On the surface, liquor giants are distilleries, but secretly they have long become financial giants. Is that all? Liquor tycoons keen on investment are closely following the investment circle. In recent years, Moutai and Wuliangye have set their sights on trendy industries such as new energy, synthetic biology, AI, and chips.
After Guiyang Bank, Guizhou Bank, and Guizhou Fenggang Rural Commercial Bank, Moutai Group has invested in a new bank – Guizhou Rural Commercial Bank:
Since the myth of the “financial liquor” that only rises and never falls is hard to sustain, they might as well engage in real finance.
From then on, Guizhou has become the 7th province in the country, after Zhejiang, Shanxi, Sichuan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and other places, to be approved to establish a provincial rural commercial joint bank.
In fact, on the surface, liquor giants are distilleries, but secretly they have long become financial giants. Wuliangye has Yibin Commercial Bank and a financial group, Moutai has Guizhou Bank and a liquor exchange, and Luzhou Laojiao also has Luzhou Bank.
Is that all? Liquor tycoons keen on investment are closely following the investment circle. Moutai and Wuliangye have established investment funds. In the early years, they invested in traditional industries such as airports, transportation, packaging materials, and food. In recent years, they have set their sights on trendy industries such as new energy, synthetic biology, AI, and chips.
Come on, let’s dig deep with Sister Ba to see what the liquor tycoons have invested in over the years?
1. Liquor giants are secretly “banking titans”
On December 15th, the Guizhou Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration officially approved the opening of Guizhou Rural Commercial Joint Bank Co., Ltd.
The approval information shows that the registered capital of Guizhou Rural Commercial Joint Bank reaches 10.458 billion yuan. There are 4 major shareholders, namely the Guizhou Provincial Department of Finance, Guizhou Financial Holding Group, China Kweichow Moutai Distillery (Group), and Guizhou Qiansheng State – owned Assets Operation Co., Ltd.
Among them, the largest shareholder, Guizhou Financial Holding Group, contributed 6.886 billion yuan, with a shareholding ratio of 65.844%. The Guizhou Provincial Department of Finance contributed 1.572 billion yuan, with a shareholding ratio of 15.032%, ranking as the second – largest shareholder; China Kweichow Moutai Distillery (Group) Co., Ltd. and Guizhou Qiansheng State – owned Assets Operation Co., Ltd. each contributed 1 billion yuan, with a shareholding ratio of 9.562%.
From then on, Guizhou has become the 7th province in the country to be approved to establish a provincial rural commercial joint bank. Currently, the reforms of provincial rural credit unions in Hubei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Guangdong and other places are also in progress.
In the past 4 years, the price of Feitian Moutai has been decreasing year by year, especially more sharply this year. It dropped from about 2,100 yuan at the beginning of the year to below 1,500 yuan a few days ago.
Since the liquor prices are not ideal, they have started to increase their investment in banks.
Guizhou Rural Commercial Bank is the fourth bank under Moutai Group. Moutai Group also holds 12% of the shares of Guizhou Bank, being the second – largest shareholder after the Guizhou Provincial Department of Finance. The deposit scale of Moutai Group in Guizhou Bank exceeds 10 billion yuan. In addition, Moutai Group also holds 1.65% of the equity of Guiyang Bank and 1.98% of the equity of Guiyang Fenggang Village Rural Commercial Bank.
Next – door Wuliangye also obtained the approval from the Sichuan Regulatory Bureau a few days ago to increase the capital of its subsidiary, Yibin Commercial Bank.
This capital increase was completed by the bank’s largest shareholder, Wuliangye Group (holding 19.99% of the shares), and local state – owned assets such as the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Finance and Cuiping District Bureau of Finance (holding more than 50% of the shares in total) in accordance with the original shareholding ratio. No new external strategic investors were introduced. After the capital increase, the bank’s registered capital will increase from 3.9 billion yuan to 4.5884 billion yuan, an increase of about 17.7%.
This is the first time for Yibin Commercial Bank to replenish its core capital since its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January 2025, and its capital strength ranks among the top in the city commercial banks in Sichuan.
