In recent years, with the continuous development of the automobile market and the evolution of consumer habits, the whole life cycle service of car owners is facing a series of changing trends, namely the trend of online, differentiated services, and the insurance ...... of servicesThese changes are gradually becoming a new driving force to promote the innovation of after-sales service formats.
Under the continuous innovation of the automotive aftermarket, the "jump" action of related aftermarket service companies has become more and more active.
On January 2, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued a notice on the filing of the overseas issuance and listing of Zhongchi Chefu Internet Technology (Global)**hereinafter referred to as "Zhongchi Autofu"), which intends to issue no more than 2,875,000 ordinary shares and be listed on the NASDAQ** exchange in the United States, ** as "AZI". In fact, the company announced its IPO in the United States as early as 2019, and now its IPO process has finally made a breakthrough as new impetus continues to emerge in the automotive aftermarket.
According to the Frost & Sullivan report, the company's revenue growth rate ranked first among all full-lifecycle automotive service providers in China in 2021. In other words, Zhongchi Auto Fu is currently the largest automotive aftermarket e-commerce platform in China.
Founded in 2010, the company is an automotive life cycle service provider, mainly through online and offline channels, the company provides one-stop automotive products and services, including the use of the first chain cloud platform, SaaS platform and store network, etc., to connect car manufacturers, auto parts manufacturers, insurance companies with stores and various car owners, and establish an automotive life cycle service ecosystem.
For Zhongchi Autofu, in the process of continuous innovation and development of the automotive aftermarket, it has also gone through many model transformations and trial and error. However, the reality is "skinny", and financial performance such as declining revenue and consecutive years of losses seems to indirectly prove that it is not easy to achieve innovative breakthroughs in the automotive aftermarket.
Consecutive years of losses, the car life cycle service "pseudo-leader".
As the largest automotive aftermarket e-commerce platform in China, Zhongchi Auto Fu has obviously been favored by capital since its launch.
According to Tianyancha data, as of July 2022, Zhongchi Chefu has completed 11 rounds of financing. Although there are multiple rounds of financing for the disclosed amount, it is revealed that the total amount of financing may exceed 600 million yuan, and it is likely to exceed 1 billion yuan.
However, although it is favored by capital, the fundamentals of Zhongchi Chefu are quite "pseudo-leader" temperament.
It is understood that with the help of the first-class chain cloud platform, SaaS platform and MBS store network, Zhongchi Chefu has established an automobile life cycle service ecosystem, connecting automobile manufacturers, auto parts manufacturers, insurance companies, MBS stores and various car owners.
Therefore, the company adopts the S2B2C business model to build a cloud platform for automobile and service chain, with automobile manufacturers, auto parts manufacturers, and insurance companies as "leading merchants", MBS stores as "merchants", and car owners as "merchants". logistics and fulfillment management.
As of March 31, 2023, Zhongchi Autoford had 252 MBS stores, an increase of 147 from 102 in the same period last year1%;The registered users of the cloud platform include 3,409 parts manufacturers, 16,729 parts dealers, 79,193 stores and 70 insurance companies.
Although the pace of expansion is getting faster and faster, the performance of income fluctuations and consecutive losses still exposes the current fundamental problems of Zhongchi Chefu.
According to the financial report, as of September 30, in the past fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2022, Zhongchi Chefu recorded revenue of 6722$30,000 and 1200 million US dollars, a more significant increase, but in the corresponding period, the company's net loss was 57480,000, 616$50,000, which can be called an increase in income and a loss.
From the first half of fiscal year 2023 (as of March 31, 2023), the company achieved revenue of 439510,000 US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 2138%, with a net loss of about $2.9 million for the period, and the good news is that the loss was 303$90,000 has narrowed. However, on the whole, its income fluctuates greatly, and it is difficult to say whether the narrowing of losses is temporary for a while.
At the same time, the company's cash flow appears to be getting tighter. For the six months ended March 31, 2023, the company's net cash used in operating activities was $1.6 million, and the company's cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period were only $178$50,000.
