Gu Feng, CFO of SAIC executives’ personnel changes, may leave.

The financial business has a very high "gold content" among foreign automobile companies. For example, there are only two major business segments: "manufacturing+finance", and the profits from the financial segment also exceed 20% of the total profits of the public. The financial sector made a greater contribution to GM. Before the bankruptcy of GM, the profit from financial business accounted for more than 60%.

Gu Feng was given the "task" by Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, to increase the profit of SAIC’s financial business from about 8% at present to 15%-20%. In order to achieve the goal smoothly, SAIC Finance Department was established, and Gu Feng was appointed as the general manager. At the same time, Wu Heng, deputy general manager of the Finance Department, and more than a dozen middle and senior cadres of SAIC were appointed.

Now, with Gu Feng’s departure, whether SAIC’s huge plan in financial business can continue to be implemented remains to be further verified.

Following the departure of Zhang Hailiang, former vice-president of SAIC, and joining LeTV in March this year, the senior management team of SAIC changed again.

A few days ago, 21st century business herald reporter learned that Gu Feng, CFO of SAIC (equivalent to vice president of SAIC), has submitted his resignation report, which is currently awaiting the approval of Shanghai SASAC.

Together with Zhang Hailiang, who left in March this year, this is the second vice president-level executive of SAIC in half a year.

Like Zhang Hailiang, Gu Feng was born after 70, and his career was in the prime of his life. People who are familiar with him are very appreciative of his professional ability and personality. In addition, like Zhang Hailiang in charge of SAIC’s service and trade sector, Gu Feng is also responsible for the transformation of SAIC. In the first half of this year, SAIC has established a financial division, with Gu Feng as the general manager.

After the establishment of the financial business department, Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, hopes that the financial business profit will now account for about 8% of SAIC’s total profit and rise to 15%-20% in the future. This is also an important symbol of SAIC’s transformation from a traditional automobile manufacturing industry to a comprehensive company that provides comprehensive services to consumers, and will directly affect SAIC’s market value promotion plan, which Gu Feng has also made before. With Gu Feng’s "departure", whether Chen Hong’s transformation plan can be smoothly promoted is also facing a test.

Salary limit must be an excuse.

Some people think that Gu Feng’s resignation was due to "salary restriction". SAIC began to implement the salary limit system in the second half of last year, and the annual salary of municipal cadres has been greatly adjusted.

Generally, the level of vice-president is deputy bureau level. According to the standard of city management cadres, the annual salary is only 600,000, and Gu Feng is one of them. There are more than 1,000 people in SAIC with an annual salary of over one million, which also means that as the vice presidents of SAIC, Gu Feng, Zhang Hailiang and others have an annual salary less than that of an engineer. Prior to this, in 2015, the annual salary of the vice presidents of SAIC Group exceeded one million.

Then compare other companies in the automobile industry horizontally. Generally, private enterprises are native to vice-president professional managers with an annual salary of at least one million, and there are not a few imported talents with an annual salary of more than two million. In 2015, President and Executive Director Gui Shengyue had the highest annual salary, reaching 8.646 million; Executive Director Hong Shaolun, with an annual salary of 7.353 million yuan; Wei Jianjun, the chairman, ranked third with a salary of 5,692,400 yuan.

Even so, a person familiar with Gu Feng told reporters: "It must be an excuse to say that Gu Feng left because of salary restrictions."

Gu Feng, born in 1972, graduated from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics with a doctorate in management and a professor-level senior accountant.

As a trained financial man, if he valued his income, he didn’t need to stay in SAIC for a long time. As a traditional manufacturing industry, the annual salary of SAIC executives is only 2 million yuan, which is really insignificant compared with the financial industry.

According to the average wage of urban employees in 2015 released by the National Bureau of Statistics in May this year, the financial industry is still the industry with the highest income, and the annual salary of financial executives is relatively common.

Gu Feng, who could have entered the hottest financial industry naturally, dedicated his career of nearly 20 years after graduation to SAIC.

Gu Feng, who joined SAIC in 1997, participated in the establishment of Shanghai General Financial System. In 2001, after being transferred to SAIC, he led and participated in SAIC’s overall restructuring and listing in three places in 2004 (Shanghai, Hong Kong and new york, but failed to be listed in the end due to various reasons). In 2016, he led SAIC’s whole vehicle business to be injected into the listed company 600104 (the first case in Shanghai and Shenzhen), and led the acquisition of SAIC in 2007. At the same time, using the capital market platform to actively explore the financing channels of SAIC, during his tenure, he raised nearly 40 billion yuan through financial products such as separate transactions and convertible bonds, private placement and medium-term notes, and finally took the lead in setting up the first 20 billion standby syndicated loan in SAIC’s history. The scope of use of syndicated loans has opened up a new direction for standby syndicated loans.

As the chief financial officer in charge of the company’s financial power, Gu Feng also devoted a lot of energy to independent brands, including how to give more support to independent brands from financial resources, how to formulate more reasonable financial processes and systems for independent brands, and how to make independent brands develop more healthily.

