Wen | Damo Finance
The IPO journey of the Asian fishing port has gone through 20 months since the submission of the GEM listing application to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in July 2020, but what really makes it "headline" is the news that its listing application has not been approved.
On the evening of February 18, the official website of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's ChiNext Board showed that the IPO of the Asian Fishing Port ChiNext Board was not approved, and it said in the notice that the issuer (i.e. the Asian Fishing Port) failed to fully explain its "three innovations and four innovations" characteristics and whether it met the gem positioning requirements of growth-oriented innovative start-ups.
In fact, before the Shenzhen Stock Exchange made a decision to terminate the listing review of Asian fishing ports, some investment bankers publicly questioned on Weibo, "If this IPO is over next week, I believe that the so-called "three innovations and four new" is actually a joke!" The decision of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange confirms this person's prediction.
The doubts around the Asian fishing port are so loud, mainly because the company that strives to package three innovations and four new in the prospectus still cannot hide the essence of its traditional industrial model, and combing its development history, the Asian fishing port has held the opportunity to truly integrate the old and new industries and meet the positioning of the ChiNext board, but under the influence of various factors, it has chosen to give up on its own initiative.
The word "Asia" above the head, the unusually domineering name of the Asian seaport folding IPO meeting, reflects the sad story of traditional enterprises that they are unable to grasp before the arrival of new industry opportunities.
The skin of the supply chain, the core of the food company
Asia Fishing Port was established in 2002, the initial name of the establishment of Dalian Meiziket Food Co., Ltd., in 2013 by the competent department of industry and commerce approval, the company name from "Dalian Meiziket Food Co., Ltd." to "Asia Fishing Port Investment (Dalian) Co., Ltd." However, from the current situation, the positioning of food companies is more in line with the real business situation of Asian fishing ports.
The business model of The Asian fishing port is not difficult to understand: raw materials are procured from upstream suppliers, processed through foundries or own factories, and sold to customers such as hotels and restaurants.
The products and services of Asian fishing ports are mainly divided into fresh ingredient products (further subdivided into deep processed products and primary processed products) and warehousing and logistics services. In 2018, 2019, 2020 and the first six months of 2021, the revenue of Asian fishing ports was 910 million, 1.2 billion, 896 million and 560 million, respectively. The net profit attributable to the mother was 64.0889 million yuan, 69.0487 million yuan, 53.5214 million yuan and 33.265 million yuan, respectively.
Among them, the annual operating income in 2020 fell by 25.48% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to the owners of the parent company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses fell by 24.33% year-on-year, mainly due to the impact of the epidemic, on the one hand, the revenue of the national catering industry fell by 16.6% year-on-year, while the revenue of imported shrimp primary processing products affected by the epidemic control fell by 45.92% year-on-year.
Overall, the operation of Asian fishing ports is relatively stable, but there are not many bright spots. In order to impact the ChiNext board, the prospectus strives to prove the "innovation" of its own model and the integration of new and old industries.
In the prospectus, Asia Fishing Port believes that the company has established a fresh catering food supply system based on quick-frozen seawater products through independent research and development, outsourcing processing, unified management of upstream suppliers, and construction of a third-party cold chain logistics system, and used modern information technology to enhance and improve the operational efficiency of research and development, production, sales, logistics and other aspects.
However, unlike Zhangzidao, Guolian Aquatic Products and other companies, Asian fishing ports do not involve aquaculture links, and all raw materials come from external procurement; unlike Yasui Food, the processing links of Asian fishing ports are mainly completed through external OEM; unlike Shuhai's self-built logistics centers and fleets nationwide, the cold chain logistics system of Asian fishing ports is mainly realized through the integration of third-party resources.
Therefore, product development and sales are the most core business links of Asian fishing ports, but this also means that their control over many aspects of the industrial chain may not be enough, and it is difficult to truly and effectively establish a supply system for fresh catering ingredients. Whether the supply system of fresh catering ingredients is established is precisely the key to solving the problem of whether The Asian fishing port truly meets the listing requirements of the GEM.
Food companies and food supply chain companies, three word difference, the difference between the sky.
Under the registration system, the industry positioning of the GEM has been clearly defined as "three innovations and four new", that is, enterprises conform to the general trend of "innovation, creation and creativity", or the traditional industry is deeply integrated with "new technology, new industry, new format and new model". Among them, the catering industry is clearly listed in the negative list of the GEM, if the Asian fishing port is a simple food catering company, it obviously does not meet the needs of the GEM.
However, if it is a food supply chain company, it is in line with the positioning of the GEM to support the deep integration of traditional industries and "new technologies, new industries, new formats and new models".
As a B-end enterprise, the food supply chain is far from the lives of ordinary people, but it is a hot track in the market today, and the Shuhai hatched by Haidilao, the fast donkey hatched by the MEtuan, and the startup company Meicai.com are all players in the food supply chain track.
