My son took the official seal and the founder of a well-known enterprise passed away! Previously, father and son turned against Hu Chun | company | father and son

On the evening of June 26, the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Research Institute announced with great sorrow that the company received a notice from the family of Mr. Hu Delin, one of the founders and actual controllers, on June 21, 2023. Mr. Hu Delin passed away on May 3, 2023, at the age of 72, due to ineffective medical treatment.

The announcement states that Hu Delin has led the company to become a leading enterprise in the field of high and low voltage electrical testing in China, playing a crucial role in the development of the domestic electrical testing industry.

The announcement states that the company extends its highest respect and heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Hu Delin for his hard work and outstanding contributions to the company. All directors, supervisors, senior management, and employees express their deep condolences for Mr. Hu Delin's passing and offer their deepest condolences to his family!

In addition, the announcement shows that Mr. Hu Delin's company shares will be inherited in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

It is worth noting that Hu Delin passed away on May 3rd and was not announced until June 26th.

According to public data, Hu Delin was born in 1951. When he graduated from junior high school, he was sent to a production and construction corps in northern Jiangsu. When he returned to the city at the age of 26, he began to work in Suzhou Machine Tool and Electric Appliance Factory for testing. During his work, he was rated as a national exemplary individual for two consecutive years.

The Electric Power Research Institute was founded in 1965, originally under collective ownership, mainly engaged in testing, research, personnel training, standard intelligence, and testing equipment development in various fields such as power transmission and distribution equipment, high-voltage electrical appliances, etc. It is an independent research and testing institution with legal personality.

In 1999, at the request and support of the superior supervisory department, Hu Delin restructured and transformed the original Suzhou Electric Appliance Science Research Institute. In 2003, the Electric Power Research Institute became one of the first designated testing institutions for mandatory product certification in China, and its technical capabilities entered the forefront of the country. In July 2009, during the stock reform of the Electric Power Research Institute, Hu Delin was appointed as the chairman. In May 2011, the Electric Power Research Institute successfully went public on the ChiNext board.

According to the annual report, Hu Delin and Hu Chun are the controlling shareholders and actual controllers of the company, holding 24.54% and 10.30% of the shares respectively. The father and son are basically on the same list on both the Hurun Rich List and the Jiangsu Rich List.

Suzhou's wealthy father and son turn against each other

It is worth noting that just two months ago, the father and son of Hu Delin and Hu Chun from the Electric Power Academy experienced a power struggle that lasted for six months, both of which reached the point of grabbing official seals.

On April 7th, the Electric Power Research Institute announced that Song Jingbo would be the new chairman of the company. According to relevant company regulations, former Chairman Hu Chun should transfer the company seal to the current Chairman Song Jingbo, who will then re determine the custodian of the seal in accordance with the regulations. As of now, despite multiple efforts, the company seal, contract special seal, and legal representative seal have not been transferred.

As early as November 1st last year, former chairman Hu Chun requested an employee of the company to give these three seals to his designated personnel, but they were not returned.

After the seal was seized for nearly 4 months and the demand was unsuccessful, the Electric Power Research Institute announced in a notice that the above-mentioned seal will cease to be used from November 1, 2022. The company will not recognize any contracts, agreements, contractual documents or other written documents signed by anyone using the above-mentioned seal, and all legal consequences and responsibilities arising from this will be unrelated to the company.

According to the announcement, Hu Chun was born in 1978 and holds a Chinese nationality. He holds a bachelor's degree and is an engineer. I joined our company in 2002 and currently hold 10.30% of the company's shares. I am the son of Hu Delin.

At first, Hu Delin took great pains to train his son Huol. Hu Chol, 24, joined the company in 2002 and served as the predecessor supervisor of the company; he has served as the director and deputy general manager of the company since July 2009; ten years later, the 41-year-old Hu Chol was successfully elected as the new chairman of the Academy of Electric Sciences; but On January 12, 2023, he was removed from the positions of chairman and general manager by the board of directors.