At the same time, SAIC has been acquiring and merging its own brands in recent years, and the financial team led by Gu Feng has been actively exploring mergers and acquisitions with the Group, making a strict risk assessment from the financial point of view, and evaluating the long-term value of the acquired fields and whether they meet the company’s future strategic needs and value-added, so as to promote SAIC’s value investment in emerging technology fields.

During his career of nearly 20 years, Gu Feng has served as the deputy manager of the finance department of Shanghai Automotive Industry (Group) Corporation, the deputy manager of the finance department of Shanghai Automotive Group Co., Ltd., the executive director of the capital operation department, the financial controller and the executive director of the capital operation department. Along the way, he is currently CFO of SAIC, general manager of Shanghai Automotive Hong Kong Investment Co., Ltd., general manager of Shanghai Automotive Group Investment Management Co., Ltd. and general manager of SAIC Finance Division.

Elephant turns to PK new platform and goes into battle lightly.

Where to go after SAIC left? Gu Feng himself has not yet announced it. "I want to have a rest first." Gu Feng said.

People who are familiar with Gu Feng speculate that he should enter a new automobile enterprise or a transformation franchise company to engage in his financial "old line".

"With its personal ability and strength, it is possible to make a leap on a new platform and a new starting point." People familiar with Gu Feng think.

In fact, this time coincides with the transformation of SAIC. Under the leadership of Chen Hong, SAIC is actively seeking transformation. Chen Hong integrated SAIC’s business into four sectors: vehicle, parts, automobile service trade and finance.

However, after all, the elephant turns around. For a behemoth like SAIC, any small change means that it may cost a lot. This is also the reason why many large international companies prefer to be conservative rather than innovative.

For SAIC executives, in the traditional manufacturing industry, they will also encounter the ceiling of career development. For example, for Gu Feng, there is almost no room for CFO to move up, unless he leaves SAIC and enters government departments. For example, Ding Lei, the former vice president of SAIC, left the top official of SAIC to be the deputy head of Pudong New Area, but eventually jumped out of the "circle" and joined LeTV with Zhang Hailiang.

On the contrary, the outside world is wonderful. For example, Zhang Hailiang and Ding Lei, who have left SAIC, have successively joined LeTV and become their executives responsible for global business and China business; For Gu Feng, after jumping out of SAIC, it has a wider range of choices. Like Ding Lei, Zhang Hailiang, it can join a new automobile company and enter the financial industry. The financial industry is mostly international, and for Gu Feng, it has more opportunities to display its talents.

Chen Hong’s transformation business faces challenges.

However, Gu Feng’s departure can only be described as "pity" for SAIC.

SAIC is at the critical stage of improving market value management. After taking over from Hu Maoyuan as the chairman of SAIC in August 2014, Chen Hong was questioned by investors at several shareholders’ meetings of SAIC: SAIC’s financial situation is very healthy, and it was called the "most valuable investment" target of A shares by investors, but SAIC’s share price is not high.

Improving market value management has also been written into Chen Hong’s work agenda. In August last year, Chen Hong revealed that SAIC has added the company’s market value management function and investor relations maintenance work in the office of the board of directors.

At the same time, SAIC has implemented SAIC’s transformation strategy through a series of innovative business expansion. According to Chen Hong’s plan, SAIC will accelerate from a traditional enterprise mainly relying on manufacturing to a comprehensive supplier providing consumers with all-round products and services, and strive to become a world-famous automobile company with global layout, transnational operation, international competitiveness and brand influence.

The "task" given by Chen Hong to Gu Feng is to increase the profit of SAIC’s financial business from the current 8% to 15%-20%. In order to achieve the goal smoothly, SAIC Finance Department was established, and Gu Feng was appointed as the general manager. At the same time, Wu Heng, deputy general manager of the Finance Department, and more than a dozen middle and senior cadres of SAIC were appointed.

The financial business has a very high "gold content" among foreign automobile companies. For example, Volkswagen’s business sector has only two large pieces of "manufacturing+finance", and the profit from the financial sector also exceeds 20% of the total profit of Volkswagen. The financial sector made a greater contribution to GM. Before the bankruptcy of GM, the profit from financial business accounted for more than 60%.

After the establishment of the Finance Division, Gu Feng once revealed ambitiously that the future SAIC Finance Division mainly involves four major functions. First, SAIC will integrate and re-plan the businesses of SAIC Finance Company, SAIC General Finance Company, SAIC Equity Investment and Insurance Company under the Finance Division, with the purpose of linking the financial business with SAIC’s industry, so that the financial business can serve the industry, such as launching the business of car owners’ wealth management and car owners’ balance treasure. Even, the financial department may expand SAIC’s financial business by acquiring banks or insurance companies.

Second, after the establishment of the Financial Division, the financial business of SAIC will be centrally managed. Formulate KPI performance appraisal indicators suitable for financial business. Thirdly, SAIC Finance Division will also have the function of investment bank, and make mergers and acquisitions or acquire technologies through the leverage effect of financial business, so as to enlarge and strengthen the business sector. The fourth is to further enhance SAIC’s asset allocation capability.

Now, with Gu Feng’s departure, whether SAIC’s huge plan in financial business can continue to be implemented remains to be further verified.