Last Friday, Wang Shi, chairman of China Vanke, one of the country’s largest property companies, was back in the spotlight — and enjoying it for a change.

After a year of struggling to retain control of Vanke, he was holding forth at a Beijing conference organised by the Paulson Institute about the company’s overseas projects and the challenges posed by Chinese capital controls, confident that he had finally fought off a takeover attempt from a rival property developer.

Only 12 months ago, he appeared to be on the verge of losing control of the company he founded to a brash outsider — Yao Zhenhua, a property developer turned insurance mogul who had built up the largest single stake in Vanke. Today Mr Wang is firmly back in control of Vanke and Mr Yao has been banned from participating in the insurance industry for 10 years.