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As we all know, real estate companies have been thunderous in the past two years. With Evergrande in front and Country Garden in the back, it seems that overnight, major real estate developers have fallen into a debt vortex. The "fall" of real estate companies has also made many building materials companies miserable, and the ceramic tile giant Mona Lisa Group (hereinafter referred to as Mona Lisa) is one of them.
At the end of January this year, Mona Lisa released a performance forecast, and it is expected that the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023 will be 2500 million to 3500 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16567%—191.94%。You must know that in 2022, the Mona Lisa is still deep in 38.1 billion yuan in losses. In a year, the Mona Lisa seems to have turned over.
However, shortly after the announcement of the performance forecast, Mona Lisa issued an announcement on the new cumulative litigation and arbitration: as of January 31 this year, the cumulative amount of litigation and arbitration matters involving Mona Lisa and its subsidiaries was as high as 32.7 billion yuan, accounting for 10 percent of its latest audited net assets07%。
In fact, since last year, Mona Lisa has sued a number of real estate companies due to sales disputes, and it has not been successfully resolved. Although Mona Lisa's 2023 performance forecast turned into a profit, according to accounting standards, its net profit will still change significantly. In other words, the Mona Lisa is still in the shadow of the real estate thunderstorm.
The stock price plummeted and was busy with lawsuits
In 2017, after a lot of hard work, Mona Lisa finally knocked on the door of capital and was listed on the small and medium-sized board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. At that time, the Mona Lisa was unlimited, highly sought after by capital, and of course, its revenue also rose all the way, especially in the early stage of the epidemic, when the revenue broke out against the trend, and it also became a "sweet spot" in the eyes of many investors.
From 2019 to 2021, its revenue was 380.4 billion yuan, 486.4 billion and 698.6 billion yuan. In two years, revenue increased by 318.2 billion yuan. During this period, its share price** reached 4803 yuan shares, the market value is approaching the 20 billion yuan mark. However, just one year later, Mona Lisa's performance suddenly changed.
In 2022, Mona Lisa's revenue will be 622.9 billion yuan, down 10 percent year-on-year85%；Net profit attributable to the parent company - 38.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year drop of 22113%。As for the reason for the change in performance, it goes without saying that you can guess it. Because of the "thunder" real estate, the provision of bad debts fell into huge losses.
Of course, there are many ceramic tile companies affected by the real estate thunderstorm, but Mona Lisa, as a listed company, really should not have this kind of mistake. Nowadays, the majority of shareholders are more concerned about how long it will take for the Mona Lisa to get back on track. But the reality is that at least the 2023 Mona Lisa doesn't seem to be smiling yet.
In the secondary market, the Mona Lisa's share price has been falling since August last year. On February 6 this year, its stock price was even more ** to 918 yuan shares, the market value is only 381.1 billion yuan, compared with the heyday, it has shrunk by more than 15 billion yuan.
The downturn in the secondary market must have something to do with its performance. Last year, the Mona Lisa only had a first-quarter revenue of 3With an increase of 55%, revenue in the second and third quarters declined compared with last year. At the profit level, although the net profit in the first three quarters was as high as 33.3 billion yuan, back to the normal level. But no matter how you look at the high accounts receivable, it is a "hidden mine" hanging over its head.
In order to solve this hidden danger, Mona Lisa began to "cut" with real estate companies since last year. In February 2023, Mona Lisa filed a lawsuit against dozens of real estate companies such as Tianjin Lichuang and Sunshine City. In the latest disclosed cases, the amount involved in Mona Lisa and Chongqing Jinke is as high as nearly 80 million yuan.
But even if the Mona Lisa is successful, there is little hope of recovering the arrears. The reason why Mona Lisa insists on taking the path of litigation is nothing more than a lack of money. In fact, from the beginning of its listing, Mona Lisa's debt ratio has been much higher than that of its peers. As of the first three quarters of last year, its asset-liability ratio has increased from 37 in 201732% surged to 6087%。
You must know that in the first half of last year, Dongpeng Holdings' asset-liability ratio was only 3956%。Debt has been rising year by year, and unfortunately, revenue has stagnated in the past two years, which has also made the Mona Lisa move forward. What's worse is that under the cold winter of the ceramic tile industry, a new round of ** war has begun, and the Mona Lisa, who is busy with litigation, may have been physically and mentally exhausted.
The industry is upgrading, and the rock slab is difficult to become a savior
According to the data, in 2022, China's ceramic tile output has increased from 101 in 20174.6 billion square meters fell to 73100 million square meters. The shrinking market demand has also made the major ceramic tile manufacturers "fight for every inch", and even started to fight the first battle last year in exchange for living space.
Although Mona Lisa ranks among the top ten brands of ceramic tiles in China, it is at the head of the industry. But in reality, the competition is particularly fierce. Not to mention that there are old rivals such as Marco Polo, Oushennuo, and Nobel, there are also Jane.
1. Bighorn deer and other new era opponents, not to mention the reputation of Mona Lisa's products in the consumer market is also mixed.
For example, on the Black Cat complaint platform, there are many complaints about the Mona Lisa. It involves false propaganda, color differences, and uneven inequality. Of course, these are individual cases, but in the eyes of consumers, this is obviously a certain gap from the mid-to-high-end image that Mona Lisa usually creates.
