The payment giant, which has a turnover of trillions of dollars, has encountered an inflection point

Mondo Technology Updated on 2024-02-20

"A POS machine brand that advertises during the CCTV1** period. On social platforms such as a certain sound, the introduction of "pay with the line" by a third-party salesman is very conspicuous.

This third-party payment company has an annual transaction size of trillions of yuan. Its offline acquiring business accounts for the majority, and many POS machines used by small and micro businesses come from it.

The traditional POS machine market is becoming more and more difficult to do, and Gaoyang Technology, the major shareholder behind the accompanying payment, can no longer lie down to make money.

Gaoyang has announced that from January to November last year, operating profit shrank by about 70% year-on-year. "The traditional payment market is further being replaced by digital payments. The company explained.

As of February 19**, Gaoyang Technology, which has assets of 10 billion yuan, has a market value of only 13HK$300 million, at a low point in more than a decade.

The fintech service provider is looking for new opportunities.

Hit an inflection point

Financial institutions that can get a license are always a little strong.

The offline acquiring leader pays with the company, holds three payment licenses, bank card acquiring, Internet payment and mobile payment, and has cross-border RMB settlement qualifications.

It mainly conducts business with 80 million small and micro merchants and has a broad market.

Li Huimin, 44, is the president of Suixingpay, graduated from Hubei University of Technology, has more than ten years of management experience in the third-party payment industry, and joined the company in 2008.

He chose the right industry, and as soon as he joined the pos machine industry, he developed rapidly. According to central bank data, in 2010, the number of domestic networked POS machines was only 3.33 million, and in 2021, it soared to 38.94 million.

Taking advantage of the industry, Li Huimin led the accompanying payment team to achieve rapid growth.

According to the 2021 financial report of Hi Sun Technology, it has provided payment services to tens of millions of offline merchants, and the payment transaction volume has reached 167 trillion yuan. With the same fee rate, the higher the transaction volume, the higher the income.

In 2022, the situation changed abruptly, and mobile payments quickly became popular. In contrast, POS machines require merchants to buy equipment and sign contracts, with cumbersome procedures and high costs, and the number has dropped to 35.56 million units.

Through the payment and digital services carried out by Payable, this segment contributed nearly 80% of Gaoyang's revenue. In 2022 and the first half of 2023, this part of the revenue will decrease, and the year-on-year decline in the company's net profit will reach %.

Since 2022, Hi Sun has also stopped disclosing the size of the transaction volume.

The "code hopping" turmoil that spread throughout the industry has also made the cake smaller for a number of acquiring and payment institutions such as Suixingpay.

The so-called "code hopping" refers to the use of technical means by payment institutions to change the transactions of some "standard merchants" who swipe cards to "preferential products", and then submit them to the UnionPay system, stealing beams and changing pillars, and obtaining a lot of profits.

Last year, a number of listed companies revealed that there was a gray behavior of "code hopping", returned funds, and incurred huge non-operating expenses. However, Gao Yang is the head player who did not disclose the "code hopping" in the financial report.

Multi-line**

He is a member of the board of directors of Hi Sun Technology and is quite senior.

Xu Wensheng, Qu Wanchun, Li Wenjin and Xu Changjun, as executive directors, all four joined the company around 2000 and have worked for many years, aged more than 55. Xu Wensheng graduated from Dalian University of Technology, and the other three have studied at Peking University.

The senior management team is relatively young, mostly around 30-45 years old.

Veterans sit on the board of directors, and young and vigorous management command front-line battles, and the old and young are combined, and they work together.

Hi Sun is an investment holding company, and in addition to accompanying payment, it also low-key controls a number of payment-related companies, including PAX Global, Mega-info Hengda, etc., and also invested in the financial and digital technology company "Jiufu" in the early years.

Among them, PAX Global is mainly engaged in the development and sales of POS equipment, and its recent focus is on the development of a new generation of Android smart payment terminals and cloud SaaS platforms.

As of February 19**, the company had a total market capitalization of HK$6.3 billion, which is 48 times.

Mega-info Hengda is engaged in chip design, extending from payment terminals to the field of Internet of Things devices.

The multi-faceted hand Gao Yang, there is also a layer of identity, it is the mobile payment wallet business of China Mobile, the system builder for many years, and has provided technical support for a long time.

Its corresponding platform operation solutions segment contributed HK$59.91 million in revenue in the first half of 2023.

Get rid of it one after another

Xu Wensheng, 55, has been chairman of the board for less than two years.

In response to market changes, under his leadership, Gaoyang switched to a new track and focused on the development of digital service business.

Drop, xx yuan has been paid. "After going to the vegetable market, fruit shop, or barbecue stall to buy something, in the payment success box that pops up, consumers will occasionally see the name of the accompanying payment.

The transformation is still in the expansion period, and the fee rate of digital payment is lower than that of traditional payment. The decline in trading volume and average commission rate led to a decline in the company's profits.

There will be short-term pressure, but the Group firmly believes that this adjustment will be the cornerstone of stable development in the future. Gao Yang said in the performance forecast.

In September last year, the company's official website announced the latest version of the "Accompanying Payment Fee Items and Charging Standards", and the POS machine credit card swiping rate was 055%-2.5%, *Pay credit card rate 054%-1%。

According to some analysts, usually payment institutions need to report before raising prices, and issue price increase announcements, this time to issue notices, or to prepare for subsequent price increases.

The management has also gradually divested some assets and strives to travel lightly.

In mid-2023, Gaoyang ** Qumai buys 100% of the equity at a consideration of 1 yuan.

From the end of 2021 to 2022, Hi Sun transferred the share capital of Mega-info Hengda several times until it ceased to be a subsidiary. As a result, information security chips and solutions are classified as "discontinued operations" in Gaoyang.

At the end of November last year, Gao Yang issued an announcement that ** held by the microcode data company 224% equity interest for a consideration of approximately 1289HK$70,000. Microcode's subsidiaries are principally engaged in the payment transaction processing business.

Fortunately, I have food in my hands, and I don't panic in my heart.

As of the end of June 2023, its total assets were about HK$10.4 billion, with about HK$3.2 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its books, and bank borrowings of only HK$1.08 million.

The road to transformation is difficult and difficult, and the dawn is still ahead.

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