China Vanke employees and property giant Dalian Wanda give US$225 million to fund Covid-19 research, struggling businesses
- Vanke, the nation’s second largest property developer, will give shares worth 5.3 billion yuan to Tsinghua University to fund a public health research institute
- Dalian Wanda’s commercial property arm has teamed up with WeBank to grant at least 10 billion yuan in loans to small businesses hit hard by the pandemic
Property giants China Vanke and Dalian Wanda Commercial Management have unveiled a combined 16 billion yuan (US$225 million) in funding initiatives to help people affected by the coronavirus epidemic.
The Vanke Founding Shareholders’ Equity Management Centre, which manages 200 million Vanke shares owned by its employees, has decided to donate all of them to one of Tsinghua University’s education funds to finance the establishment of a public health research institute.
Shenzhen-based China Vanke, the nation’s second largest property developer by sales, made the announcement in a statement on Thursday.
The shares, worth some 5.3 billion yuan, will initially go to research projects related to Covid-19 – the disease caused by the novel coronavirus – besides other infectious diseases and public health management.
“The epidemic has highlighted that mankind’s destiny is shared ... the equity management centre’s council realised that the best target for its charity donation objective has been found,” Vanke said.
The centre was set up 32 years ago by Vanke founding shareholders led by former chairman Wang Shi to own the shares of all employees, when the firm was converted from a state enterprise into one owned by the staff. Nine years ago, the employees voted in favour of donating all of the shares to charitable causes.
Tsinghua is ranked 35th in the 2020 best medical schools league table compiled by The World University Rankings. Peking University is the only Chinese peer ranked higher at 31st.