The employee share ownership fund of Chinese property giant Vanke will donate its entire holdings to finance a new health institute with Tsinghua University.
The new Tsinghua University Vanke School of Public Health will focus on studying public health systems and coronaviruses, according to a statement. Former director-general of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, will head the institute with involvement from Vanke chairman Yu Liang.
The «Vanke Founding Shareholders’ Equity Management Center» was established to take ownership of employee shares after a 1988 restructuring that led the state-wound enterprise to shift into a joint-stock company for listing on the exchange.
Public Cause by Design
The employee committee overseeing the shares agreed in principle nine years ago to donate the holdings for a public cause and the company’s founder Wang Shi, who stepped down in 2017, called the outbreak an ideal opportunity for divestment.
According to a «Caixin» report, the institute will be jointly developed by Tsinghua University’s education foundation and funded by dividends from the 200 million Vanke shares donated.
The report added that a complex series of transactions took place to repurchase the shares through the liquidation of an entity jointly set up with a China Merchants Bank subsidiary.
