CEFC China Energy is a private Chineseconglomerate. The company was among the 10 largest private companies in China in 2014. Since 2013 the company has been listed on the Fortune Global 500 list holding the rank of 229 in June 2016. In March 2020 the company was declared bankrupt as well as its subsidiaries CEFC Shanghai International and CEFC Hainan International. The company used complex web of affiliated companies to facilitate fake deals, inflate trade figures and obtain bank loans to fuel its aggressive expansion.
The controlling shareholder is Shanghai Energy Fund Investment Ltd, which is registered under Ye Jianming, the chairman of CEFC. Czech President Miloš Zeman has appointed CEFC's founder Ye Jianming as his economic adviser. The South China Morning Post in a 2017 piece on Ye repeated rumors that had appeared in Czech news media that Ye is linked to the People's Liberation Army and noted "speculation runs wild". In March 2018, the company's chairman Ye Jianming was detained for questioning on suspicion of economic crimes. South China Morning Post reported that ", a portfolio and investment agency controlled by Shanghai’s municipal government, had taken control of CEFC China Energy". The state controlled CITIC Group acquired 49% of CEFC Shanghai, a subsidiary of CEFC China Energy; in turn, CEFC Shanghai owns CEFC Europe. In April 2018, CEFC announced they may lay off half of its 30,000-strong staff; staff have not been paid for two months.
Investments
In May 2015, the company acquired a 5% stake in J&T Finance Group. This increased to 9.9% in September 2015. In 2017 company applied to acquire 50% J&T Finance Group, but the deal has been refused by Czech National Bank because of lack of sufficient information on the origin of most of the funding for the deal. In September 2015, the company acquired multiple assets in the Czech Republic - a majority stake in brewery, a 10% stake in airline Travel Service, 60% in football clubSK Slavia Prague and real-estate assets in Prague - the building of the former Živnostenská banka at Na příkopě street and Le Palais Art Hotel Prague. CEFC also bought a stake of between 50 and 90 per cent in Czech online travel agent Invia in March 2016, probably with a view to capitalising on the rapidly increasing numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Prague. After CEFC China Energy invested in Czech media company Empresa Media, the owner of the popular TV Barrandov and magazine Týden, in 2015 the tone of the group’s coverage of China changed with all neutral and negative reporting about China being replaced by positive reporting.
In September 2017 CEFC announced the purchase of a 14.16% stake in Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, for about $9 billion. However, CEFC was unable complete the acquisition and paid a break fee of about $257 million to the sellers, a consortium of Qatar Investment Authority and Glencore.
2018 default
In May 2018, CITIC Group announced they will repay ca 450 million euros owed by CEFC Europe to finance and banking group J&T within days but since the debt has not been paid a week later, J&T announced it had taken over shareholder rights and installed crisis management at CEFC Europe. Several days later, CEFC Shanghai defaulted on $327 million in bond payments, and offered to make the payments six months after the maturity date.
