Reporter | Zhou Fangying
Edit | Lou Shuqin
1
Shanghai Shangmei Cosmetics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shangmei Group"), which has low-key registered the trademark "Han Shu couple", began further planning for listing.
Recently, according to the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, at the end of 2021, the materials on the "Approval of Overseas Initial Public Offering of Shares (Including Ordinary Shares, Preferred Shares and Other Stocks and Derivative Forms of Stocks)" of Shanghai Shangmei Cosmetics Co., Ltd. have been received. If calculated according to the procedures stipulated by the CSRC, Shangmei Group will submit a prospectus as soon as January 2022.
It is worth noting that on February 26, 2021, the official website of the CSRC disclosed the basic situation table of the counseling filing of Shangmei Group. According to the announcement, Shangmei Group has signed a listing counseling agreement with CITIC Securities on February 22, 2021, that is, officially launched the A-share listing process. However, there have been no further developments since then.
The idea of Shangmei Group going public has long existed, but it is slow.
In fact, as early as 2015, Lu Yixiong, founder and CEO of Shangmei Group, announced his plan to complete the listing in 2018. At that time, Shangmei Group had introduced a Series A financing of 400 million yuan from companies such as CITIC Capital, Lianxin Capital and Mingyao Capital. However, since then, the road to the IPO of Shangmei Group has not progressed.
Until November 2020, according to the information of Tianyancha, the red baby elephant of the maternal and child care brand of Shangmei Group, received 500 million yuan of angel round financing from youngor, Rising Sun Capital, Shanghai Yingfu and other companies.
In December of the same year, Shangmei Group officially completed the shareholding system reform, and the main body of the company was changed to Shanghai Shangmei Cosmetics Co., Ltd. On January 19, 2021, its registered capital increased by 100% to RMB360 million.
During this period, many local cosmetics companies have landed on the capital market. In the past, there were beauty brands such as Polaria and Marumei Shares, which also came from CS channels, and then there were emerging brands such as Bethany and Yixian E-commerce that made their fortunes online and became popular.
Shangmei Group was founded in 2002 by founder Lu Yixiong. At that time, he put forward the ambition of "Han Shu to become a well-known brand in China". Since 2014, the establishment of brands such as mask brand Yiyezi and maternal and infant cosmetics brand Red Elephant marks the direction of Shangmei Group's multi-brand development.
At the end of 2021, Shangmei Group announced the launch of the anti-aging skin care brand PP2A, which claims to be positioned as "age-sharing skin care, targeted anti-aging", which will cover multiple age groups from 20 to 50 years old. At present, the brand has not yet had a new dynamic of listing and sales, but from the positioning of anti-aging products with high efficacy and high price, the new brand may become a signal for the layout of Shangmei Group.
Image source: Shangmei Group
Local cosmetics companies that have long been listed, such as Polariya and Marumei, are seeking a gap in the domestic high-end skin care market.
Shangmei Group is bound to have a certain sense of anxiety, especially the competition in China's beauty market is becoming more intense with the influx of online brands. Judging from the actions of the brands of The United States Group, marketing has always been an important ability of the group to hope to go out of the circle.
On the official website of Shangmei Group, "marketing delivery" is listed as an important column after the group's "development history". In this section, Shangmei Group summarized its delivery channel from the traditional large screen to the content marketing implanted in film and television and variety shows, and then to the current "3.0 global marketing 'product effect and sales integration' era".
The most obvious thing is that in the past two years, popular dramas such as "An Jia", "Rock Sugar Stewed Sydney", "Thirty Only", and "QingPing Le" have all been named by the two major brands of Han Shu or Yiyezi. In addition, Han Shu has also reached a cooperation with the Chinese national swimming team to endorse the brand with the attention and professionalism of the field of sports and sports.
It was not until July 2021 that the endorsement star overturning incident really pushed the main brand of Shangmei Group, Han Shu, to the peak of traffic. On the evening of July 18, Han Shu took the lead in announcing the termination of the bad artist Wu Yifan and gained the attention of a large number of netizens. That night, the two anchors in the Han Shu live broadcast room became popular and were given the title of "Han Shu couple" by netizens. The Shangmei Group immediately applied for the trademark of "Han Shu couple" and used the title to promote the live broadcast room.
Image source: Han Shu
However, a short exposure of traffic does not solve the long-term anxiety of Shangmei Group. At this stage, brands such as Han Shu and Yiyezi no longer have explosive products and characteristics that consumers can remember, nor have they appeared on the sales list of double 11, 618 and other big promotion activities. Even the red BB cream that once made Han Shu rise is forgotten with the retreat of The Korean makeup trend.
New online beauty brands are emerging, and these brands that skip offline channel investment often choose the low-end price segment with lower thresholds to cut into the beauty track. This means that The Shangmei Group, whose brands are in the middle and low end of the price, will undoubtedly face more fierce competition.
The new anti-aging brand PP2A or an important step for Shangmei Group to break the situation. As mentioned earlier, anti-aging products usually represent high-end categories with high efficacy and high price. In addition, in its publicity, Shangmei Group highlighted that PP2A is a new ingredient that the company has developed with relevant experts and biotechnology companies in the United States to emphasize the product and the research and development strength behind the company. This is exactly in line with the current trend of "component party" hot.