Kunpeng Project
Produced by |Bullet Finance.
Author |Huang Yanhua.
Edit |Egg total.
American Editor |Qianqian.
Audit |Ode.
The Martian, known as the "first brother of the integrated stove", has taken another step on the road of LP.
At the end of November, Martian announced that the company intends to participate in the subscription of Sequoia ** shares established by Sequoia Capital as the manager and Sequoia Kunpeng as the general partner with its own funds of 70 million yuan as a limited partner.
This is not the first time that Martian has done LP, it first invested in Haining High-quality Chuangtuo Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) in September 2021, and then invested in Gongqingcheng Chaofan Exploration Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership) twice in July and August 2023 respectively.
From taking VC's money to become an invested company, to feeding back institutions as investors, like many listed companies, Martian is also gradually building its own LP territory.
However, what makes the outside world curious is whether investment can really become a new growth engine in the current situation of Martian's weak performance and declining market shareWhy did the Martians choose to be the LP of Sequoia?
The Martians' relationship with redwoods dates back to 2019.
In June of that year, Martian introduced Sequoia Zhisheng Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) in Ningbo Meishan Free Trade Port Area, a subsidiary of Sequoia Capital. According to relevant reports, Sequoia Zhisheng's shareholding was in June 2019, which happened to be about 6 months after Martian submitted its prospectus to the CSRC (the signing date of the prospectus was December 20, 2019), and there was a suspicion of surprise shareholding.
In addition, Sequoia Capital's stake in Martian also involves a VAM clause, "after the completion of this investment, if the target company fails to conduct a qualified initial public offering before June 30, 2024, or the transferor is in serious breach of contract and fails to remediate the ...... in time."At any time thereafter, the investor shall have the right (but not the obligation) to require the transferor to repurchase all or part of the target shares held by the transferor at a purchase rate equal to the greater of the following: ”
On December 31, 2020, Martian was officially listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of Shenzhen ** Exchange. Since then, Sequoia Capital has started to carry out ** operations.
In June 2022, the Martian announced that Sequoia Zhisheng plans to use centralized bidding transactions and block transactions to total no more than 21.3 million shares of the company.
In January this year, Sequoia Zhisheng planned to total ** Martian shares in a block transaction within 6 months, no more than 16668.06 million shares;Until April, the Martian announced that Sequoia Zhisheng would use centralized bidding and block trading from January 30 to April 11960,000 shares of the company.
It is also worth noting that since the signing of the contract between Sequoia and the Martians, the repurchase conditions stipulated in the VAM clause have not been triggered.
Figure: Photo.com, based on VRF protocol).
Unexpectedly, as a former invested company, Martian officially announced on November 28 that it planned to invest 70 million yuan to become the LP of Sequoia.
However, this is not the first time that the Martian has done LP. According to Interface News Bullet Finance, the Martian first invested 75 million yuan in September 2021 and held 1071%, invested in Haining High-quality Chuangtuo Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), which is mainly invested in the advanced manufacturing industry, and then invested a total of 39.8 billion yuan, holding 99 shares00%, invested in Gongqingcheng Chaofan Exploration Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership).
Of course, it has become a common phenomenon in the industry for listed companies to do LP. Previously, Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, Midea, Haier and other companies all started LPs.
The reason why Martian chose to be the LP of Sequoia is because it believes that Sequoia, as a leading professional investment institution, has rich resource advantages, which can help the company grasp strategic cooperation opportunities to a certain extent, strengthen its own industrial chain, and further enhance the company's comprehensive competitiveness and profitability.
However, when a company makes a high-profile official announcement that it wants to invest in the business instead of investing more energy in its main business, it will inevitably attract the attention of the outside world to its development layout.
Interface News Bullet Finance found that the development of the integrated stove, the main business of the Martians, is going downhill, which may be another important reason for its investment route, after all, "multi-legged walking" is also quite important for the development of enterprises.
Let's take a look at the overall situation of the integrated cooker market, in the first three quarters of this year, the domestic integrated cooker market has seen a decline in volume.
According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, the cumulative retail sales of the integrated stove market from January to September 2023 will be 18.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 27%；The cumulative retail sales volume was 2.04 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 25%。From the perspective of sales, the retail sales of the integrated stove market in the first three quarters were 0 year-on-year5%、-1.3% and -76%；Retail sales were 01%、-2.1% and -47%。
Looking at the development of Martian as the "first brother of integrated stove", Aowei cloud network data shows that from the perspective of domestic online sales, the sales market share of Martian integrated stove in 2021-2022 is 1786% and 1999%, showing an upward trend.
But in 2023, this value has begun to decline. In the first 10 months of 2023, the market share of online sales of Martian integrated cookers was 1921%, a year-on-year decrease of 01%。
Figure Aowei cloud network).
From the perspective of domestic offline sales, the sales market share of Martian integrated cookers from 2021 to 2022 will be 2076% and 2341%, showing an upward trend.
But this year, that number has also dropped. In the first 10 months of 2023, the offline sales market share of the Martian integrated stove was 172%, a year-on-year decrease of 681%。
Figure Aowei cloud network).
In fact, it is not only the sales market share that has declined, but also the offline sales market share of the Martian integrated cooker.
According to the data of Aowei cloud network, from 2021 to 2022, the market share of the offline sales volume of the Martian integrated stove will be 2334% and 2656%, showing an upward trend. But in the first 10 months of 2023, the market share of offline sales of Martian integrated stoves is 1957%, a year-on-year decrease of 767%。
Figure Aowei cloud network).
It should also be pointed out that although on the one hand, Martian has expanded other categories such as integrated dishwashers and integrated sinks in recent years, the contribution of these categories to the company's revenue is still low.
