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Source: Yema Finance | Nurturing for a lifetime? Author | Gao Yan Editor | Ye Kai

After the National Day holiday, an owner in a residential compound managed by Agile Group in Guangzhou posted a long message in the owners' WeChat group, like a depth charge that not only shocked the compound's residents but sent shockwaves across the entire country.

On October 11, the owner posted a long message in the Shinian Xiaoya owners' group at the Agile Garden in Panyu, Guangzhou, stating that a security team leader in the compound was suspected of long-term abuse of young children. A brave little girl went to the police station by herself to report the case: four children are known to have been harmed, the youngest only eight or nine years old. The abuse began around 2020 and continued for approximately six to seven years. The individual worked long-term night shifts, lured children with mobile phones, snacks, and loose change, and the crime scenes were security booths between two buildings. Nearly 200 videos were also filmed. The security team leader was taken away by police on September 27 and criminally detained on September 28. The message hoped parents would provide psychological counseling and called on children who had been sexually abused to bravely come forward and testify.

Image source: Owners' WeChat group

That evening, the building steward of Agile Property responded in the owners' group: they had immediately cooperated with the public security investigation and launched an internal review, the person involved had been subject to compulsory measures according to law, and there is "zero tolerance" for illegal and criminal acts. Follow-up would further strengthen security management. At the same time, owners were urged not to spread information not confirmed by judicial authorities.

It is worth noting that this did not happen at a small property management company. Behind it are two listed companies under the family of "Guangdong tycoon" Chen Zhuolin: Agile Group Holdings Ltd (HK: 3383) and its property management arm A-Living Smart Services Group Co Ltd (HK: 3319). Agile, known as one of the "Five Tigers of South China" with sales exceeding 100 billion yuan, spun off its property management arm A-Living for a Hong Kong listing in February 2018 (3319.HK), becoming China's first red-chip spin-off H-share listed property services enterprise. As of October 12, 2026, Agile-related companies held 42.88% of A-Living's shares.

The security guard who was supposed to protect owners' safety had become a "terrifying familiar face," leaving the public in an uproar. On October 12, Agile Group fell 4.71% to close at HK$0.18 per share, with a market value of HK$920 million; A-Living Smart Services rebounded after the negative news was fully priced in, closing at HK$1.845 per share, with a market value of HK$2.6 billion.

Ironically, A-Living Smart Services, to which the security guard involved belonged, has a resounding slogan: "Nurturing for a lifetime."

Image source: Owners' WeChat group

Owners' questions: The question of property safety

But the incident had long since spilled beyond a single residential compound. For A-Living, a Hong Kong-listed company that has written "Nurturing for a lifetime" into its mission, it must answer: Why was the safety commitment embedded in owners' property fees not only unfulfilled, but also violated by the very person entrusted to guard it?

The owners' long message raised very specific questions: Was a background check conducted during recruitment? Why were broken surveillance cameras left unrepaired for so long? Does this amount to providing an environment for crime? The corners where children were alone with the security guard fall within the compound's property management-controlled areas — was there no surveillance, or was the surveillance merely a formality? Why could security personnel leave their posts at will and take children into enclosed corners? Why could a night-shift team leader who had worked for six or seven years and had complaints during that time continue in the position?

Image source: Owners' WeChat group

A-Living Property's statement confirmed procedural information — cooperation with the investigation, internal review... — but did not directly respond to any of the substantive questions above. In its interim results announcement, A-Living wrote that in the first half of the year it had opened channels including "customer complaints directly to the group" and strengthened supervision and spot checks on complaint closure loops. Writing systems into announcements is easy; what is difficult is truly implementing and operating them.

The owners' long message mentioned that the property management company could be sued, but the main culprit is the security guard, on the grounds that the location of the incident was within the compound's property management-controlled area. Pursuing legal rights has a basis in law. Article 942 of the Civil Code stipulates that property service providers shall maintain basic order within the property service area and take reasonable measures to protect owners' personal and property safety; Article 1198 stipulates that where damage is caused by a third party's act and the manager fails to fulfill safety guarantee obligations, the manager bears corresponding supplementary liability.

