PRIVATE conglomerate Reward, whose CEO had ambitious plans to open 1,500 bakeries in China using flour produced on French land that he snapped up, has gone bankrupt, according to court documents.

Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court on May 13 accepted an application to go into receivership filed by Hu Keqin’s group, according to a latest notice on the national bankruptcy register.

The Beijing-based group, which originally specialized in infant formula and cleaning products, was one of the top 100 private companies in China. It had been on an overseas acquisition spree in previous years.

In an interview last year, chief executive Hu said he had bought about 3,000 hectares in France since 2014 and planned to open 1,500 bakeries in China in five years, supplied with French flour.

In 2017, Reward also took control of a lavender soap maker in the south of France, Le Chatelard 1802.

Reward also owns a cosmetics factory in the United States.

Despite Hu’s dream of growing a bakery chain selling baguettes, it only opened three Chez Blandine bakeries in Beijing, and they have already closed, according to Dianping.com, the go-to reference site for shopping and services in China.

The notice published online said a shareholders’ meeting at the end of December had approved a request to file for bankruptcy.

According to its balance sheet at the end of December, Reward, known as Luowa in Chinese, still had more assets than liabilities — more than 11 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) against 6 billion yuan.

But the group explained it had insufficient cash and its assets were difficult to sell.

Credit ratings agency Fitch announced last year that Reward had been unable to pay a debt of 300 million yuan in early December, while at the end of September it assured that it had 4.15 billion yuan in cash.(SD-Agencies)