Yibin Commercial Bank was established in 2006, formerly known as Yibin City Credit Union. It is also the first government – controlled financial institution in Yibin. From 2014 to 2016, Tianfeng Securities obtained 14.57% of the shares through the transfer of old shares and share subscription, and once became the largest shareholder of Yibin Commercial Bank. Subsequently, after two rounds of capital increase and share expansion from 2020 to 2021, the position of the largest shareholder of Yibin Commercial Bank changed hands and went to Wuliangye Group.
After the great development of the liquor industry in 2015, Yibin Commercial Bank took off. In 2021, Yibin Commercial Bank even proposed the goal of accelerating the construction of a listed bank with assets of 100 billion yuan, hoping to reach a total asset of 100 billion yuan. This goal was achieved in the first half of last year.
Led by Moutai and Wuliangye, other liquor companies have also set their sights on banks, which are high – quality assets.
Luzhou Laojiao Group is the largest shareholder of Luzhou Bank, currently holding about 15.97% of the bank’s shares. Luzhou Bank was listed on the H – share market at the end of 2018, and its asset scale has expanded from 82.5 billion yuan to more than 165 billion yuan in a few years. At the same time, Luzhou Laojiao Group is also the largest shareholder of Luzhou Rural Commercial Bank, with a shareholding ratio of 7.18%.
In addition, Tuopai Shede Group holds 12.39% of the equity of Suining Bank, ranking as the second – largest shareholder; Anhui Yingjia Group holds a small number of shares in Anhui Huoshan United Village Bank and Huoshan Rural Commercial Bank; Jinggong Group, the largest shareholder of Kuaijishan, and Guyuelongshan both hold shares in Shaoxing Bank. Jinggong Group holds a 12.32% shareholding ratio, ranking as the second – largest shareholder of Shaoxing Bank.
Currently, more than a dozen liquor companies have invested in more than twenty banks. It seems that liquor giants have a great preference for banks, which are stable assets.
2. Investing in banks is just the tip of the investment iceberg
Not only banks, but some liquor companies have also invested in financial institutions such as insurance companies and securities firms. For example, Guizhou Moutai Group holds 20% of the shares of Huigui Life Insurance, Gujing Group holds 2.76% of the shares of Hua’an Securities, and Shanghai Sugar, Tobacco and Alcohol (Group) holds 1.87% of the shares of Industrial Securities.
In addition to getting involved in finance through shareholding, the financial subsidiaries of some liquor companies are gradually expanding.
In March last year, Longmaxingda Small – loan Company under Luzhou Laojiao officially launched an industrial chain financial service platform and launched three loan products at once – “Wine Merchant Loan”, “Wine Enterprise Loan”, and “Wine Person Loan”. The three loan products are respectively targeted at downstream distributors, upstream suppliers, and high – quality individual customers in the Luzhou Laojiao industrial chain.
This operation has realized the closed – loop of “borrowing my money to buy my wine”, earning both interest and wine money.
Controlling finance means controlling the lifeline of many enterprises.
On this basis, Luzhou Laojiao has also established a financial holding group with the “1 + 3+N” model. Laojiao Group leads three listed companies, Laojiao Co., Ltd., Huaxi Securities, and Luzhou Bank, followed by a bunch of other enterprises: Hongli Zhihui, Capital Holding Company, International Industrial Company, Zhitong Commerce and Trade, Yuanjingda Food, and Kangrun Group.
Diversified investment cannot guarantee that every investment will make a lot of money.
For example, Yibin Paper Co., Ltd., another listed company controlled by Wuliangye Group, has not performed well in terms of performance for many years, and its cross – border foray into the automobile industry has also been “full of twists and turns”.
But overall, with the large amount of idle funds of liquor companies, setting up industrial funds has become a powerful force in the capital circle.
Currently, Moutai Group has invested in 57 enterprises externally, far beyond just the financial industry. There are software and information service industries, real estate industries, liquor exchanges, and high – tech enterprises such as biomedicine.
