news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

the frequently used smart express lockers will also be on the market.

on august 30, fengchao applied for listing in hong kong. with the support of sf express founder wang wei, xu yubin, chairman and ceo of this terminal logistics solution provider, led the team to distribute more than 330,000 sets of smart lockers in about 209,000 communities in 31 provinces in china.

through these smart lockers, they can provide services such as package delivery and pickup. this also makes the cumulative express delivery of fengchao smart locker network exceed 21 billion pieces, and also provides services to more than 367 million consumers and 3.5 million couriers.

after receiving a total of more than 8.3 billion yuan from sf express, prologis, sequoia china, cdh investments, changshi capital, zhongding capital and others, fengchao's valuation exceeded 23 billion yuan in january 2021.

coincidentally, sf express, which has already been listed on the a-share market, also chose to submit an application for listing on the hong kong stock exchange not long ago. in addition, wang wei already owns three hong kong-listed companies, including sf express, sf real estate trust, and kerry logistics. this also means that once fengchao successfully rings the bell for listing, wang wei, as the controlling shareholder, will also reap his fifth ipo.

backed by wang wei, shenzhen has a new star unicorn

more than a decade ago, through overseas study arranged by the company, xu yubin, a native of meizhou, guangdong, finally came up with the idea of ​​starting a business.

at that time, as a manager of sf express's operations department, after seeing the express delivery processes of the local tv shopping warehousing and logistics center in south korea and the international express giant dhl, he judged that the demand for intelligent delivery of terminal logistics will continue to grow with the booming development of china's e-commerce.

after receiving wang wei's support, xu yubin started to work on the express locker project within the company. however, due to various factors, the project was once stagnant. it was not until 2015 that wang wei and xu yubin communicated again and they thought that the time had come to do this.

in june of the same year, sf express, sto express, zto express, yunda express and prologis jointly invested and officially established fengchao in shenzhen. at that time, under the leadership of chairman wang wei and ceo xu yubin, the company began to install fengchao smart cabinets in china in order to solve the problem of last-mile delivery in the express delivery industry.

in the early days of its business, fengchao, which had no profit pressure, made network construction its top priority. in xu yubin's view, communities have a certain degree of exclusivity, and by building a standardized smart cabinet platform, the company wants to let more users use it first.

in less than two months, they had thousands of smart lockers and reached cooperation with many real estate companies. at the same time, in order to remain competitive, the company tried every means to increase its penetration rate in packages and communities.

"if technology and cost cannot constitute barriers, then forming an impenetrable value network is the real competitive advantage." xu yubin once bluntly said that in order to ensure the integrity of the entire value network, the company will retain some outlets even if they are loss-making.

by september 2017, fengchao had deployed 60,000 lockers in 74 key cities across the country. it not only had 400,000 registered couriers, but also accumulated more than 60 million users, bringing the average daily parcel processing volume to more than 4 million pieces.

at that time, they spent about 810 million yuan to acquire the smart express locker brand "e-stack". in may 2020, the company successfully acquired the smart express locker brand "zhongyou express easy". through these two important acquisitions, fengchao's smart locker network was able to quickly expand to more cities in china, and at the same time established its leading position in the industry.

after several years of hard work, fengchao successfully expanded from shenzhen to the whole country and began to radiate globally, eventually growing into a well-known terminal logistics solution provider.

it has more than 330,000 sets of smart cabinets, serving more than 360 million people

through one smart express locker after another, fengchao connects consumers, couriers, courier companies, e-commerce platforms, communities and value-added service partners.

in addition to the functions of package delivery and pickup, their smart lockers can also meet users' needs for returns and exchanges of online shopping goods. at the same time, they are also actively expanding various services such as advertising, cleaning and home life.

the company's safe and convenient service methods have won it the favor of many users.

the prospectus shows that as of may 31, 2024, fengchao has more than 330,000 sets of smart lockers, covering about 209,000 communities in 31 provinces in china. at the same time, they have provided services to more than 367 million consumers and 3.5 million couriers through these smart lockers.

