How did Zhang Lan get kicked out of South Beauty?

After the financial crisis broke out in 2008, in order to relieve South Beauty's cash pressure, Zhang Lan planned to buy some properties at bargain prices and decided to introduce external investors. CDH exchanged 10% of South Beauty's equity and signed a gambling agreement with Zhang Lan. If South Beauty cannot be listed in 2012, Zhang Lan will need to pay a high price to repurchase the shares from CDH Investment.

It was this gambling agreement that put South Beauty into endless trouble. In 2012, South Beauty's multiple attempts to go public failed, which ultimately led to CDH breaking up with it. The reason why South Beauty sold its equity to CVC was precisely because CDH implemented a gambling agreement.

Since then, there have been failures in listing, equity transfers, and immigration turmoil. Zhang Lan, the founder of South Beauty, who is known as the "Queen of Chinese Food", seems to have entered a middle-aged dilemma in recent years and has been involved in various miseries.

On March 20, 2015, another foreign media reported that South Beauty was involved in an arbitration case, and the Hong Kong court ordered the freezing of Zhang Lan’s assets. As soon as the news came out, everyone was in an uproar. CVC CAPITAL PARNERS, Europe's largest private equity fund, has applied to freeze the assets of Zhang Lan, founder of Mainland catering group South Beauty, and has been approved by the Hong Kong High Court.

Although Zhang Lan himself responded to the media at the time: "I don't know about this" and said that he wanted to verify it. But many people have seen that Zhang Lan can no longer protect herself. It was not until three months later that the dust settled and Zhang Lan resigned from the board of directors of South Beauty.

On that day, the official Weibo of South Beauty also posted this Weibo: There is only one thing in the world that no one can take away, and that is wisdom.

Inspiration for entrepreneurs:

In the case of South Beauty, the founder gradually lost control of the company, which sounded a warning to the founding shareholders. When financing Founders should not be too optimistic about the development of the company. They must first consider whether their operations and management can keep up in time, let alone set unrealistic goals in order to obtain high-valuation financing. They should try to avoid capital betting agreements and betting. Agreements are an important tool for capital to protect its own rights and interests, and for founding shareholders, they can be a sharp sword over their heads at critical moments.