Sun Zhenyong, a senior partner at Beijing Kangda Law Firm, previously said in an interview with Legal Daily that property management companies cannot exempt themselves from liability by dismissing employees; even if an employee resigns, the company may still bear liability according to law. If it is later found that the property management company was at fault in selection, surveillance, or complaint handling, compensation and recovery issues will follow.

Not an isolated case

Even more distressing is that after the security guard suspected of sexually abusing owners' children drew public attention, people were shocked to discover that similar atrocities are actually not isolated cases.

According to Legal Daily, at 8 p.m. on October 31, 2025, in Xichuan, Henan Province, a 9-year-old girl named Xiaolan was lured into a security booth by a guard under the pretext of looking at a mobile phone. He had her sit on his lap and molested her. After leaving the booth, Xiaolan told her parents, who immediately called the police. Prosecutors found this was not the guard's first offense; in 2021 he had been administratively detained for 15 days for similar behavior. He later continued to work without a security guard certificate and was ultimately sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison. Prosecutors subsequently pushed for a county-wide security guard screening.

Image source: Media reports

In addition, Zunyi Evening News also reported that in 2025, a security guard surnamed Zhu at a residential compound in Zunyi, Guizhou, molested a 10-year-old girl three times within three months. After the family reported the case, they initially only received an administrative penalty notice. Only after supervision and case filing by the procuratorate was he brought to court, and Zhu was ultimately sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison.

According to New Express, in 2009, a security guard surnamed Gao at a residential compound in Guangzhou took three girls up to the rooftop one evening, pulled out 1.5 yuan to send two companions away, and molested one of the girls alone. The next day the parents called the police, and surveillance footage became key evidence for conviction. Gao was sentenced to 2 years and 9 months in prison for child molestation.

In 2020, the official WeChat account of the Yueqing People's Court in Zhejiang disclosed that a repeat offender who had been imprisoned three times for theft had been working as a security guard for only about 20 days when he molested a girl who came to the duty room to pick up a food delivery, and was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison.

Statistics from public welfare organizations are even more alarming. The "Girls' Protection" team of the Beijing Zhongyi Public Welfare Foundation, together with People's Daily Online, China Youth Daily, and other media, released the "2025 Statistical Analysis Report on Child Sexual Abuse Cases," showing that in 2025, media publicly reported 204 child sexual abuse cases involving 690 child victims; among the 185 cases where interpersonal relationships were disclosed, 133 cases involved acquaintances, accounting for 71.89%, and 112 cases involved repeated sexual abuse, accounting for 54.9%.

Sun Xuemei, chairman of the Beijing Zhongyi Public Welfare Foundation and founder of "Girls' Protection," warned that children lack trustworthy channels for seeking help, and "the abuse will continue."

Regarding the above security guard molestation cases, Xu Fenghui, associate researcher at the Beijing Labor Science and Livelihood Security Research Base at Capital University of Economics and Business, pointed out that security guards "holding certificates" does not equal "being competent," and regulators need to "strictly implement regular background checks, break down cross-departmental data barriers, establish a dynamic screening mechanism for practitioners' criminal records and misconduct, and remove unqualified personnel at the source."

Individual evil cannot be completely prevented by a single company, but the meaning of systems is to make evil difficult to exist. It is hoped that the tragedy at Shinian Xiaoya can prompt the industry to learn from painful experience, summarize common issues, incorporate industry consensus into rules, and truly protect the safety of owners and their children.

Image source: Canned Image Library

A-Living Smart Services under scrutiny

A-Living Smart Services, to which the security guard involved belonged, is actually a Hong Kong-listed company that has done quite well in the business of owner safety in China. It has even surpassed its parent company Agile Group, from which it was spun off. As of June 30, 2026, A-Living managed an area of 493 million square meters across 3,847 projects. In the first half of 2026, the company's revenue was 6.064 billion yuan, down 6.2% year-on-year; profit attributable to shareholders was 317 million yuan, down 8.1% year-on-year; gross margin was 14.7%. For the full year of 2025, the company's revenue was 12.892 billion yuan, down 7.5% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to parent was 105 million yuan, turning around from a loss of 3.298 billion yuan in 2024. During 2025, it proactively exited 548 managed projects.

