After experiencing the ups and downs of some time ago, the biomedical sector finally set off a wave of price limits on February 20. As of the same day, there are 15 ** stocks in the biomedical sector, such as Keyuan Pharmaceutical, Jinhua Shares, and Boji Pharmaceutical.
Since the resumption of work during the Spring Festival holiday, the pharmaceutical sector has taken the lead in ushering in good news.
On February 19, Huadong Medicine proposed to distribute a "1.5 billion yuan big red envelope" dividend plan on the first day of construction; The next day, Gan & Lee Pharmaceutical released an equity incentive plan, Guizhou Bailing announced the completion of the national project of Tangning Tongluo as scheduled, and Boji Pharmaceutical announced that it had signed a clinical research service contract with Nuotai Biotech on "Semaglutide Injection"; and WuXi AppTec, which was on the cusp before the Spring Festival, also made further clarifications recently.
On February 20, the biomedical sector had a multi-share limit, and major pharmaceutical companies successfully achieved a "good start".
Distribute "1.5 billion yuan red envelopes".
Specifically, Huadong Medicine's dividend plan is jointly proposed by the controlling shareholder Yuanda Group and Hangzhou Huadong Medicine, a shareholder holding more than 5% of the shares, and the announcement shows that the shareholders propose a total cash dividend of 1 billion yuan (tax included), no bonus shares, and no capital reserve to increase share capital. At the same time, it is also recommended that the company combine the actual operating situation in the first half of 2024, such as maintaining stable growth in net profit, and the interim cash dividend in 2024 will not be less than 500 million yuan (tax included).
According to the 2023 performance forecast previously released by Huadong Medicine, the company's overall medical aesthetic business continues to maintain a rapid development momentum, with operating income reaching the best level in history, and domestic and foreign businesses achieving good profitability, which has made a positive contribution to the company's overall performance. On the basis of maintaining steady growth in the first three quarters of 2023, the company's net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the fourth quarter is expected to increase by 20%-30% year-on-year. For the full year of 2023, it is expected that the net profit attributable to the parent company for the whole year will be 28$1.2 billion to $286.2 billion yuan. Based on this calculation, Huadong Medicine's cash dividend ratio is close to one-third of the net profit. It is worth noting that the above two shareholders together hold 5808% of the shares, if according to the 1 billion yuan cash dividend plan, the two major shareholders will receive at least 5800 million yuan "big red envelope".
Judging from the dividends of Huadong Medicine in the past five years, the amount is basically stable between 4-500 million yuan. The total cumulative dividend for 2022 is 50.9 billion yuan, that is to say, if the dividend proposal is passed, the dividend amount of Huadong Medicine in 2023 will be directly doubled, and the two major shareholders of Yuanda Group and Hangzhou Huadong Medicine are the biggest winners.
Kangenbei, a traditional Chinese medicine company, also played a combination of "repurchase + major shareholder increase" at the beginning of the year. "On the last trading day before the Spring Festival holiday this year (February 8), it was announced that a cash dividend of 2 yuan (tax included) will be distributed to all shareholders for every 10 shares based on the total share capital registered on the company's 2023 equity distribution record date (deducting the accumulated shares repurchased in the repurchase account). In addition, the company also uses its own funds of 2-400 million yuan to repurchase the company's shares, as well as a plan for major shareholders to increase their holdings of the company by 2%-4%.
The reporter learned that this year is the 55th anniversary of the establishment of Kangenbei and the 20th anniversary of the company's listing. Starting from a small street factory, it has now developed into a leading enterprise in the traditional Chinese medicine industry in Zhejiang Province, and the company's extension mergers and acquisitions around the core strategic direction of the traditional Chinese medicine health industry are being actively promoted. According to statistics, since the company was listed in 2004, the cumulative cash dividend has exceeded 2.7 billion yuan, accounting for 40% of the company's cumulative net profit attributable to the parent company. After the China Securities Regulatory Commission gave clear guidance on the dividends of listed companies, the company is also constantly enhancing the awareness of dividends and focusing on enhancing investors' sense of gain. The company made it clear that it will continue to focus on shareholder dividend returns in the future.
The pharmaceutical sector set off a tide of price limits.
Since the beginning of 2024, the biomedical industry has experienced ups and downs, black swan events are frequent, and it is no longer surprising that a listed company collapses the entire sector. However, it is precisely under such a predicament that some pharmaceutical companies have begun to focus on the secondary market and R&D to turn the tide and give investors hope again.
On the first opening day after the holiday (February 19), WuXi AppTec, which had fallen sharply before the Spring Festival, issued a clarification announcement again, emphasizing in bold that the company did not pose a risk to the United States in the past, is and will not pose a risk to the United States in the future, even if the United States ** reviews the company again, it will come to the same conclusion. As of Feb. 20**, WuXi AppTec's A-share share price stopped falling and closed at 5157 yuan, up 304%。At the same time, the CXO concept as a whole also recovered, rising by more than 3%.