It can be seen that although it is currently the largest automotive aftermarket e-commerce platform in China, the cloud of losses on the head of Zhongchi Chefu still lingers.
Repeated transformations, the "breaking" and "standing" of the automotive aftermarket
In fact, the automotive aftermarket is not "calm".
Because under the transformation of Zhongchi Chefu's multiple models, it largely represents the historical process of the auto parts chain track, that is, the industry has already passed the original period of rapid growth driven by capital, and has now entered a cooling-off period, and it has begun to show signs of slowing growth.
From the perspective of the industry market, the automotive aftermarket e-commerce mainly serves the existing automobile stock market, and the circulation of parts and components is mainly between the auto repair shop and the car owner, not in the manufacturing process. The manufacturing process generally has its own parts business, even if it is an independent third party, because of the huge amount of procurement, and the upstream parts to form a closer cooperative relationship.
According to the data, in 2017, the number of cars in China reached 21.7 billion, of which 1 is a small car registered in the name of an individual700 million units, the automotive aftermarket capacity has exceeded 13 trillion yuan, it is the world's second largest market after the United States. However, in 2018, automobile sales fell for the first time, and in 2019, they faced challenges, which means that the incremental market of the automotive aftermarket is facing a slowdown.
This can also be seen from the relevant industry data - the overall market size of China's auto service in 2017 was 12 trillion dollars, which will reach 1 in 2021$7 trillion at a CAGR of 89%。It is expected that by 2026, the size of China's automotive service market will reach 2$3 trillion at a CAGR of 66%。The car sales market increased from 0$6 trillion is slowly growing to 0$7 trillion at a CAGR of 34%。
However, from a longer-term perspective, in the future, the market is expected to grow rapidly with the explosive growth of new energy vehicle production and sales, with a compound annual growth rate of 39%, which is expected to reach 0$8 trillion. The automotive aftermarket is growing at a CAGR of 139%, which will reach $1 trillion by 2021. and vehicle ageing continues to grow, and by 2026, the automotive aftermarket is expected to reach 1$5 trillion at a CAGR of 84%。
Data**: Zhongchi Chefu prospectus).
In view of the "fluctuating" development trend of the industry, transformation and exploration have become the best choice for Zhongchi Chefu.
It is understood that at the beginning of its establishment, Zhongchi Chefu began to engage in B2B business in the automotive aftermarket, and later the development model was constantly updated, from B2B to B2B + O2O mode, and then from B2B + O2O model to B2B + B2R model, from platform procurement to pure platform model, and later to provide high-coverage logistics chain services. At present, Zhongchi Auto Fu has become the largest Internet platform for the automotive aftermarket in China.
More than that, this listing in the United States, Zhongchi Auto Fu plans to use about 50% of the raised funds to improve the management ability of the first chain, expand and optimize the coverage of the warehouse, and integrate the resources of the first chain of automobiles and auto partsAbout 30% is used to expand the size and coverage of the MBS store network;About 10% will be used for investment in technological innovation, and continue to upgrade the proprietary and self-developed first-class chain cloud management platform and SaaS platformAbout 10% is used for general corporate purposes.
Many investors may feel that Zhongchi Chefu does not have a stable business model, it has been changing, and its income will always be unstable, and for investors, the future performance may be full of variables.
In fact, every change the company has followed. 2010 is still the era of B2B dividends, in 2014, the O2O model rose wildly, reshaping various industries, including the automotive aftermarket, in 2015 capital winter, the O2O model experienced a big rout, a large number of projects in the early stage of the collapse of the dead, in 2017 the rise of industrial Internet thinking. Therefore, it is not difficult to find that behind every business change of Zhongchi Chefu, it is closely following the industry trend.
To sum up, although the current transformation of Zhongchi Chefu is still relatively effective, under the pressure of "difficult to make profits", its "largest domestic automotive aftermarket e-commerce platform" is still overshadowed.