China Vanke, the nation’s biggest homebuilder by sales, has welcomed an increased investment by Anbang Insurance, a week after warning that…

China Vanke, the nation’s biggest homebuilder by sales, has welcomed an increased investment by Anbang Insurance, a week after warning that stake-building by a different insurer, Baoneng, could “ruin” the developer’s reputation

In a statement late on Wednesday, China Vanke said it had engaged in “effective” dialogue with Anbang, which had raised its shareholding in the property company from 4.5 per cent to 7 per cent over the last three weeks

“Anbang is an internationally renowned Chinese company, a respected professional investor, with strong capital strength and rich experience in overseas property investment,” China Vanke said

Privately held Anbang has been on a global spending spree, buying the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York for $1.95bn last year and acquiring an office tower in Toronto earlier this year but failing in a recent bid to buy Portuguese lender Novo Banco

By contrast, Baoneng, which has built up its holdings to become China Vanke’s biggest shareholder with a 23.5 per cent stake, is a more obscure insurance and property group with a much smaller war chest

Wang Shi, China Vanke’s chairman and founder, attacked Baoneng’s stakebuilding as something that “could ruin China Vanke’s greatest asset” which he said was “trust in the company’s brand”

The public fight over corporate ownership at China Vanke has intrigued investors because Chinese companies typically prefer to resolve such disputes behind closed doors

In addition to being the country’s biggest homebuilder, analysts consider China Vanke one of the best-run property groups, with a strong focus on the cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen, whose property markets have largely defied the national real estate slump

However, the company has been seen as vulnerable to a hostile mergers and acquisitions activity because of its dispersed shareholding structure, unlike its rivals, which are mostly still controlled by their founders

“This is a well-run company and it sticks to what it’s doing,” said Jeffrey Gao, a property analyst at Nomura in Hong Kong. “Around one third of its portfolio is in tier-one cities, it has the best corporate governance and disclosure and it has delivered double-digit sales growth each year, even in a bad market.”

Wang Shi is a charismatic figure who in recent years has focused on academic studies at the universities of Cambridge and Harvard as well as promoting environmental causes

He owns just 0.07 per cent of China Vanke, according to its latest half-year report, and the company is run on a day-to-day basis by Yu Liang, its president

As China’s insurance industry has grown rapidly in recent years, insurers have been stepping up their investments in the property sector both overseas and at home, where valuations have been hit by the economic slowdown

Anbang said in a statement that it was optimistic about China Vanke’s prospects and that it wanted to see the management remain stable, describing the developer as “a benchmark for the industry” with the “best team” and the “most-recognised brand” in real estate

Trading in China Vanke’s Shenzhen-listed shares was suspended last Friday. The company said it is working on a “major asset restructuring”, which some investors have speculated could be designed to dilute Baoneng’s holding

China Vanke’s stock had jumped by nearly 70 per cent over the previous month, giving it a market capitalisation of around $40bn