a rapid growth rate undoubtedly linked to the performance of his listed companies. However, in the eyes of the public, he has always been a somewhat enigmatic figure. Different versions of his birth information have appeared in historical announcements of listed companies. An announcement from Longzhou Industrial, the predecessor of Shengdun Mining, in November 1998 stated that Yao Xiongjie was from Lianjiang, Fujian, and was 33 years old at the time, implying a birth year of 1965. However, an announcement from Shengdun Mining in January 2019, disclosing his ID number, indicated he was born in 1967, with his place of origin being Yongding, Longyan, Fujian. Most public sources now adopt the second version, stating he was born in 1967 and is from Longyan, Fujian. This makes him a fellow townsman of ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and Zijin Mining Group founder Chen Jinghe, known as the "Gold King of China."
Longzhou Industrial once disclosed that Yao Xiongjie worked at Shenzhen International Trade Center Photographic Equipment Company from 1991 to 1993. His younger brother, Yao Weizhong, who is three years his junior, was also working in Shenzhen at the time, but in a trading company. In 1993, the Yao brothers, along with two others, co-founded Shenzhen Xiongzhen Industrial Co., Ltd. (renamed Shenzhen Xiongzhen Investment Co., Ltd. in 1997), the predecessor of Shengdun Group. The origin of his first pot of gold remains unclear to this day.
In 1998, Xiongzhen Investment acquired a 39.76% stake in Longzhou Industrial from six subsidiaries of China Baoan Group (Stock Code: 000009.SZ) for RMB 45.6 million, thus gaining control of his first listed company. Initially focused on electric water heaters, Longzhou Industrial underwent successive transformations under Yao Xiongjie's leadership, venturing into real estate, vending machines, and then entering the non-ferrous metals sector in 2007. After years in the non-ferrous metals industry, Shengdun Mining has become an enterprise possessing multiple mine resources domestically, including lead-zinc, copper polymetallic, and gold mines, with strong capabilities in resource identification and development.
Besides Shengdun Mining, in 2016, Yao Xiongjie also gained control of A-share listed fiberboard manufacturer Guangdong Weihua Corporation Limited through a combination of "share transfer and participation in a private placement." In 2019, he injected his Sichuan Shengdun Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. into Weihua Corp., and renamed the company Shenzhen Shengxin Lithium Energy Co., Ltd. in November 2020, successfully capitalizing on the lithium battery and new energy trend. In 2022, Yao Xiongjie also attempted to take control of A-share listed company Changzhou Shenli Motor Co., Ltd. (Stock Code: 603819.SH), but the deal ultimately fell through.
As of April 23, Shengdun Group, the controlling shareholder of Shengdun Mining, its ultimate controller Yao Xiongjie, and persons acting in concert cumulatively hold 17.95% of the company's shares. Shengdun Group and its concert parties hold a combined 22.77% of Shengxin Lithium Energy's shares.
Now, with the acquisition of control over Rimbaco, the listed company portfolio of this Fujian businessman has expanded once again. The move from A-shares to Hong Kong stocks, and from mining to construction, appears to be a significant leap. However, such cross-industry moves are not uncommon in capital markets. Compared to industrial synergy, the capital platform itself can sometimes be more attractive. Whether new assets will be injected into Rimbaco in the future, or if it will become a new overseas capital platform for Shengdun Group, remains to be seen. However, judging from Yao Xiongjie's active involvement in capital markets over the past two decades, he is clearly not content with being merely a financial investor. For him, acquiring a Hong Kong-listed company might just be the beginning.
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