In addition to raw material procurement, the greater value of the food supply chain is to improve the operational efficiency of the catering industry through information-based services, for example, Sysco, a global catering supply chain benchmarking company, can provide customers with customized consulting, cooking and recipe solutions and technical system solutions to help customers optimize operations, save costs and improve profitability. Infomart, the largest B2B Saas platform in Japan's food industry, mainly provides order business, food standard database business, value-added business, and ES business to simplify industrial operation processes and reduce customer costs.
In contrast, the answer sheet handed over by Asian fishing ports is really unsatisfactory.
First of all, from the perspective of saaS system construction, the level of informatization of Asian fishing ports is somewhat rudimentary. According to the information disclosed in the prospectus, it independently developed and applied the information management system, including the supply chain online management platform (A network), the logistics management platform (L network), the production and manufacturing management platform (Z network), of which the Z network system merged with the original online quality management platform and was officially launched in November 2020.
For example, although there is an online supply chain management platform, the prospectus discloses that customers can log in to the mobile terminal system and place orders with the company, or they can contact the sales support staff by phone, WeChat or email and place orders with the company. The role of the supply chain online management platform in the chain is still inseparable from the manual support of sales staff.
Combined with R&D investment, the above scenario is not difficult to understand. According to the prospectus, during the IPO reporting period from 2018 to the first half of 2021, the R&D expenses of Asian fishing ports were 10.7091 million yuan, 9.9666 million yuan, 7.5609 million yuan and 3.9822 million yuan, accounting for only 1.17%, 0.83%, 0.84% and 0.71% of the operating income, respectively, and the research and development investment was very lacking.
In addition, from the perspective of product categories, the ingredients provided by Asian fishing ports are mainly seafood products and beef and mutton products, compared with other players in the market covering rice, noodles, grain and oil, tableware, paper towels, disposables, printers, alcoholic beverages, spices and other categories, the category is relatively single, it is difficult to meet the main needs of customers. At the same time, it is difficult to play the real role of the supply chain in providing logistics services mainly in cooperation with third-party logistics.
Taken together, the story of the food and beverage supply chain that Asian fishing ports are trying to tell is still very reluctant today, and it is reasonable to fail later. Looking back at the development history of Asian fishing ports, they once held the opportunity to open a new curve of enterprise development.
Meituan bought the Asian Food Federation
After 20 years of deep cultivation in the food industry, Asian fishing ports can be regarded as veteran players in the catering track, so they have also developed a keen sense of industry opportunities.
In August 2015, seeing the development opportunities of the catering supply chain, Asia Fishing Port set up Asian Food Federation Development (Dalian) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Asian Food Federation Development), positioned as a one-stop supply chain e-commerce platform for terminal catering enterprises, with the northeast as the core business area. In order to develop its supply chain e-commerce platform, The Asian fishing port has used dealer resources for many years.
Among them, Shenyang Beiyilin Trading Co., Ltd., Harbin Yuyuankun Food Co., Ltd., and Beiyilin Food Distribution Office in Kuancheng District, which are engaged in the distribution and distribution of Western-style fast food catering ingredients for the northeast and northeast inner Mongolia, have become important partners in the development of the Asian Food Federation.
The prospectus discloses that three enterprises, such as Shenyang Bei Yilin Trading Co., Ltd., Harbin Yuyuankun Food Co., Ltd., and Kuancheng District Bei Yilin Food Distribution Office, are held by Chen Lin and his team, and the distribution includes beef, burgers, pizza, french fries, seafood, condiments, etc., which are the largest food distributors in the northeast region, and the customers include more than 3,000 catering terminals and catering wholesalers. This is very valuable for the development of the Asian Food Federation, which intends to open up the northeast market.
In the same year that the Development of The Asian Food Federation was established, the Development of the Asian Food Federation reached a cooperation agreement with Chen Lin, chen Lin and its related party Shenyang Kuncheng Zhilin Investment Management Center (Limited Partnership) established the Shenyang Asian Food Federation, and at the same time, Chen Lin gradually transferred the original business to Shenyang Asian Food Alliance. Through the gradual capital increase, the proportion of investment in Shenyang Asian Food Federation reached 51% in December 2016, and the actual operation and management of Shenyang Asian Food Federation was still carried out by Chen Lin.
After the development of Shenyang Food Federation, Shenyang Food Federation and its subsidiaries gradually developed sales business through the online e-commerce platform of Asia Food Federation. To put it simply, Shenyang Asian Food Federation is responsible for the actual work of food sales and distribution, and the Asian Food Federation development is responsible for persuading customers to transfer the transaction process from offline to online through the establishment of a sales team of more than a dozen people.
The prospectus discloses that based on the original business foundation of Shenyang Asian Food Federation, the sales of the e-commerce platform developed by The Asian Food Federation have been improved, and online transactions have formed a certain scale.