According to the financial report, the revenue proportion of Martian washing products from 2020 to 2022 is respectively. 70% and 558% and always below 7%. In 2022, the revenue of Martian washing products will even decline year-on-year, with a decline of 379%。
On the other hand, the Martians maintain a high investment in sales.
According to the financial report, the sales expense ratios of the Martians in the first three quarters of 2018-2023 are: 00% and 2272%, all above 20%.
However, the two ways of developing new categories and investing in higher sales costs are not yet able to drive the overall revenue of the Martians, and the Martians' revenue in the first three quarters of 2023 will be 157.1 billion yuan, down 4 percent year-on-year32%。
In addition, due to weak performance growth and other issues, the stock price of Martian has also continued to be sluggish.
According to Jiemian News Bullet Finance, on July 16, 2021, the share price of the Martian reached 7950 yuan, a record high. Since then, its stock price has begun to fall. As of December 14, 2023**, the Martian share price is trading at 1611 yuan shares, down 7974%。
This means that the Martians urgently need to find a new growth engine, and in the case of little success in the method of opening up new categories, the Martians are pinning their hopes on telling a new story of the company's growth through external investment, can they do so this time?
This year's LP ROI is generally lower than in previous years. When the general environment is good or the industry is hot, it is relatively easy for the invested companies to raise funds or go public, and the GP exit channel is relatively clear, but the operating pressure of the invested companies is generally much greater than in previous years. An investor told Interface News Bullet Finance.
The investor bluntly said that whether many invested companies can survive may be a problem, not to mention that on the basis of survival, it will bring more investment returns to GP, and the low return on investment of GP will also affect the return on investment of LP to a certain extent.
According to the Martian financial report, at the end of 2022, the total assets of Haining High-quality Chuangtuo Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), the company it invested, were 27,916.2 billion yuan, compared with 27,923.4 billion yuan, a slight decrease.
As of September 30, 2023, the Martian net cash flow from investment activities was 3200 million yuan, compared with -4 in the same period last year5.2 billion yuan, an increase of 170 percent year-on-year80%, but it remains to be seen whether its investment activities can become a new growth engine for companies.
In fact, if an enterprise's performance wants to continue to grow, in addition to proper layout in investment, it is more important to rely on endogenous growth.
At present, there are some problems with the endogenous growth of Martians. As we all know, the core of an enterprise's growth depends on people, but the Martian's senior management team is not stable, which brings uncertainty to the development of the enterprise.
In July 2021, Zhang An, a former executive of Martian, applied for resignation as the company's deputy general manager. According to public statistics, in 2022 alone, 6 senior executives of Martian will leave, including Zhu Zhengyao, who co-founded Martian.
In August and September this year, Martian successively announced that the company's former non-independent director and deputy general manager ** Biao, and the former deputy general manager Hu Mingyi applied for resignation.
Li Xun, who has been engaged in enterprise management consulting for a long time, told Jiemian News Bullet Finance that the instability of the senior management team will lead to frequent changes in corporate strategy.
It is important to know that each executive has his own management philosophy and development direction, and if the senior management changes frequently, the strategic planning and direction of the enterprise will continue to change, which will lead to the lack of continuity and stability in the development direction of the enterprise, and affect the long-term growth of the enterprise. Li Xun said.
Second, the instability of the executive team can also affect the stability and morale of employees. Because the constant change of senior management will bring different management styles and decision-making styles, which will lead to a decrease in team cohesion and execution of employees, which in turn will affect the operational efficiency and performance of the enterprise.
In addition, an unstable executive team can lead to chaos and uncertainty within the organization.
Every new executive needs time to familiarize themselves with the business and management of the business, and there may be some adjustments and changes in the process, which may bring chaos and uncertainty in the short term, affecting the stable operation of the enterprise. Li Xun said.
In addition to the human factor, another important factor that affects the growth of a business is the product.
The substitutability of Martian products is strong, and the integrated stove products of Zhejiang Meida, Robam Appliances, Midea and Fotile have formed a certain competitive pressure on them.
This is related to the low proportion of R&D investment of Martians, according to the financial report, from 2018 to the first three quarters of 2023, the R&D expense rate of Martians is only. 70% and 579%, basically below 5%, similar to Zhejiang Meida, Robam Appliances and other enterprises, and if there is no heavy investment in R&D investment, its product competitiveness is not outstanding enough.
In addition, Jiemian News Bullet Finance noticed that whether it is on social platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, or on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, or on complaint platforms such as Black Cat Complaints, consumers can be seen dissatisfied with the quality and quality of Martian products.
Figure: Douyin, Xiaohongshu, JD.com, Black Cat complaint).
It should be pointed out that product quality and service problems will not only reduce the referral and repurchase rate of Martian old users, but also affect the purchase decisions of potential users to a certain extent.
At present, the competition in the integrated cooker industry is becoming increasingly intensified, and the general environment is not friendly, and the Martians have inevitably fallen into the dilemma of weak performance and declining market share of integrated cooker.
It is understandable that the Martians are trying to grow through external investment, but the return on investment will be more uncertain now than before.
For Martians, it may be more important to focus on the main business, rebuild the reputation of word-of-mouth by polishing good products, serving users, and maintaining the stability of the senior management team, strengthening the management of the first chain, and improving operational efficiency, so that the performance can return to the growth track as soon as possible.
Note: The calculation method of "sales expense rate" mentioned in the article is: sales expenses revenue * 100%;"R&D expense ratio" is calculated as follows: R&D expense revenue * 100%. Li Xun is a pseudonym in the article. The title picture in the article comes from: Martian official WeChat.