* The concept of medicine is still hot during the Spring Festival, and with the blessing of the movie "Hot and Hot", it once again detonated the market, with an overall increase of more than 4% on February 20. Among them, Boji Pharmaceutical, a first-class pharmaceutical concept stock, announced on the evening of February 19 that it signed a "Technical Service (Entrustment) Contract" with Nuotai Biotech, with a total amount of 1100 million yuan (tax included). The contract stipulates that Nuotai Biotech entrusts Boji Pharmaceutical to provide clinical research services of "semaglutide injection". Under the same concept, Changshan Pharmaceutical, Jinkai Biotechnology, Huasen Pharmaceutical, and Baihua Pharmaceutical also have daily limits.
In terms of R&D of drugs and devices, United Imaging Medical applied for a patent for "Stitching Image Verification Method and Device, X-ray Photography System"; Innovent Biologics has met the primary endpoint of a Phase 1 registrational clinical study of recombinant anti-insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) antibody injection in subjects with thyroid eye disease (TED) in China, and plans to submit a new drug application; Guizhou Bailing, a traditional Chinese medicine company, has completed the national project of Tangning Tongluo as scheduled, and is expected to apply for direct clinical trial and achieve new drug listing in about 2-3 years.
There are also three API companies that have entered the European market around the Spring Festival. Northeast Pharmaceutical's API product levocarnitine, Brother Pharmaceutical's wholly-owned subsidiary Brother Pharmaceutical's API iohexol iohexol, and Borui Pharmaceutical's everolimus API have all recently obtained the European Pharmacopoeia Applicability Certificate for APIs issued by the European Agency for the Quality of Medicines. This also means that China's API companies are increasingly recognized internationally.
Under the many good news, as of February 20**, the biomedical sector as a whole rose by more than 2%, and 15 shares rose by the limit. Southwest ** pointed out that under the expectation of overseas macro interest rate cuts, there are still structural opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry from the three dimensions of policy, valuation and fundamentals.
Investor confidence needs to be gradually improved.
In terms of investor returns, in addition to Huadong Medicine, the dividend plan was announced. Zhifei Biotech and Mindray Medical have also recently released action plans to promote the dual improvement of quality and return. Among them, Zhifei Biotech said that since its listing, the company has paid cash dividends every year, and up to now, the total cumulative cash dividends have reached 492.4 billion yuan, equivalent to 34 times. In addition, the company also shares the company's development results with investors through "bonus shares", "conversion of shares" and "repurchase". In the future, the company's management will continue to attach importance to reasonable returns to investors and actively explore.
Mindray Medical said that based on the optimism about the future development of the industry and the company's prospects, the company has the ability and confidence to rank among the "top 20 medical devices in the world" in 2025 and move to the top of the world.
10. Even higher industry status to launch an impact.
For some listed companies began to announce the dividend plan and improve the return of investors, Guo Shiliang, a financial commentator and an expert of the whale platform think tank, said in an interview with the reporter of the International Financial News, "The dividend plan of listed companies is to stabilize the stock price and boost the demand for market investment confidence on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is to release the company's ability to pay attention to market value management and investors' return on the market, and it is also to achieve the effect of stabilizing the market." ”
In terms of policy, on December 15 last year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the "Guidelines for the Supervision of Listed Companies No. 3 - Cash Dividends of Listed Companies" (hereinafter referred to as the "Cash Dividend Guidelines") and the "Decision on Amending the Guidelines for the Articles of Association of Listed Companies" to further improve the normalized dividend mechanism of listed companies and improve the level of investor returns. Article 4 of the Guidelines on Cash Dividends stipulates that listed companies should specify in their articles of association the priority of cash dividends over dividends in the profit distribution method. If the conditions for cash dividends are met, cash dividends shall be used for profit distribution. If the first dividend is used for profit distribution, it should have real and reasonable factors such as the company's growth and dilution of net assets per share.
Guo Shiliang pointed out that the "Cash Dividend Guidelines" have enhanced the willingness of listed companies to pay dividends to a certain extent, and in the future, listed companies may increase the intensity of dividends, and even increase the frequency of dividends, strengthen the ability of shareholders to return to shareholders, and balance the development of investment and financing functions. As for how to continue to enhance the confidence of investors in the secondary market, Guo Shiliang said that in the current market environment, investment confidence needs to be gradually improved, and increasing dividends is on the one hand, on the other hand, it is necessary to increase repurchase and cancellation efforts, find a balance between investment function and financing function, and maintain the benign development of the first market.