In other words, the Mona Lisa is very "bloody" in marketing. From 2020 to 2022, its sales expenses were 48.6 billion yuan, 64.2 billion and 51.5 billion yuan. Especially in 2021, its advertising and promotion expenses will be as high as 1100 million yuan. And behind these expensive marketing, consumers naturally pay.
At the same time, in terms of product content, the advantages of Mona Lisa compared with other brands are not obvious. At present, Mona Lisa has three major brands: Melchi, QD and Mona Lisa. Among them, Mona Lisa is the main brand, facing the mainstream market; QD is aimed at the younger crowd, while Melch focuses on luxury tide rock slabs.
However, these three brands all focus on the ceramic slab and rock slab market. In the past two years, rock slabs have exploded on platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu. Thanks to the characteristics of high temperature resistance, light and thin, easy to clean, rock slab products can be said to be all-round materials, and the application scenarios in home decoration are more extensive than ceramic tiles.
From the R&D expenses of Mona Lisa in recent years, we can know its importance in the field of rock slabs. From 2020 to 2022, its R&D expenses were 18.6 billion yuan, 26.5 billion yuan and 23.5 billion yuan. Most of the R&D projects are related to rock slabs and slab products.
However, the high investment in rock slabs has not contributed much to its revenue. According to last year's semi-annual report, its ceramic plate and thin ceramic tile products revenue of 31.9 billion yuan, a decrease of 10 compared with last year91%。In the short term, rock slabs and ceramic slabs are not the second curve of the Mona Lisa.
This is because, on the one hand, the slate market is still a long way from reaching the general public. On the other hand, brands such as Dongpeng Holdings, Delifeng, New Pearl and Shuncheng Group are no worse than Mona Lisa in the field of rock slabs. From this point of view, it is not easy for Mona Lisa to break through the market with rock slabs, not to mention that its biggest trouble is not in the product.
Reducing costs and increasing efficiency can hardly hide weak profits
After being implicated by a real estate company, the Mona Lisa did not sit still. Optimize both the sales structure and the cost of doing business. Specifically, shrink the engineering channel, turn to the C-end market with a large home furnishing strategy, and expand online channels; For production and period costs, to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
For example, since the previous year, Mona Lisa began to lay off employees to save herself. In 2022, Mona Lisa will have 5,471 employees, a decrease of 1,193 compared with 2021; Operating costs fell 9% year-on-year in the first half of last year09%, and the distribution channel achieved revenue of 184.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1237%；
The final result was that the Mona Lisa's net profit turned into a profit last year. But in fact, Mona Lisa's self-help tends to be superficial, and it does not completely solve the fundamental problem of weak profits.
This can be seen from the growth rate of net profit. The highest net profit of the Mona Lisa was 56.6 billion yuan, and the revenue at that time was 48$6.4 billion; When it was first listed in 2017, its net profit was 30.2 billion yuan, with revenue of 2.8 billion900 million yuan. That is to say, the revenue has increased by nearly 2 billion yuan in three years, but the net profit has only increased by 2$6.4 billion;
Low gross profit margin has always been a problem for the Mona Lisa. For example, in the first three quarters of 2023, Dongpeng Holdings' gross profit margin was 3236%, compared to 2959%。Compared with Marco Polo's gross profit margin of nearly 40%, the Mona Lisa is even more dwarfed.
Although in the past two years, the top of coal, natural gas, and kaolin have risen wildly, causing the gross profit margin of many ceramic tile companies to decline seriously, but in terms of cost control, Mona Lisa is indeed not as good as other brands.
In order to improve profit margins, Mona Lisa raised some products** in June 2022. But in fact it did not contribute much to its profits. After all, there are thousands of ceramic tile brands, and consumers will have more choices after the price increase.
Why doesn't the Mona Lisa have a strong ability to regenerate? The surge in upstream costs is only an external cause, and the lack of internal strategy is the main culprit.
Throughout the development process of Mona Lisa since its listing, expanding production capacity and "buying, buying, buying" are the main themes of its development. In 2018, it built a production base in Tengxian County, Guangxi, and in 2021, it acquired Zhimei Shande to lay out the East China market, with the help of capital strength, expand production and increase capacity to seize market share.
Although the release of production capacity has led to rapid growth in revenue, the aggressive expansion strategy has also caused its production and management costs to rise. In other words, the Mona Lisa's "hemorrhage" in the early stages of expansion also led to its own "malnutrition".
To add insult to injury, not only Mona Lisa is building factories to increase capacity, but also New Pearl, Dongpeng Holdings, and Marco Polo are frantically expanding production, and the final result is that the ceramic tile industry has overcapacity, and the market has entered the stage of stock competition. Although the expansion of the Mona Lisa is to prepare for the upcoming survival of the fittest, if the profitability problem is not solved, it will be difficult to withstand the impact of the industry.
The name "Mona Lisa" itself has its own traffic halo, and it also brings unlimited space for consumers to reverie. This is the unique brand advantage of Mona Lisa, but behind the halo, there are still many flaws in its channels, products and management, which is also where it must improve in the future.
With the slight recovery of the real estate industry, the ceramic tile industry will undoubtedly gradually heat up. For the Mona Lisa, it is the perfect time to test the industrial reform. Is it true"**Success? Or will it weigh"**Only the market will give the answer.