According to the announcement released by the company in October 2021, Hu Delin and his concerted action person Hu Chun signed a Voting Rights Delegation Agreement. Hu Delin agreed to delegate the voting rights corresponding to his 186 million shares of the company to Hu Chun for use during the delegation period.

Surprisingly, after more than a year, the Electric Power Research Institute suddenly issued a notice in December last year, stating that the previous delegation of voting rights was mainly due to personal health reasons. Now that the influencing factors have been eliminated, Hu Delin has decided to terminate the agreement and terminate the voting rights delegation relationship with Hu Chun.

In January of this year, the company's board of directors held an emergency meeting again, stating that Hu Chun was not suitable to serve as the chairman and general manager of the company due to personal reasons. The company's board of directors dismissed Hu Chun from his position as chairman and dismissed him from his position as general manager. At the same time, the positions of audit committee member, strategy committee member, and strategy committee chairman shall be removed.

Subsequently, more details were disclosed in the company's response to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's attention letter announcement.

The company stated that the convening of this meeting was legal and compliant, and publicly announced the dismissal of Hu Chun, stating the detailed reasons for his incompetence.

There are three reasons proposed by the board of directors: 1. Hu Chunren has been absent from China and has not been working on-site, resulting in low decision-making efficiency of the company; 2. Work requests and letters sent to him will not be replied to from October 2022 onwards; 3. The official seal, legal representative seal, and contract seal required for the company's operation were taken away by him on November 1, 2022, affecting the company's business and operations.

Hu Chun stated that he was only informed of his attendance through WeChat more than an hour in advance, and that he had used Tencent Meeting instead of the previously used Zoom meeting software for the temporary meeting. He downloaded the software and found that he had read out all the proposals before entering the meeting. He believed that the notification and convening procedures of the board of directors were in violation of regulations, but was forced to silence by the host before speaking.

Hu Chun also expressed opposition to issues mentioned in the proposal, such as his absence from China, untimely handling of work processes, and failure to respond to work requests. He stated that he accompanied Hu Delin abroad for medical treatment at the end of 2021 until December 2022, and the operation of the Electric Power Research Institute was normal, and he also approved relevant business normally. However, starting from December 2022, the company's CFO, supervisors, directors, and others have started not reporting their work to him, not responding to WeChat or answering phone calls. It is the internal people of the company who ignore him, not his failure to reply to letters.

Previously, there were media reports that Hu Chun stated that his father Hu Delin wanted to compete for full control of the company, and his dismissal was one of his father's series of actions to dismiss him as the chairman.

Intentionally transferring shares to his son, and even taking action, he "recouped his life". Regarding the attitude reversal of Hu Delin before and after, his son Hu Chun believed that as his father's condition gradually stabilized, he began to backtrack from various aspects such as share transfer and business philosophy.

After delving into the reasons for the conflict and disagreement between father and son, father Hu Delin believes that his son Hu Chun failed to actively fulfill his duties, resulting in his dissatisfaction with him. At the same time, there are differences in the company's business philosophy between the two.

Regarding the conflict between father and son, Hu Chun stated that there was a disagreement between the two due to their business philosophy, with the main difference being their differing views on legal and compliant operations. The father had a rough development and extensive management philosophy, prioritizing the company's profits; And he demands legality and compliance, standardized governance, and can sacrifice some economic income, but cannot bear legal risks, ultimately leading to the outbreak of conflicts.

On the evening of April 26th, the Electric Power Research Institute released its 2022 annual report. The company achieved a revenue of 653 million yuan in 2022, a decrease of 24.28% compared to the same period last year; Realized a net profit attributable to the parent company of 3.31229 million yuan, a decrease of 82.81% compared to the same period last year.

Hu Chun stated that he cannot guarantee the authenticity, accuracy, and completeness of the company's 2022 annual report and the 2023 first quarter report, and there are no false records, misleading statements, or significant omissions.

At the performance briefing held on May 9th, many investors raised questions related to the conflict between Hu and his son. Regarding whether both parties will terminate the relationship between the concerted action parties, the Electric Power Research Institute responded that it has not received formal notification, and the company also emphasized that the two shareholders have not participated in the company's daily business management activities at present.