Following the investment in Zhujiang Group, it is recently reported that Hope Real Estate has launched a plan to merge with Zhupearl Group entirely.

If the integration of Pearl River Investment is seen as Zhu Mengyi's internal reorganization of the industry he founded, then the merger of Pearl Group involves a deeper level - the integration of Zhu's family enterprise.

The current Chairman and Executive Director of Pearl River Holdings is Zhu Qingyi, the youngest among the three Zhu brothers.

Among the three, the second eldest brother Zhu Mengyi was the first to start his entrepreneurial journey. He founded the Hopewell Group in Hong Kong in 1992 and has often been in the forefront since then, making him relatively more well-known.

In 1994, the eldest Zhu Laiyuan founded Guangdong Xin Nanfang Group, which was initially involved in real estate development but later focused on the Chinese medicine and health industry. Zhu Qingyi's Pearl River Investment Group was founded in 1996

Despite this, due to different business focuses, names such as "Hesheng Group" and "Zhuguang Group" are widely used in the industry.

If this integration is ultimately successful, the 'Pearl Series' may be officially replaced.

Merger rumor

Rumors had it that there were signs earlier - in December last year, the Pearl Group signed a cooperation agreement with CITIC Urban Development and Operation Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the central enterprise CITIC Group, to jointly prom

Lijiao Village is located in the southern part of the central axis of Haizhu District, Guangzhou City. It is one of the key projects in Guangzhou and also the largest urban renewal project in the old four districts.

The project is located close to the Pearl River Rear Channel and Zhuhai Lake. The total land area to be redeveloped is 896,700 square meters, with a gross planned building area of 4,362,700 square meters. This includes a reconstructed settlement area

According to the plan, both parties will reposition the project brand and participate in the development, construction, sales, and other management work of the project together.

At that time, there were speculations about the introduction of external cooperation by the Pearl Group.

Pearl Group has been involved in the Lijiao Village transformation project since around 2010, more than ten years ago, yet the project progress has been slow.

On one hand, the transformation of urban villages is inherently complex, often involving intricate property rights, diverse stakeholders, and multiple processes such as planning, demolition, relocation, and construction. This necessitates ongoing res

On the other hand, implementation entities are also facing pressure on capital investment. For Zhuguang Holding Group, the real estate business has stagnated to a certain extent in recent years. The sales contributed by "old projects" can no longer d

According to market sources, several months ago, Zhu Qingyi sought support from Zhu Mengyi, hoping the latter would take over the Lijiao Village transformation project. At that time, the project had already introduced CITIC City Development as a part

Although cooperation was not successfully achieved at that time, taking 'requesting for help' as a turning point seems to have incubated a more thorough integration between the two parties.

According to the news, the Zhuli Group's Lijiao Village renovation project, Financial City No. 1, and Yunshan No. 1 projects are already in the process of being handed over and will be managed and constructed by Hopson.

As of mid-year data, Pearl Bright Holdings Group has a total land reserve of approximately 730,800 square meters in mainland China, including total sellable building area, total pre-sold but not yet delivered building area, and total rentable buildin

If in the future, the entire real estate project of Pearl Group is taken over by Hopson, its business volume will also increase accordingly.

Incomplete Puzzle

Since 2022, Pearl Bright Holdings has been in a continuous loss.

In the first half of this year, the parent company of Pearl Properties reported a loss of 213 million yuan, which narrowed from 834 million yuan in the same period last year, but the company's situation has not been fundamentally changed. Coupled wit

According to relevant information, the Pearl Group has participated in or is participating in more than 20 urban renewal projects with a total area exceeding 20 million square meters. It is difficult to support the situation with just one's own stren

On the other hand, the days of Sino-Creating Group is not easy too.

According to the data, in the first half of this year, Hopson Development achieved an operating revenue of HK$6.471 billion, which was a year-on-year decrease of 53%. The loss attributable to equity holders was HK$1.732 billion, indicating a shift fr

As of the end of the period, the cash and bank balances of H&T Development stand at HK$8.425 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 26% from HK$11.398 billion last year.

Given the current market environment, Hopson is also urgently in need of finding the key to reverse the situation.

In fact, after Heshang Chuangzhan released its full-year performance report in 2023 in March 2024, it held an investor conference call.

At that time, View Media learned that Heshang Cregroup would launch a new management integration strategy in 2023, one of which was the headquarters' relocation to the south: 'To accelerate the development of projects in the Greater Bay Area, Heshang

Although in the past few decades, the headquarters of Hesheng has been moved from Guangzhou to Beijing, it still has a rich land reserve in Guangzhou.

As of the end of 2023, Hopson Development has a land reserve of approximately 20.35 million square meters for its real estate sector and approximately 7.27 million square meters for its commercial sector, totaling about 27.62 million square meters. A

This could be one of the important reasons for the southward relocation of the headquarters. Currently, if the company can successfully integrate the project resources from Zhuguang Holding Group without increasing its own burden, it could be a bette

However, fully embracing this approach is unrealistic and there is still room for discussion on the mode of cooperation.

A noteworthy detail is that the agency business of Hopson Development emerged since the first half of 2024. According to the latest data, in the first nine months of this year, Hopson Development Group and its joint ventures and associate companies h

In terms of the month of September 2025, the contracted sales area of property under the joint construction management of Hesheng Creation Group and its joint ventures and associate companies is approximately 2588 square meters, with a contracted sal

For the first nine months of this year, the total contract sales amount of HopeReal Group and its joint ventures and associate companies was approximately RMB 11.264 billion. Based on this calculation, the proportion of contract sales amount from age

The 'merger' with Pearl River Holdings is also a self-rescue effort for JonhonGroup.

This article is from the WeChat public account Viewpoint