Text|Zebra consumption Xu Ji.After the heavy snowfall, it is really winter, and the animals are busy stocking up on food for the winter. The same is true of the bigwigs in the business world, who rarely intersect with each other, and weave a complex network of friends with each other.
On December 12, Wanda announced that it had reached a reinvestment agreement with PAG Investment Group, a major investor in Wanda Commercial Management, at the cost of selling its absolute controlling stake, and the repurchase agreement that expired at the end of the year was terminated. In addition, the transfer of Wanda Films (002739SZ) control, ** part of Wanda Plaza, in exchange for a respite.
There are also some investors in Wanda Commercial Management, who don't want to wait for a long time and want to settle down as soon as possible. After all, my life is not very easy. For example, Country Garden (02007HK) and Yonghui Supermarket.
On December 14, Country Garden announced the transfer of Wanda Commercial Management 1. to Wanda's designated party79% of the shares, the transaction consideration is 306.9 billion yuan. Just two days ago, Yang Huiyan said that the family would smash the pot and sell iron to support the company;The four core executives also took the initiative to reduce their salaries to 120,000 yuan a year.
On the same day, Yonghui Supermarket (601933SH) announced that it will hold Wanda Commercial Management 143% of the shares were transferred to Wang Jianlin's old friend Sun Xishuang's Dalian Yifang Group for a consideration of 453 billion yuan.
In December 2018, Yonghui Supermarket invested 353.1 billion yuan, the transfer of this part of Wanda Commercial Management equity held by one party group. Sell it back after 5 years and make a net profit of 61.2 billion yuan. What's more, swap the investment for cash.
At that time, Yonghui Supermarket invested in Wanda Commercial Management in order to expand and expand its own supermarket business.
Wanda Plaza is not only a shopping mall, but also a distribution center for offline consumption power. With its business management business, Wanda has cultivated consumer brands such as Wanda Cinemas, Baby King, and Big Players, but it lacks supermarket formats. If every supermarket configured in Wanda Plaza can be Yonghui, it will be a win-win strategic cooperation.
Now, Yonghui chooses to sell its equity in order to shrink, reserve cash, and survive its trough period.
Thirty years in the east of the river, thirty years in the west of the river. The former "light of China's retail" has also lost its former spirit.
Zhang Xuansong, a young man from Fujian who didn't finish high school, got involved in shopping malls through beer ** after many years at the bottom, and opened the predecessor of Yonghui Supermarket, "Gule Weili" supermarket, in 1995.
In the early days, Yonghui Supermarket was no different from its peers, and its business progress was slow. Until it found the grasp of fresh food, it took nearly ten years to expand the total number of stores to 156, with a total operating area of more than one million, and landed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2010.
At that time, the industry crisis of offline retail had begun to brew, and leading players such as Xinyijia, Agricultural and Industrial Supermarket, Haoyouduo, and Tesco had withdrawn one after another. Yonghui Supermarket, however, is a dark horse, swimming against the tide in the offline retail rivers and lakes, taking advantage of the opportunity to go public, and the number of stores has increased nearly 10 times in 10 years, steadily entering the top three supermarket chains in China.
Yonghui Supermarket, which has completed the original accumulation of the industry, has more ambitions than that. In addition to holding the card Zhongbai Group, joining hands with Lianhua Supermarket and Hongqi Chain, it also invests in the first-chain partners Guolian Aquatic Products, Minwei Industry, Xingyuan Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, etc., forming a unique "Yonghui system" in the retail rivers and lakes, and its business territory involves retail, first-class chain, finance, etc.
Even if the new retail wave rises in the later period, Yonghui Supermarket is not far behind, and moves with the times, establishes Yonghui Yunchuang Concrete, and launches new retail businesses such as Super Species, Yonghui Life, and Yonghui Daojia.
In 2014, Dairy Farm International, a world-renowned retail company, invested 5.7 billion yuan in Yonghui Supermarket, becoming its single largest shareholder. In the following years, Yonghui Supermarket received investment from JD.com and Tencent, injecting Internet genes into this traditional supermarket.
So far, Yonghui Supermarket has ushered in its own highlight moment, with a peak market value of 117.9 billion yuan.
However, no matter how dazzling the business model is, no matter how long-sleeved and good at dancing in the capital market, the essence of offline retail cannot be changed. Low gross profit margin, high expense rate, and the dimensionality reduction blow of Internet players.
Yonghui Supermarket is struggling day by day, and its revenue has declined year after year from 2021 to 2022, with a loss of 394.4 billion and 276.3 billion yuan. Half of the company's losses come from the main supermarket business, and the other half comes from impairment losses in the investment sector - for example, only the company's holdings of Arowana (300999SZ)**The loss in 2022 is as high as tens of millions of yuan.
Under multiple pressures, Yonghui Supermarket's share price has never been able to return to its highs, and the latest market value is only 2686.2 billion yuan, nearly eighty percent evaporated from the peak.
Yonghui Supermarket's grand hegemony began to become disillusioned. Switch from expansion mode to shrink mode.
The overall ebb of the new retail business has even ceased to appear in the company's financial reportsAt the same time, Yonghui Supermarket carried out store adjustments, eliminated long-term loss-making stores, and cautiously opened new stores. As of the end of June 2023, the number of the company's supermarket stores totaled 1,008, which is lower than the overall level of previous years.
In its heyday, Yonghui Supermarket opened up four major business territories: "Yunchao", "Yunchuang", "Yunshang" and "Yunjin", but now, this structure no longer exists. Among them, for the financial sector, the company's statement in the 2022 annual report is, "actively shrinking the scale".
Based on the strategy of comprehensive contraction, Yonghui Supermarket will promote its own brand to increase gross profit margin with the advantage of the first chain, and improve operational efficiency with the help of digital tools, and finally usher in a big turnaround in performance in 2023.
From January to September this year, Yonghui Supermarket's revenue fell by 12 percent year-on-year44% to 6208.8 billion yuan, net profit attributable to the parent company 5229120,000 yuan, and finally achieved a turnaround - although 0A net profit margin of 08% is better than nothing.
The originally powerful "Yonghui system" ushered in the fate of falling apart. Withdraw from Lianhua Supermarket, empty Guolian Aquatic Products shares, **Zhongbai Group (000759SZ), and now, the transfer of Wanda Commercial Management's equity.
Recently, Hongqi Chain (002697SZ) is planning a transfer of control, which may be intended to bring in more powerful capital parties. At that time, will the second shareholder, Yonghui Supermarket, take the opportunity to sell its shares?
It is worth mentioning that after Yonghui Supermarket sold a number of assets in a row, the balance of cash and cash equivalents as of the end of September this year was as high as 666.1 billion yuan. If you add the Wanda Commercial Management equity transfer money that will arrive one after another, 453 billion yuan, cash reserves will reach 10 billion yuan.
In addition, Yonghui Supermarket also has billions of yuan in various financial assets. Looking at the current posture, it is possible that they will all be put on the shelves and exchanged for cash.
At the time of the dilemma, Yonghui Supermarket was rumored to be arrested by Jingdong Group (09618.) in August this yearHK), which both parties flatly denied at the time. Now, Jingdong has its own difficulties to overcome, and I'm afraid I don't have the energy to take care of the stall in Yonghui Supermarket.
Next, Yonghui Supermarket will rely on tens of billions of cash reserves to wait for opportunities to seek business upgrades or transformations to avoid repeating Suning Tesco (002024SZ)?
Yonghui Supermarket has no actual controller for many years, and the founder Zhang Xuansong has been constantly **, these problems may have to be handed over to Milk International and Tencent (00700.) in the futureHK) and JD.com.