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produced by radar finance | edited by mo enmeng | deep sea

zhang jindong, who once had a wealth of over 100 billion yuan thanks to suning, has only 8 billion yuan in wealth in the latest "2024 hurun global rich list".compared with the 102 billion yuan when he was on the list in 2020, zhang jindong's wealth has shrunk by a full 94 billion yuan in the past few years.

however, zhang jindong recently received good news. in the first half of this year, suning.com (stock abbreviation: st yiguo) achieved a net profit of 14.754 million yuan, which is the first time the company has made a profit in the first half of the year since 2020.among them, suning.com's net profit reached 112 million yuan in the second quarter.

as suning's spiritual leader, zhang jindong once led suning to grow from a street-side air-conditioning store with an area of ​​only 200 square meters to a chain of home appliances giants. however, as suning fell into a liquidity crisis in recent years, zhang jindong resigned as chairman of suning.com and became honorary chairman.

just when the outside world thought that zhang jindong would fade out of suning's management, zhang jindong began to frequently appear in many public activities as the chairman of suning group since last year. in addition, suning's "veteran" ren jun has previously taken over the position of chairman and president of suning.com from huang mingduan, who has an alibaba background. "suning people" are gradually "taking control" of suning.com.

a few days before submitting its mid-term report, suning.com also accelerated the divestment of loss-making assets. on august 26, st suning.com issued an announcement stating that its subsidiary planned to sell 100% of the equity and corresponding debt of tiantian express for rmb 10 million.

it is worth mentioning that compared with the price of acquiring tiantian express, the price of suning.com's sale of tiantian express's equity and corresponding debt rights this time was quite "discounted". however, for st.com, which has insufficient liquidity, resolving the company's debt burden as soon as possible and downsizing non-core business units can better help the company reduce operating and management risks.

with his wealth reduced by 94 billion, zhang jindong returns to suning

now in his sixties, zhang jindong is facing a severe test of his wealth accumulated over the years. in the "2024 hurun global rich list" released by hurun research institute in march this year, zhang jindong ranked 2895th on the list with a wealth of 8 billion yuan, down 1010 places from the previous year.

radar finance found that this is not the first time that zhang jindong has experienced a decline in wealth. back in 2020, zhang jindong's wealth on the hurun global rich list was as high as 102 billion yuan, ranking 102nd, and he was in the limelight for a while.

but in 2021, zhang jindong's wealth began to shrink, and he has not been able to reverse this downward trend since then. by this year, zhang jindong's wealth on the hurun global rich list has decreased by 94 billion yuan compared to 2020.

according to the financial report disclosed by st yiguo, as of the end of the first half of this year, zhang jindong directly held 17.7% of the company's shares. in addition, suning holdings group co., ltd. and suning appliance group co., ltd. held 2.75% and 1.4% of the listed company's shares respectively. among them, zhang jindong and suning holdings group co., ltd. constitute a relationship of concerted action, and zhang jindong holds 50% of the shares of suning appliance group co., ltd.

according to the 2023 annual report previously released by st yiguo, the company has no controlling shareholder and no actual controller. at that time, the company's ultimate controlling shareholders included taobao (china) software co., ltd., jiangsu xinxin retail innovation fund phase ii (limited partnership) and honorary chairman zhang jindong.

in february this year, taobao (china) software co., ltd. transferred all of its 1.861 billion shares to hangzhou haoyue enterprise management co., ltd. through an agreement transfer, and the transfer registration procedures were completed on march 7. this equity change is a transfer of the company's shares between different entities under the same control within the alibaba group.

the story of zhang jindong founding suning can be traced back to 1990. in december of that year, zhang jindong gave up his decent job in a state-owned enterprise and resolutely plunged into the tide of entrepreneurship. at that time, zhang jindong rented a 200-square-meter store on ninghai road in nanjing with 100,000 yuan of his own funds, specializing in air-conditioning products. this store, named suning jiao appliances, was where suning's dream began.

in 1999, suning entered the field of comprehensive electrical appliances and took the lead in proposing a national chain development model. with the opening of the nanjing xinjiekou flagship store, suning appliance officially transformed from an air conditioner franchise to a comprehensive electrical appliance national chain operation. since then, zhang jindong has begun to lead suning to expand across the country.

in july 2004, suning appliance was successfully listed on the shenzhen stock exchange and became the no. 1 brand in china's home appliance industry. under the leadership of zhang jindong, suning has become a giant player in china's e-commerce industry that cannot be underestimated.

