Quanjude Qianmen Restaurant in Beijing. [File photo]

Three top executives - Wang Zhiqiang, the Chairman, Xing Ying, the General Manager and Shi Bingfeng, the Board Secretary - are about to resign from China Quanjude Group which owns a chain restaurant best known for its Beijing roast duck, according to an announcement issued yesterday (July 10) by the listed company.

The catering firm proclaimed that they had received the applications of the resignations on July 8, two days ahead of the announcement which gave no explanation as to why the three high-ranking executives chose to resign despite their contracted tenures which are to last until the end of 2018.

Also in the announcement, Wang, 61, will continue to be a member of the board and act as a makeshift board secretary before a replacement is found. Xing, 57, will also take charge of the issues of the board and Shi, 58, will remain the deputy manager of the firm.

It is highly speculated that the resignations of these three executives may have something to do with the attempt of the Beijing Tourism Group, a majority shareholder of Quanjude, which has partnered with Sanpower Group, a conglomerate centered on the business of modern services, to bid for McDonald’s major shares in China.

However, the spokesperson of Quanjude denied the speculation, saying that the change of the executive members is nothing unusual and everything in the group is running smoothly. The company will issue one more announcement later this week to provide more information regarding the future of the three executives as well as their substitutes.

A few days ago, the China Quanjude Group released a report forecasting its net profits at an estimated 58.20 million yuan (US$8.7 million) to 78.74 million yuan, registering a growth rate between negative and positive 15 percent, in the first half of this year.

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