The online rumors are false! Suning's debt restructuring is still ongoing.

Recently, a message circulating online about “Former Jiangsu’s richest man Zhang Jindong’s assets being cleared, Suning’s 100-billion-yuan debt restructuring completed” has attracted attention. On March 22, a reporter from the Shanghai Stock Exchange learned from the administrator involved in Suning’s restructuring case that the rumors are not true, and Suning’s debt restructuring work is still ongoing.

The administrator explained that since January 2025, when the Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangsu Province accepted the “Suning Appliance Group Reorganization Case,” the debt restructuring of Suning Appliance Group totaling 238.7 billion yuan has been in progress. According to the court-approved restructuring plan, the assets of Suning Appliance Group and 37 other companies will be included in a trust plan. Except for some assets with property guarantees and cash payments, the remaining claims will be settled through the receipt of trust shares. Among these, the entire equity, real estate, cash, financial assets, and collectibles of Zhang Jindong and his wife will also be injected into the restructuring trust and used to settle debts. The specific procedures and details have not been publicly disclosed. The rumors claiming that “only one apartment of about 68 square meters is retained for basic living, with no other large assets available for independent disposal” are false.

As of the time of this report, the administrator revealed that the fate of the debt settlement for Suning Appliance Group and the other 37 companies remains uncertain. It is expected that the trust plan will be implemented as early as the second half of this year. Currently, there are no new developments to disclose.

Home Appliance Retail Giant Achieves “China’s First Home Appliance Chain”

From a 200-square-meter air conditioner shop on the streets of Nanjing in 1990 to becoming China’s largest home appliance retail chain, Zhang Jindong has written a modern business legend over nearly 20 years. Some say that Zhang Jindong’s entrepreneurial story was once one of the most inspiring tales in China’s retail industry.

In 1990, he quit his “iron rice bowl” job and founded Suning in Nanjing, pioneering an integrated “sales + installation and maintenance” service model, breaking the deadlock of the previous wholesale and retail model in home appliances. After 20 years of operation and effort, Suning became the leading home appliance distributor in the country. In 2004, Suning Appliance was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, becoming “China’s first home appliance chain.”

Subsequently, the internet wave hit. In 2010, Suning.com launched, facing fierce competition from JD.com and Taobao. From 2015 onwards, Suning leveraged its listed platform to aggressively expand through external investments. Public data shows that between 2015 and 2019, Suning.com disclosed over 70 billion yuan in external investments. These included a 2.2 billion yuan acquisition of PPTV, nearly 10 billion yuan betting on sports rights and football clubs (including Inter Milan), and 4.2 billion yuan acquiring Tmall Express, as well as 4.8 billion yuan acquiring Carrefour China.

However, these capital investments did not bring the expected synergies and instead burdened Suning with heavy debt. In 2020, Suning’s offline retail suffered a severe blow, and the 20 billion yuan convertible bond investment in Evergrande Real Estate became a bubble after Evergrande’s failed restructuring. Under the impact of the internet wave and aggressive expansion, the once-glorious “home appliance retail giant” fell into a debt crisis of hundreds of billions.

Entering Judicial Reorganization: A Hundred-Billion Debt Awaits Breakthrough

By the end of 2020, Suning’s debt crisis was fully exposed. In July 2021, Zhang Jindong resigned as chairman of Suning.com, losing control of the listed company. Suning.com was also separated from the group’s assets and accounted for its liabilities separately, with normal business operations.

In January 2025, the Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court accepted the reorganization case of Suning Appliance Group and three other companies. In April of the same year, it ordered a substantive merger and reorganization of Suning Appliance Group and 37 other companies. According to the draft reorganization plan, these 38 companies had total book assets of 96.839 billion yuan, but the preliminary review by the administrator identified claims totaling 188.07 billion yuan. Including deferred and unreported claims, the net debt approached 200 billion yuan, severely insolvent.

List of the 38 Companies in Suning Appliance Group

On December 29, 2025, the Nanjing court officially approved the reorganization plan for Suning Appliance Group and 37 other companies. Under this plan, all assets of the 38 companies will be pooled into a trust plan, with debts settled through the transfer of trust shares, achieving asset disposal and debt repayment.

On January 23, 2026, the administrator announced the recruitment of trust service agencies. The announcement specified that the trust service agencies must meet conditions such as “trust assets exceeding 200 billion yuan in 2024” and “trust duration of at least 30 billion yuan in bankruptcy services.” This trust plan will establish a wholly owned new “Suning Group” (operating retained assets) and “Nanjing Zhongcheng Company” (disposal assets).

Trust Service Agency Recruitment Announcement for Reorganization

To ensure the smooth implementation of the reorganization plan, Suning will also borrow 8 billion yuan as a common benefit debt, with an interest rate of about 8%. The cash flow generated by the trust assets will be prioritized for repayment. Additionally, the reorganization plan clearly states that the equity held by external shareholders in the 38 companies will be transferred free of charge to all creditors. This means that founder Zhang Jindong’s shareholder rights in Suning will be completely “cleared.” Although he can only obtain subordinate trust shares based on his paid-in capital, and his management team will retain operational rights in the newly established companies, his control role at the capital level has been entirely terminated.

Industry insiders say that for Suning, shedding burdens and going light may be the only option; for China’s business history, Zhang Jindong’s quiet exit leaves a reflective footnote on the aggressive expansion of traditional retail enterprises amid capital mergers and internet waves.

(Source: Shanghai Securities Journal)