Do you remember Zhangzi Island?This Shenzhen Stock Exchange-listed company once caused a sensation in the A** field because of the abnormal inventory of scallops, first "scallops ran away", and then "scallops starved to death", every move was concerned by shareholders, and the tortuous development not only shocked shareholders, but also attracted the CSRC to intervene in the investigation.
Recently, the Zhangzidao incident ushered in the finale. According to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Wu Hougang, the former chairman and president of Zhangzidao, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 920,000 yuan for the crimes of disclosing important information in violation of regulations, fraud, collusion in bidding, and offering bribes to non-state functionaries.
Today, let's review the beginning and end of the Zhangzidao incident, and see how this company went from being the leader of the marine ranch to the laughing stock of the A** field, and finally led to the chairman being imprisoned.
Zhangzidao is a company mainly engaged in seafood breeding and seedling, marine aquaculture breeding, marine food research and development, processing and sales, cold chain logistics and fishery equipment and other industries, its main product is Ezo scallops, and it is also the largest Ezo scallop breeding enterprise in China.
In October 2014, Zhangzidao issued an announcement stating that it would conduct sampling of the stock of bottom-sown Ezo scallops in autumn according to the system, and according to the sampling results, it was found that the inventory of bottom-sown Ezo scallops in some sea areas was abnormal, which would cause heavy losses. At that time, Zhangzidao said that it was judged from various situations that a natural disaster had occurred in its marine ranch, and the main causes of the disaster were the low temperature and temperature change of the cold water mass in the North Yellow Sea, the influence of the cold water mass in the North Yellow Sea and the current front along the coast of southern Liaoning, and changes in nutrients.
Scallops have gone to **" has also become a hot topic among shareholders, and some people even joked that they may go to a warm place to spend the winter. Red Star Capital Bureau flipped through the financial report and found that Zhangzidao's revenue in 2014 was about 266.2 billion yuan, with a net loss of 11$8.9 billion.
In 2018, scallops from Zhangzidao reappeared in the public eye. In February of that year, Zhangzidao issued an announcement saying that it had found that the stocks of bottom-sown Ezo scallops in some waters were abnormal. As for the abnormal inventory, Zhangzidao gave an analysis and judgment at that time: the decrease in precipitation led to a decline in the number of bait organisms of scallops, and the sharp expansion of the breeding scale exacerbated the shortage of bait, coupled with the abnormal sea temperature, resulting in the scallops after the high temperature period became thinner and thinner, the quality became worse and worse, and the scallops that had been starved for a long time did not recover, and finally induced death. In other words, this wave of scallops did not "run away", but "starved to death", which once again sparked heated discussions among shareholders. On 9 February 2018, Zhangzidao received the Notice of Investigation from the CSRC. According to the "Investigation Notice", the China Securities Regulatory Commission decided to file a case for investigation against Zhangzidao due to suspected violations of information disclosure laws and regulations.
Just after the CSRC filed an investigation, at the end of March 2019, Zhangzidao released a first-quarter performance forecast, with an expected loss of 40 million yuan to 45 million yuan, and the main factors affecting the performance are related to scallops. Zhangzidao said that due to the impact of the 2018 marine ranch disaster, the total harvestable resources of Ezo scallops sown at the end of 2016 and 2017 were reduced, and in the short term, due to the decline in the output of marine ranch aquaculture products, the corresponding depreciation and amortization, sea area use and other fixed costs could not be diluted, resulting in an increase in the unit cost of products, affecting the performance of about 9 million yuan in the first quarter of 2019.
In the course of the investigation, the CSRC also borrowed the Beidou satellite to find scallops from Zhangzi Island. According to CCTV financial reports, the amount of fishing area in Zhangzidao is provided to financial personnel on a monthly basis by fishing personnel, and there is no objective record for reference on a daily basis, and there is no effective means for financial personnel to verify, and internal control is seriously lacking. But in fact, the sea areas where the Zhangzidao fishing boats went and how long they stayed have long been recorded by the "sky net" composed of dozens of Beidou satellites. According to the above report, investigators used objective satellite positioning data to restore the actual fishing track map of the Zhangzidao fishing boat. After comparison, it was found that Zhangzidao did not truthfully record the fishing area, and the actual fishing area in 2016 was nearly 140,000 mu more than the book record.
According to the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Zhangzidao has lost money for two consecutive years in 2014 and 2015, and objectively took advantage of the characteristics of seabed inventory and fishing situation that are difficult to find, investigate and verify, and did not carry forward costs based on the actual fishing area, resulting in serious distortion of financial reports, and in 2016, the profit was disclosed from loss to profit by underrecording costs and non-operating expenses, and in 2017, the sea area that had been harvested in previous years was included in the write-off sea area or the impairment sea area, and the loss was exaggerated. In addition, Zhangzidao also involved in the "year-end inventory report" and "write-off announcement" disclosure of untrue, autumn test disclosure untrue, untimely disclosure of performance changes and other illegal facts, the illegal circumstances are particularly serious, seriously disrupting the market order, seriously damaging the interests of investors, and the social impact is extremely bad.
In June 2020, the China Securities Regulatory Commission made an administrative penalty and market ban decision on Zhangzidao's illegal information disclosure case, gave a warning to Zhangzidao and imposed a fine of 600,000 yuan, gave a warning to 15 responsible personnel, and imposed fines ranging from 300,000 yuan to 600,000 yuan respectively, and imposed a lifetime market ban on Wu Hougang and other 6 responsible personnel. In December 2020, Wu Hougang, the former chairman and president of Zhangzidao, was arrested by the procuratorate. In September 2021, Wu Hougang was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 920,000 yuan in the first instance. In December 2021, Wu Hougang's appeal was rejected in the second instance and the original verdict was upheld.
The Zhangzidao incident is a typical case of illegal information disclosure, and it is also a typical case of marine ranching risk. Taking advantage of the fact that it is difficult to find, investigate and verify the seabed inventory and fishing situation, Zhangzidao fabricated false financial data to mislead investors, which eventually led to huge losses, and was even suspected of fraud, collusive bidding, bribery and other crimes, causing serious damage to investors and the market.
The enlightenment of the Zhangzidao incident is that investors should look at listed companies with a more cautious eye, verify the authenticity of their information in many aspects, and do not believe the company's propaganda to avoid being deceived.