On December 12, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned from the Ali auction platform that 100,000 shares of Zhejiang Wahaha Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wahaha Industrial") will be auctioned at 13 o'clock on December 28. Half a year ago, Wahaha Industrial also had a precedent of its shares being auctioned by the judiciary.
The reason why this equity auction has attracted attention is that Wahaha, which is "not listed", seems to have given ordinary people the opportunity to hold shares. Over the years, Wahaha has been frequently rumored to be listed, but there has been no substantive action so far. Analysts believe that after Zong Fuli, vice chairman and general manager of Wahaha, it is possible to use financing and even enter the capital market in the future, but at present, the number of shareholders of Wahaha is large and scattered, and it is not easy to land on A-shares.
Shares were auctioned twice within a year.
According to the Ali auction platform, the starting auction of Wahaha Industrial shares is 1.84 million yuan, equivalent to 18. per share4 yuan, to participate in the auction to pay a deposit of 3680,000 yuan, with a price increase of 5,000 yuan each time. As of 10 p.m. on Dec. 12, the auction had attracted 1More than 60,000 onlookers, but no one signed up.
According to the information released by the Ali auction platform, Wahaha Industrial was established in 1993 and is located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, with a registered capital of 917917.55 million yuan, the legal representative is Zong Qinghou, chairman of Wahaha Group, and the business period is from February 1993 to no fixed period.
This is not the first time Wahaha shares have been auctioned. In June 2023, the Zhuji Municipal People's Court publicly auctioned 16,750 shares of Zhejiang Wahaha Industrial Co., Ltd. on the Ali Asset Platform for a price of 7The minimum price is 50,000 yuan. A total of 17 people signed up for the auction, and after 124 rounds of bidding and 37 delays, the final result was 34The ** transaction of 20,000 yuan, the premium rate is as high as 356%, and the final transaction ** is equivalent to 20 per share$4.
Through the Ali auction platform, it can be seen that the shares of Wahaha Industry auctioned in June belonged to the judicial auction, and the shares were seized by the Zhuji Municipal People's Court;The shares to be auctioned on December 28 are asset transfers.
The relevant staff of the Zhejiang Provincial Equity Trading Center told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that "the share transferor is Zhejiang Feed, which is about to be absorbed by the merger of the brother company, and the superior unit requires it to deal with the equity assets." The equity has paid a dividend of 3-5 cents per share per year for the past ten years, with a maximum of 56 gross (after tax)". According to preliminary calculations, if 100,000 shares of Wahaha Industrial are auctioned, the annual income will be about 30,000-50,000 yuan.
There have been rumors of listing many times.
100,000 shares of Wahaha Industrial were auctioned, triggering reverie in the industry about whether Wahaha wanted to clean up its shares and pave the way for listing.
In this regard, Shen Meng, executive director of Xiangsong Capital, told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, "Most of the Ali auction platforms are auctions involving judicial disposal, and judging from the scale of Wahaha's auction, it should also be a small transaction, so it is not quite like a share cleanup." It should be that the transferor and Wahaha have cooperated at the beginning, but ** shares".
Wahaha Industrial's shares have been relatively dispersed, according to Tianyan, the initiating corporate shares account for about 430322% of the shares, internal employees accounted for about 314693%, and the shares of social legal persons account for about 254985%。It is understood that Wahaha began to test the water employee stock ownership plan in 1999, and by 2003, the company has achieved full shareholding, and the current number of shareholders exceeds 170,000.
The overly dispersed shares have also led to Wahaha's inability to achieve listing in a short period of time. According to the relevant provisions of the IPO, when the company to be listed applies for listing, the employee stock ownership plan needs to be penetrated by shareholders, and the final number of shareholders after the penetration shall not exceed 200.
In 2017, 2018 and 2020, Wahaha rumored that it would go public, but all of them were denied by the company, and no substantive progress has been announced. In 2017, at the 30th anniversary celebration of Wahaha, Zong Qinghou changed his stance on listing for the first time, "After listing, it can accelerate the development of the enterprise, and Wahaha will also consider listing at an appropriate time."
The closest thing to going public was in 2018, when Wahaha said that it would be priced at 3 yuan per share (deducting 0.).$4 is $2 after tax6 yuan per share), all the original (employee) shares were withdrawn, because the original "incentive effect of shares is declining", and emphasized that the withdrawal of shares is voluntary for employees. However, Wahaha then denied that the repurchase of employee shares was paving the way for listing.
The second generation "is at the helm and wants to return to the top."
2013 was the most glorious time for Wahaha, when it created a record revenue of 73.8 billion yuan as the leader of China's food and beverage industry.
But 2013 was also the beginning of the decline in Wahaha's performance. From 2014 to 2017, Wahaha's revenue was 72.8 billion yuan, 67.7 billion yuan, 52.9 billion yuan, and 45.6 billion yuan respectively, showing a continuous downward trend. As Wahaha's star product, the sales of Nutrition Express in 2014-2016 were 153600 million yuan, 115400 million yuan, 84200 million yuan, almost halved. At the same time, Wahaha has also been blocked in the bottled water track, and as brands such as Nongfu Spring and China Resources Cestbon have come to the fore, they continue to eat away at Wahaha's market share.
On December 12, 2023, the 2024 National Sales Work Conference of Wahaha Group was held in Hangzhou. Zong Fuli said, "Wahaha's joint sales model is like a capillary all over the country, deep into counties, towns and villages, building a stable market, but this is far from enough, in the new year, Wahaha should grasp the strong market at the same time, aim at special channels, and actively explore new markets."
For listing, Zong Fuli once had a positive attitude, "listing is a normal measure for the development of enterprises, and the future development of enterprises needs to embrace the capital market, and only by completing the combination with the capital market can we boost the enterprise to go further."
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, believes that "Wahaha's entire model is changing, and it may enter the capital market in the future." When Zong Fuli became a leading person, the entire business thinking was centered on the capital market, which matched the development trend of the entire industry and the medium and long-term strategy of Wahaha's sustainable development."
Zhu Danpeng further said, "Wahaha has a scale of 50 billion, and the overall profit is not bad, there is this volume to impact the capital market, but it may be a little difficult to land on A-shares."
Shen Meng also said, "Wahaha does not insist on not going public, but if it wants to be listed, the cost of reform involved is too high."
Regarding issues such as the auction of shares, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily sent an interview letter to Wahaha Industrial by email, but did not receive a reply by press time.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Kong Wenxie.