however, since 2021, suning's development has encountered unprecedented challenges, and the liquidity crisis has been hanging over suning like a dark cloud. zhang jindong, the soul of suning, has gradually faded out of the core management position of suning.com.

in july 2021, due to the introduction of external investment, zhang jindong resigned as chairman of suning.com and his status was changed to honorary chairman, and the chairman's seal was handed over to huang mingduan of the "ali group".

in april 2023, ren jun replaced huang mingduan as the company's chairman and president. it is reported that ren jun had joined suning in 1999, so he is also regarded by the outside world as zhang jindong's "direct line". judging from the latest financial report disclosed by st yiguo, ren jun is still the company's chairman and president.

in addition to the "old men" of suning regaining control of suning.com, zhang jindong, the founder of suning, has also recently shown signs of returning to the forefront of the company. in april last year, zhang jindong appeared in shanghai as the chairman of suning group and met with core senior executives of nearly 20 home appliance brands including haier, hisense, samsung, bsh, beko, skyworth, konka, and robam.

in august of the same year, at the "summer of suning" internal event held again after a lapse of three years, zhang jindong, who is regarded as the spiritual leader of suning, led employees to sing "suning song". at the end of last year, zhang jindong, as the chairman of suning, issued a letter to all employees at the 33rd anniversary celebration of suning. at the suning.com 2024 annual work deployment meeting, zhang jindong also delivered a speech and made requirements for suning's strategic deployment and work in 2024.

in may this year, zhang jindong met with kevin wheeler, chairman and ceo of ao smith group, and his delegation. on august 15 of the same year, at the mid-year strategic meeting held by suning.com and samsung, zhang jindong met with choi seung-sik, president of samsung china investment co., ltd.

suning.com promoted the two trips on its official wechat account "suning.com blue microphone". all the above signs are enough to show that the 61-year-old entrepreneur is gradually becoming active again in the management of suning.

at the annual work conference of the group at the beginning of the year, zhang jindong also said, "suning.com has fully and thoroughly returned to the track of development led by us suning people. whether there is a smooth road or a rugged mountain road ahead, we must firmly grasp our destiny in our own hands. the development of suning.com ultimately depends on ourselves."

however, the capital market does not seem to show too much enthusiasm for zhang jindong's increasingly "high profile". since the beginning of the year, the share price of st yiguo has fallen by more than 20%.

regarding the company's stock price performance, st yiguo stated in its 2024 semi-annual report that under the leadership of the board of directors, the company has always attached importance to the management of market value in the capital market and has effectively safeguarded the interests of shareholders, especially small and medium-sized shareholders. in the first half of the year, in order to maintain the company's value and shareholders' rights and interests, the company invested no less than rmb 80 million (inclusive) and no more than rmb 100 million (inclusive) to repurchase the company's shares after the approval of the board of directors; at the same time, based on the confidence in the company's future development and recognition of the company's value, some directors, senior executives and core backbones of the company plan to invest no less than rmb 5 million to increase their holdings of the company's shares.

revenue in the first half of the year fell by nearly a quarter, and net profit attributable to the parent company turned from loss to profit

as zhang jindong "came out" again, st yiguo submitted its mid-term report for 2024 at the end of august.

according to the financial report, st yiguo achieved a revenue of 25.783 billion yuan in the first half of this year. in the first half of last year, st yiguo's revenue was 34.041 billion yuan. in comparison, st yiguo's revenue in the first half of this year decreased by nearly 1/4.

looking further into the timeline, this is the fifth consecutive year that st yiguo's interim revenue has declined year-on-year. from the first half of 2019 to the first half of this year, st yiguo's interim revenue has fallen from 135.571 billion yuan to 25.783 billion yuan.

specifically, during the reporting period, the revenue of multiple product segments under the company's main business declined across the board. in the first half of the year, the company's revenue from home appliances and consumer electronics, daily necessities, services and other segments were 20.901 billion yuan, 1.613 billion yuan, and 918 million yuan, respectively, down 22.87%, 50.87%, and 11.83% from the same period last year.

the reason for the decline in the company's revenue is that the home appliance industry in which the company is located was relatively weak in the first half of the year. the home appliance retail market declined year-on-year due to macro-comprehensive factors such as the downgrade of residents' consumption and weak real estate, and channel competition was fierce. at the same time, due to insufficient working capital, some commodity supply chains, especially consumer electronics products, continued to be insufficient, which affected the company's sales.

