List of high-quality authorstextHan Xiang.
Network security service providers have their own difficulties.
The absolute leader 360 released its 2023 financial report forecast on the evening of January 30, with a net loss of 3700 million yuan-5500 million yuan, and a net loss of 22 in the same period in 20220.4 billion yuan has improved significantly, but it still has not jumped out of the quagmire of losses.
That night, Anheng Information also released an annual report forecast, which showed that Anheng Information will achieve revenue of 21 in 20235.8 billion yuan-221.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9%-12%; Net loss attributable to the parent company was 2900 million yuan-3600 million yuan, deducting non-net loss of 3100 million yuan-3About 900 million yuan. As a comparison, in 2022, the net loss attributable to the parent company of ANHENG Information will be 25.3 billion yuan, showing an expanding trend.
Before 360 and Anheng Information released their financial report forecasts, Tors, Sangfor and Wangsu Technology took the lead in disclosing the business forecasts. Among them, the net profit attributable to the parent company of Sangfor decreased by 403%-7.30% to 18 billion yuan-20.2 billion yuan; Tors' net profit attributable to the parent company fell by 69%-72% to 35.75 million yuan-39.58 million yuan; Wangsu Technology's net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 172 year-on-year8%-230.55% to 5200 million yuan-6About 300 million yuan.
From this point of view, among the performance forecasts that have been disclosed, only Wangsu Technology has reported good news, and Anheng Information is even worse. In the capital market, the share price of Anheng Information is also disappointing. Digital Intelligence Research Society found that in January 2024 alone, the share price of Anheng Information has fallen by about 37%, and the market value investor community is scolded.
The performance is unsustainable
The highlight of ANHENG Information is 2020.
This year, the net profit attributable to the parent company of Anheng Information increased by more than 4819% up to 13.7 billion yuan. In the financial report, ANHENG Information used the words "stable and good".
2020 was the first year of the pandemic. Although affected by the epidemic, ANHENG Information has seized the opportunity of digital transformation of the domestic economy, and the sales of security products such as cloud services and big data have grown rapidly, which has further expanded the scale of the security service business.
Affected by the performance, the share price of ANHENG Information continued to rise in 2021, and by July 27, 2021, the share price of ANHENG Information hit a record high of 3751 yuan (not reinstated), but since then, Anheng Information has been the best all the way, and there is only a fraction of it left.
Subsequently, in 2021, the performance of Anheng Information will change dramatically. This year, the net profit attributable to the parent company of Anheng Information was 1404210,000 yuan, down 8953%。The decline in performance was affected by the introduction of the "Data Security Law" and "Personal Information Protection", and ANHENG Information increased and accelerated the promotion of a new generation of intelligent gateways, Internet of Vehicles and other products, and invested a lot of R&D expenses and sales expenses. This year, the two major expenses increased by nearly 58%.
In 2022, ANHENG Information will achieve a net loss attributable to the parent company of 2516170,000 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1,922 compared with 202146%。The 2023 financial report forecast discloses that Anheng Information has a net loss of 2 for the parent company900 million-3600 million yuan, and the loss continued to expand.
For the loss in 2023, ANHENG Information said that under the "cost reduction and efficiency increase", the growth rate of the company's R&D expenses, sales expenses and management expenses has decreased significantly. However, due to the large personnel base, the rigid labor cost is still increasing, which also affects the company's net profit. The most important thing is that this year, ANHENG Information has made occasional large investments in major events such as the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Chengdu Universiade, which has increased the expenditure of related costs and expenses, and also affected the performance of short-term net profit.
Before 2020, ANHENG Information has been on the track of rapid development, based on cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things and industrial Internet of Things as the representative of the new generation of information technology, from 2016 to 2019, ANHENG Information's revenue and profit compound annual growth rate has been maintained in double digits, and the "dark horse" is fully visible.
The white horse passes through the gap, and time flies. On November 5, 2019, ANHENG Information was 56The ** of 50 yuan shares officially landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, with an opening price of 68$68 shares. It hit an all-time high of 375 in July 20211 yuan share, on January 30, 2024, ANHENG Information touched 69The low point of 84 yuan shares is close to the "break".
Today's Anheng Information, the only bright spot is only the second shareholder of Hangzhou Ali Venture Capital Company (hereinafter referred to as "Ali Venture Capital"). As of the third quarter of 2023, Alibaba Venture Capital holds 800830,000 shares, accounting for 1014%。In addition to capital shareholding, Ali also plays multiple roles in Anheng Information, such as customers and businessmen. Multiple reports also said that Ali's security director was a director of Anheng Information, and the former CEO of Alibaba Cloud also served as a director, etc., which is very deeply bound.
Reduce costs and increase efficiency in the dead of winter
Before the performance changed face, a negative news made many people have an early estimate of the performance of Anheng Information, that is, "salary cut".
On December 25, 2023, ANHENG Information issued the "Notice on the Salary Reduction Plan for Senior Managers", and senior executives (M4 and above) will take the initiative to reduce their salaries by 15%-30% and take the lead in supporting the company's plan to reduce costs and increase efficiency with practical actions.
Digital Intelligence Research Society found from the 2022 annual report that by the end of 2022, Anheng Information had a total of 4,350 employees, of which 345% are R&D personnel. In the first half of 2023, the average salary of senior executives will reach 5.39 million yuan. In the face of huge labor costs, it is easy to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
In the view of the Digital Intelligence Research Society, the salary cut of Anheng Information executives is a self-help measure taken in response to market competition and business pressure. The self-help measures seem to be a sign that the company is willing to tide over the difficulties with the company, but it does not rule out the possibility of layoffs in the future.
Before the announcement of this "salary cut" plan, Anheng Information was among the ten network security service providers, with 5$3.6 billion loss and -17The net profit growth rate of 2% ranked third from the bottom.
Judging from the overall business situation in 2023, ANHENG Information's "salary cut" plan is likely to be only the first step.
In the past 2023, not only the network security industry, but almost all industries are facing huge challenges, and the profitability of enterprises has been compressed to varying degrees. For players in the network security industry, most of their customers are ** and business departments. In the new year, the budget and investment of ** and public institutions in network security have generally decreased, and it is difficult for the funds of ** projects to be in place normally, which has extended the account period of accounts receivable.
Within the network security industry, there is also homogeneous competition. In this red ocean market, new technologies such as ChatGPT have brought new changes, and Anheng Information has also launched Hengnao large model products, but it will take a period of iteration and progress to meet the needs of users.
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