Person
Song Weiping
Founder and long-time head of Greentown China, who in 2014 sold part of his Greentown stake, together with his wife and Shou Bainian, to Sunac China.
Background
Song Weiping is the founder of Greentown Group and for many years led Greentown China (3900.HK). In early 2012, an operating model of high debt and low profits had pushed Greentown China to the brink, and Song Weiping sold equity and projects one after another to survive. Greentown first sold a 51% stake in Hubin Real Estate to Sunac Real Estate for 51 million yuan; in June 2012 the two companies formally joined forces, with Sunac paying 3.372 billion yuan for half of the equity in nine Greentown projects and the two jointly forming Shanghai Sunac Greentown Holdings Co., Ltd. (“Sunac Greentown”). In 2013, Sunac Greentown’s online-contracted sales reached 15.5 billion yuan, placing it among China’s top 50 developers, and its Shanghai region, with online-contracted sales of 11.207 billion yuan, ranked among the top three locally.
When Song Weiping was choosing a “successor” for Greentown, Sun Hongbin was the only choice. According to Caixin, developers and investors such as Orient International and Franshion had also approached Song Weiping, but he was convinced that Sun Hongbin could lead Greentown to a better future and held firm to that choice; he once publicly praised Sun Hongbin highly, expressing his feelings with the phrase “let the virtuous hold it”. Song Weiping also described Sun Hongbin as someone who had come back from the brink, who used many means to achieve his goals, and whose imagination and creativity in the industry might surpass his own.
On 22 May 2014, Sunac announced that it would pay HK$6.298 billion (about 5.06 billion yuan) to acquire a 24.31% stake from Greentown China shareholders at a subscription price of HK$12 per share; after a dividend rebate, the actual cost was HK$11.46 per share, a premium of 49%. The shares acquired by Sunac came from Song Weiping (11.398%), Xia Yibo (Song Weiping’s wife, 3.190%) and Shou Bainian (9.725%). Under the deal, Sun Hongbin would replace Song Weiping as Greentown’s de facto controller upon completion, while Song Weiping and Shou Bainian would retain about 10.473% and about 8.086% of Greentown China respectively. The transaction was the largest property developer acquisition in recent years.
While serving as chairman of Greentown Group, Song Weiping once directly mocked Vanke’s products as too crude and suggested that Vanke engage in some self-reflection.
Last updated 18 October 2026