Image source: A-Living revenue structure

Property management services contribute more than 80% of revenue. The lifeblood of this business is collection rate, renewal rate, and owner reputation — the direct reason owners renew is "living in this compound feels reassuring." A child sexual abuse scandal lasting several years harms not just a temporary public opinion crisis, but the question in owners' hearts: "Do I still dare to let my child go downstairs to play alone?" For A-Living, which is at a critical stage of transitioning toward a "quality and efficiency" model, this question directly targets its most core brand value.

The capital market's reaction to an extreme case caused by a single security guard has been relatively muted. On October 12, A-Living Smart Services (3319.HK) closed at HK$1.845 per share, up 2.78%, with a total market value of approximately HK$2.6 billion; over a longer period, the stock has fallen 39.19% over the past year. As of October 12, the company had not responded to the matter through public channels, only issuing a situation statement by the building steward in the owners' group.

A more delicate backdrop is the parent company. In 2024, Agile Group began to default because it was unable to pay principal and interest on offshore notes. On October 5 this year, Agile Group Holdings Ltd (3383.HK) disclosed progress on offshore debt restructuring: it plans to issue approximately 9.199 billion new shares, accounting for about 64.6% of post-restructuring share capital, to resolve approximately US$5.183 billion in offshore debt. If the plan is implemented, the Chen Zhuolin family's stake will plunge from 56.67% to less than 20%, which outsiders call a "change of control." As of June 30, 2026, Agile Group's borrowings due within one year were as high as 41.972 billion yuan, while cash and bank balances were only 4.514 billion yuan, and the net debt ratio rose above 364%.

It is lamentable that Chen Zhuolin and Lu Qianfang, the couple, appeared on the "Hurun Rich List" as early as 2005, and by 2018 Agile Group's sales exceeded 100 billion yuan, but in the blink of an eye, success and failure turned to nothing. Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, analyzed that distressed real estate companies are successively entering the "restructuring implementation — residual value distribution" stage. The parent company being unable to save itself actually makes A-Living's narrative of "independence and marketization" even more important — third-party projects account for 81.8% of managed area, serving as a moat between the company and the parent company's risks; precisely for this reason, safety reputation means more to this company than to ordinary property management enterprises.

A real estate empire built by one family over forty years is now facing the test of losing control — and the "Nurturing for a lifetime" property management listed company it spun off is now dealing with a security guard suspected of sexually abusing owners' children, a case of "the guardian stealing from those he guards." Truly a season of many troubles, with the wind and rain heralding the storm.

The security guard suspected of child sexual abuse was only criminally detained just before the National Day holiday. When will the judicial verdict come? How will the property management company's liability be determined? All of this remains to be seen. But what is immediately at hand is whether A-Living Smart Services' promise to "strengthen security management" can become verifiable rectification actions — background checks, investigation of surveillance blind spots, complaint closure time limits, and so on. For a company that uses "Nurturing for a lifetime" as a selling point, safety is not a cost item; it is a core brand asset written into its DNA. Whether this crack can be repaired is not a news cycle soon replaced, but slow, meticulous work that concerns long-term development.

For the industry, the continuous emergence of extreme cases reminds everyone: background checks that exist in name only, security outsourcing, and the industry's coarse labor habit of "starting work first and obtaining certificates later" are increasingly incompatible with owners' needs and the refined competition of the property management industry. Coarse management easily turns positions meant to protect safety into entry points for risk. Employment background checks and regular dynamic screening must be truly implemented.

For the market, whether a company listed in the Hong Kong international capital market can be open and transparent in explaining major reputational and legal risks also counts on investors' trust ledger.

Have you ever encountered a "terrifying familiar face"? Let's talk in the comments section.