in the process of depositing and retrieving, fengchao's smart locker network has accumulated more than 21 billion pieces of express delivery. at the same time, the company has achieved rapid revenue growth in recent years by charging service fees. the prospectus shows that during the reporting period from 2021 to may 2024, their revenue reached 2.526 billion yuan, 2.891 billion yuan, 3.812 billion yuan and 1.904 billion yuan respectively.

in the words of frost & sullivan, based on 2023 revenue, they are china's largest terminal logistics solution provider; if calculated based on the number of lockers as of december 31, 2023 and the parcel volume in 2023, hive box is the world's largest smart express locker network operator.

due to the need for heavy investment to build and operate a huge network of fengchao smart lockers, coupled with factors such as share-based compensation, they were in a loss-making state from 2021 to 2023, with net profits of -2.071 billion yuan, -1.166 billion yuan, and -542 million yuan respectively. however, in the first five months of 2024, the company turned losses into profits, with a net profit of 72 million yuan.

another good news is that fengchao's profitability is constantly improving. the company's gross loss rate improved from 25.3% in 2021 to 8.5% in 2022, and then turned to a gross profit margin of 10.6% in 2023, and further increased to 26.1% in the first five months of 2024.

with the rapid development of the e-commerce industry, the scale of china's terminal logistics solution market is also expanding. according to the forecast of china insights consulting, the parcel volume of this market will increase from 94.3 billion pieces in 2023 to 166.4 billion pieces in 2028, and the market size will increase from 46.7 billion yuan to 78.8 billion yuan during the same period.

this also means that as more and more people get used to using smart lockers, terminal logistics solution providers such as fengchao will also usher in greater development.

the cumulative financing exceeds 8.3 billion yuan, and the valuation exceeds 23 billion yuan

fengchao’s heavy asset operation model means that its rapid development requires a large amount of capital.

when the company was founded, it received 500 million yuan from sf express, sto express, zto express, yunda express and prologis. in april 2016, these investors put up another 500 million yuan to support fengchao.

by january 2017, the company had received 2.5 billion yuan in financing with the support of sf investment, sto, yunda, prologis, cdh investments, changshi capital, yiyao investment, zhongding capital, and mingde holdings controlled by wang wei.

as the lead investor in this round of financing, cdh investments believes that smart express lockers can significantly improve delivery efficiency and better solve the problem of the last mile of terminal delivery, thereby meeting the needs of consumer users, couriers, express outlets and community properties.

a year later, fengchao completed 2.07 billion yuan, with investors including sf investment, fushan investment, prologis, zhongding capital, cdh investment, qisheng investment, and weirong development, a wholly-owned subsidiary of mingde holdings. at the same time, the company's valuation also reached 9 billion yuan.

however, in june 2018, zto, sto and yunda chose to transfer all their shares in fengchao to weirong development. this also means that the "tongda group" withdrew from fengchao. at that time, yunda and sto both stated in the announcement that it was to optimize the asset allocation structure and achieve reasonable investment returns.

it took zto, sto and yunda three years from investment and establishment to collective withdrawal, making small profits of about 500 million yuan, 389 million yuan and 545 million yuan respectively.

it is worth noting that when fengchao acquired "china post express" in may 2020, it issued additional shares to make the original shareholders of the acquired party, such as china post capital and sichuan development longmang, become its own shareholders.

in january of the following year, the company received us$400 million from sequoia china, trustbridge partners vii, lp, asia forge (cayman) ltd, etc., and its valuation soared to approximately us$3.3 billion (approximately rmb 23.1 billion).

this also means that fengchao's valuation has increased by more than 14 billion yuan in three years, from 9 billion yuan in 2018 to 23.1 billion yuan in 2021.

before the listing, wang wei held 32.45% of the shares, xu yubin held 2.21%; china post capital held 17.01% of the shares, prologis held 5.52% of the shares, eastern bell capital held 2.12% of the shares, and sequoia china held 1.06% of the shares.

once fengchao is successfully listed, wang wei, whose net worth exceeds 100 billion yuan, will reap a new wave of wealth.

references:

1. "hengchao ceo xu yubin: we do what we insist on to the extreme", yiou

2. "what saved the couriers?", china entrepreneur magazine

3. "the new wave eats up the old wave, fengchao: data "ambition" and profit paradox", economic observer