Judging from the establishment of the Asian Food Federation in the Asian Fishing Port and the business model of the Asian Food Federation, it recognizes the food supply chain opportunities contained in the general trend of integration in the catering industry, and the layout time is relatively early. However, when the Asian fishing port planned to vigorously invest in the food supply chain business, the war in China's Internet industry became more and more prosperous, and the war began to spread to the traditional industry, which made the Asian fishing port doubt whether to continue to invest in the development of the Asian Food Federation.
The prospectus discloses that since 2016, China's Internet giants have begun to lay out the trillion-level market of the catering ingredient supply chain. Meituan plans the B2B business of the food and beverage ingredient supply chain, recognizes the development business model of the Asian Food Federation, and makes an offer to acquire a controlling stake in the development of the Asian Food Federation to the Asian Fishing Port.
After internal discussions, the management of Asia Fishing Port believes that with the entry of Internet giants such as Alibaba, JD.com, and Meituan into the field of e-commerce platforms for the catering and food supply chain, it is difficult for companies to compete with such enterprises in the Internet burning mode under the condition of small capital reserves and small talent scale.
After communicating with the sponsoring institution and the issuer's lawyer, it conducted commercial negotiations with Meituan to transfer the controlling stake in the development of Theafood Federation to Tianjin Sankuai, a subsidiary of Meituan. After the acquisition of the Development of Asian Food Federation, Meituan has carried out a large-scale layout in the business field of catering ingredients e-commerce platform, forming a "fast donkey" catering ingredients e-commerce brand.
For the Asian fishing port at that time, the practice of selling the development of the Asian Food Federation to the MEITUan was, on the one hand, to stop the loss in time.
The prospectus shows that since its establishment in 2015, in addition to achieving profitability in 2016, the development of the Asian Food Federation has always been in a state of loss, and the losses in 2015, 2017 and January-May of 2018 were 355,300, 9.0575 million and 162,800 respectively.
After selling the development of the Asian Food Federation to Meituan, the Asian fishing port easily got rid of this burden.
At the same time as stopping the bleeding, the sale of the Development of the Asian Food Federation also brought good investment returns to the Asian fishing port, and the prospectus disclosed that the transfer of the equity of the Development of the Asian Food Federation to the Meituan Group has brought nearly 100 million yuan of investment income to itself.
This time, another time
But killing two birds with one stone could now be a pain in the hearts of Asian fishing ports.
When the Asian fishing port began to sprint to the CHINext board in 2020, it packaged a story of the supply chain of catering ingredients, but it suffered from the fact that the supply chain construction was too rudimentary, resulting in failure. Joining the Asian Fishing Port retains the business of the Asian Food Federation, at least in terms of model packaging, which has more evidence of hand.
Whether it is from the strong new "human design" of Asian fishing ports, the actions of the past two years, or the planning and arrangement of fundraising purposes, it can be seen that Asian fishing ports attach importance to the supply chain of catering ingredients.
According to the prospectus, if the IPO is successful, the Asian fishing port will invest 80 million yuan in the Qianjinbao supply chain project, including new national warehousing and logistics nodes, new hardware equipment costs and software development investment.
Qianjinbao developed the lemon supply chain acquired by The Asian Fishing Port in 2019, which was mainly to enhance the service capabilities of the Asian Fishing Port in the catering terminals in East China, including the comprehensive service capabilities of food procurement and cold chain distribution, and to achieve the next-day delivery capacity of more cities. However, from the perspective of fundraising planning, Qianjinbao has undertaken the carrier of building a national warehousing and logistics system in Asian fishing ports.
Asian fishing ports on the food and beverage supply chain business obsession, both stemming from the potential value of the market, the prospectus introduced that in 2019, 2020, the first half of 2021 China's catering market size reached 4.67 trillion yuan, 3.95 trillion yuan and 2.17 trillion yuan, according to the cost of raw materials to purchase 40%, the catering supply market size reached 1.87 trillion yuan, 1.58 trillion yuan and 0.87 trillion yuan.
But compared to the broad market prospects, the greater motivation of Asian fishing ports in trying to build a food and beverage supply chain business may be out of the initiative to grasp their own destiny.
Unlike the transfer of the equity of the Asian Food Federation in 2016, today, the food and beverage supply chain is already a very hot track, packed with strong play. The development of the supply chain of catering ingredients will inevitably enhance the centralization and standardization of the industry, in this process, the discourse power of the supply chain platform connecting upstream and downstream will gradually develop stronger and stronger, and the corresponding is that the voice of simple food enterprises may be weakened.
Similar stories have already been played out in other areas, and Asian fishing ports may not want to repeat the mistakes of the past.
However, when Asian fishing ports have come back to their senses and realized the importance of building a food and beverage supply chain, the opportunity has slipped away. The failure of the IPO means that the Asian fishing port has lost an opportunity to raise funds.
In the increasingly war-torn supply chain track, Asian fishing ports, which are not dominant in technology, research and development, talent and capital, want to tell a new story, but they have fewer and fewer cards in their hands.