(Yicai) Oct. 20 -- Lan Shili, the former richest man in China's Hubei province, has completed the listing of his second company since police released him at the end of 2021.

Wuhan No. 2 Soda Factory officially landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by means of acquisition, as all procedures and reviews have been completed, Lan said at a conference in Beijing yesterday.

Wuhan No. 2 Soda Factory was bought by Raffles Interior, a Singaporean indoor decoration firm that went public in Hong Kong in May 2020 to complete its listing, Lan noted.

On Aug. 1, Raffles Interior said in a filing that it reached an agreement with an investment firm controlled by Lan for the former to issue HKD25.5 million (USD3.5 million) convertible notes to the latter in exchange for a 51 percent stake in Wuhan No. 2 Soda Factory.

Raffles Interior announced on Oct. 18 that the HKEX approved the issuance of the convertible bonds and that Xiang Ying and Peng Shangfeng, two former employees of Dongxing Group, which Lan established, were appointed the interior design company's executive director and non-executive director, respectively.

Lan founded Dongxing in 1991, with the businesses spanning across the catering, tourism, property, and civil aviation industries. In 2005, Lan became the first business owner from Hubei province to be included in Forbes China's top 100 richest list.

However, after the 2008 financial crisis, Dongxing's airline was hit by a capital chain rupture and eventually bankrupted.

In 2010, Lan was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion. Later, he was under police's detention multiple times on suspicion of contract fraud and was not released from jail until December 2021.

Lan started his second business last year, the first after being released. The new company, Wuhan Show Life Convenience Store, mainly operates the automatic vending machine business. It got listed on the HKEX in September last year by merging with digital imagining and smart technology products provider Sky Light Holdings.

In May last year, he bought Wuhan No. 2 Soda Factory, which had halted production, and launched the firm's first bottled soda water after production resumption in April.

In the first half of the year, Wuhan No. 2 Soda Factory realized a post-tax net profit of CNY2.1 million (USD286,990), with a revenue of CNY23.1 million (USD3.2 million), the firm said.

Editor: Futura Costaglione