st yiguo stated that during the reporting period, the company took the initiative to change. in order to implement the retail service provider strategy, it firmly promoted the transformation of the retail cloud business from the b-end sales system to the c-end retail operation system, focused on improving the c-end retail capabilities, and made quality sales. although the scale of retail cloud sales has declined in the short term, it will be beneficial to the improvement of the market competitiveness of the retail cloud business in the long run.

however, in contrast to the decline in revenue, st yiguo's net profit index rebounded in the first half of the year. although the scale of profit was not too high, st yiguo successfully turned losses into profits in the first half of the year.

according to the financial report, in the first half of last year, st yiguo recorded a net profit of -1.93 billion yuan attributable to shareholders of the listed company. in the first half of this year, st yiguo recorded a net profit of 15 million yuan attributable to shareholders of the listed company. in the second quarter, the company's net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 112 million yuan.

the reason why st yiguo's revenue declined but its net profit increased in the first half of the year is inseparable from the company's continued focus on reducing costs and increasing efficiency. in the first half of this year, the company's operating costs were 20.143 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 26.71%; the company's sales expenses were 3.247 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 31.59%; administrative expenses were 1.088 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.58%; financial expenses were 1.571 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.5%; and r&d expenses were 128 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 45.69%.

in addition, during the reporting period, changes in the value of the company's trading financial assets and other non-current financial assets resulted in a year-on-year decrease of 46.63% in fair value change losses; the increase in debt restructuring gains and the increase in long-term equity investments accounted for by the equity method resulted in a year-on-year increase in investment income of 282.04%; the decrease in gains from the disposal of right-of-use assets resulted in a year-on-year decrease in asset disposal gains of 56.81%; and the decrease in the amount of asset impairment loss provisions resulted in a year-on-year decrease in asset impairment losses of 80.19%.

however, after deducting non-recurring gains and losses, st yiguo's net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company is still in a loss state. in the first half of the year, st yiguo's net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was -530 million yuan, a significant narrowing from -1.969 billion yuan in the same period last year.

plans to sell tiantian express for tens of millions of yuan, far lower than the previous acquisition price

just a few days before the release of its semi-annual report, st yiguo announced a major asset divestiture transaction through an announcement.

according to the announcement, on august 26, jiangsu suning logistics co., ltd., a subsidiary of suning.com, and the natural person shareholders of tiantian express signed the "supplementary agreement on the transfer agreement of 70% equity of tiantian express co., ltd.". after the completion of this share transfer, jiangsu suning logistics will hold 100% equity of tiantian express.

immediately afterwards, jiangsu suning logistics signed the "equity and debt transfer agreement of tiantian express co., ltd." with zhejiang rongyue express co., ltd. on the same day. jiangsu suning logistics intends to transfer its 100% equity in tiantian express, as well as all the claims of jiangsu suning logistics and its subsidiaries against tiantian express to zhejiang rongyue express. the transfer price is 10 million yuan.

it is worth noting that this transaction does not constitute a related-party transaction. after the completion of this transfer, jiangsu suning logistics will no longer hold shares in tiantian express. it is understood that tiantian express's operating income in 2023 is 0 yuan. as of the end of last year, tiantian express's total assets were 216 million yuan and its net assets were -5.404 billion yuan.

tianyancha shows that the buyer of tiantian express, zhejiang rongyue express co., ltd., was established at the end of february this year with a registered capital of rmb 500 million. it is an enterprise mainly engaged in road transportation. wu moushi is the legal representative of the company, who holds 99.9% of the company's shares and is the company's beneficial owner and actual controller.

radar finance read the acquisition announcement previously released by suning.com and learned that the company had spent a huge amount of money to acquire tiantian express. among them, jiangsu suning logistics invested rmb 2.975 billion in cash (including equity transfer tax) to acquire 70% of the shares of tiantian express held by the transferor.

the two parties agreed that within 12 months after the completion of the transaction, jiangsu suning logistics or its established express-related industry operating company will purchase the remaining 30% shares owned by part of the transferor and all or part of the a-round investors of tiantian express in the form of equity, and the corresponding transfer price will be rmb 1.275 billion (including equity transfer tax).