In 2012, Moutai invested 1.07 billion yuan and became the second – largest shareholder of Guiyang Airport.
From March 2013 to 2018, the company specifically established the “Moutai Finance Company” and gradually extended its business map to fields such as banking, insurance, funds, securities, leasing, and investment, constructing an almost complete “Moutai – related” financial map. Later, it also established Moutai Jianxin (Guizhou) Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. and Moutai (Shanghai) Financial Leasing Co., Ltd., and invested in Yunshang Guizhou Big Data (Group) Co., Ltd., becoming the second – largest shareholder.
Wuliangye’s operations are similar to Moutai’s. It has already formed a “1 + 5” industrial layout (the main liquor business + five diversified industries of large – scale machinery, large – scale packaging, large – scale logistics, large – scale finance, and large – scale health).
Luzhou Laojiao Group follows closely. Currently, it has invested in as many as 58 enterprises externally, with 12 financial enterprises in which it holds shares or has control, and the rest are industrial enterprises in the extended industrial chain.
3. Liquor giants are chasing trendy industries such as biology, new energy, and AI just like the investment circle
In the past, the investments of liquor giants were mainly in two categories:
One is their upstream and downstream industrial chains, such as base liquor, packaging materials, transportation, trading companies, liquor exchanges, etc. Even banks or financial subsidiaries are to empower this industrial chain and provide funds for dealers and suppliers.
The other is local enterprises. After all, most liquor giants are under the provincial state – owned assets supervision commissions, so they also support local industries. Infrastructure projects that require a large amount of capital, such as Moutai Airport (Zunyi) and Wuliangye Airport (Yibin), are all supported by liquor giants with real money to promote local development.
In recent years, their preferences have changed following the investment circle, and they have started to engage in high – tech.
Recently, Wuliangye Group has cooperated with the Nuclear Power Institute of China and plans to follow the industry – university – research development route. So it’s not surprising that Wuliangye might invest in a nuclear power plant one day.
Wuliangye has always attached great importance to power investment. In 2023, it established a new – energy company with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan and invested 235 million yuan to obtain a 4.35% stake in He Guang Tong Cheng. He Guang Tong Cheng built a 20GW high – efficiency battery production line in just 3.5 months and became the leader among the “Photovoltaic F4” in Yibin.
This year, Wuliangye has been making efforts in the new – energy industry. Through methods such as joint – venture shareholding, it has successively cooperated with Longi Green Energy, Yingfa Deyao, and He Guang Tong Cheng to expand in directions such as battery cells, hydrogen energy, and photovoltaics.
While Wuliangye loves energy investment, Moutai has set its sights on the current investment trends – biology and AI.
In 2023, Guizhou Moutai established Moutai Science and Technology Innovation Fund, Moutai Jinshi Fund (5.5 billion yuan), and Moutai Jinshi (Guizhou) Biotechnology Industry Fund Partnership (1.5 billion yuan), and successively invested in Jiasil Energy, Xing Sai Biology, and Hongmo Biology.
In addition, in May this year, the artificial – intelligence company Mianbi Intelligence announced the completion of a new round of financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan. Among the list of investors, Moutai Fund Management Co., Ltd. is prominently listed. In July last year, Moutai Science and Technology Innovation Fund and Jinshi Fund invested in Shanghai Silang Technology, which is the first chip company invested by Moutai.
In addition to Guizhou Moutai and Wuliangye, regional liquor companies are also making efforts. Just last year, many liquor companies established new investment companies:
Luzhou Laojiao contributed 1 billion yuan to establish Foshan Jinchun No. 1 Venture Capital Partnership;
Jinyuan contributed 150 million yuan to invest in Nanjing Huatai Kingsley, an investment enterprise focusing on biomedicine;
Guyuelongshan contributed 29 million yuan to establish an industrial fund with Hangzhou Datou Investment Management Co., Ltd.
The idle funds of liquor giants will either be used for capacity expansion or investment and will always be in circulation.
Recently, listed liquor companies have started to announce their dividend plans one after another. The dividends of the two giants, Guizhou Moutai and Wuliangye, have reached