from 2018 to 2019, some transferors used their 12.5741% equity in tiantian express to offset their or their related parties' debts of 533 million yuan to tiantian express and other entities. jiangsu suning logistics did not complete the purchase of the remaining 17.4259% equity (hereinafter referred to as "remaining equity" and "target equity") in the form of equity as agreed in the equity transfer agreement. the transfer price corresponding to the remaining equity is 741 million yuan (including equity transfer tax). as of the date of this announcement, jiangsu suning logistics holds 82.5741% equity in tiantian express.

in view of the current operating status of tiantian express, in order to reduce the debt burden of jiangsu suning logistics and reduce the operating and management risks of the listed company, after friendly negotiations between the company and the transferor, jiangsu suning logistics and the transferor signed the "supplementary agreement on the transfer of 70% equity of tiantian express co., ltd." on august 26, 2024, adjusting the valuation and acquisition method of jiangsu suning logistics' acquisition of the remaining equity, that is, the transferor will transfer its 17.4259% equity in tiantian express to jiangsu suning logistics at a cash consideration of rmb 1, and it is irrevocable, and the transferor will not claim any rights to jiangsu suning logistics and tiantian express for the target equity. after the completion of this share transfer, jiangsu suning logistics holds 100% equity in tiantian express.

compared with the huge amount of money spent in the past, the 10 million yuan price that suning.com is paying for tiantian express can be considered a "bargain".

why would they rather "cut their losses" than sell tiantian express? suning.com said in its announcement that the transaction would help the company further focus on its main business, reduce the company's operating and management risks, and revitalize assets and increase funds to help resolve subsequent debts.

the announcement shows that since the date of purchase, tiantian express has achieved revenues of 1.429 billion yuan, 1.812 billion yuan, 2.078 billion yuan, and 2.444 billion yuan from the date of purchase to the end of 2017 and from 2018 to 2020, respectively. although revenue has shown a growing trend, tiantian express has been in a state of loss for a long time. during the aforementioned time periods, tiantian express recorded net profit losses of 581 million yuan, 1.297 billion yuan, 1.786 billion yuan, and 1.226 billion yuan, respectively.

in the second half of 2021, the company accelerated the adjustment of its loss-making businesses and ceased the operation of tiantian express's logistics business. as a result, the value of the previous acquisition of tiantian express and the corresponding goodwill synergy effect no longer existed, so the company made corresponding provisions for goodwill impairment of approximately rmb 800 million and intangible asset impairment of approximately rmb 1.3 billion, totaling approximately rmb 2.1 billion.

from the above data, we can see that since the acquisition, tiantian express has continued to suffer substantial losses for many years, becoming the main loss-making business of suning.com logistics in recent years, and also facing greater operational and management risks.

at present, suning.com is firmly focusing on its core business of home appliances and 3c products, continuously resolving the company's debt burden, downsizing non-core business units, and reducing operating and management risks of listed companies. therefore, suning.com's move to sell tiantian express is also to get rid of the burden and go into battle lightly.

after the completion of this transaction, tiantian express will no longer be included in suning.com's consolidated financial statements.according to preliminary calculations by the company's financial department, this transaction is expected to increase the company's net profit by approximately rmb 425 million.

radar finance noted that in the interim report released this time, st yiguo revealed that the company has set up a special working group to actively promote the settlement of accounts payable with suppliers and partners, maintain a good and continuous cooperative relationship between the company and relevant parties to maintain the steady development of the business. the company has taken various measures to obtain debt relief of approximately 1.859 billion yuan, and the company will continue to promote debt resolution.

the interim report shows that by the end of the first half of the year, the company's commercial acceptance bills and accounts payable balances decreased by 1.979 billion yuan from the beginning of the period, continuing to decline. by the end of the first half of the year, the company's debt-to-asset ratio decreased by 0.04 percentage points from the beginning of the period.

however, st yiguo also admitted that the company's own liquidity problem is still prominent. the company's liquidity continues to be insufficient, and accounts payable still need to be resolved as soon as possible. the recovery of the commodity supply chain, the increase in inventory, the optimization and upgrading of offline stores, the development of the sinking market, and the continuous optimization of service experience all require continuous capital investment.

to this end, on the one hand, the company must improve its operating efficiency and realize profitability as quickly as possible to obtain more incremental credit; on the other hand, it must accelerate the revitalization of existing assets and the capitalization of the company's internal high-quality businesses. only a fundamental improvement in liquidity can enable the company to embark on a path of healthy development.

after founder zhang jindong "comes back", where will suning go next? radar finance will continue to pay attention.