China Foundation News reporter Yishan
The simple business war is playing out again!
Recently, it was revealed that after Xu Chong, CFO of BabyTree Group, was dismissed, he forcibly entered the office with a long sword and locked himself inside for 3 days. It caused heated discussions among netizens, and related terms quickly appeared on Baidu's hot search on April 19.
Dismissed companies are dissatisfied with their performance
Employees were not paid
Previously, on April 11, BabyTree Group issued an announcement to remove Xu Chong from his position as director and chief financial officer, effective immediately, and Xu Chong's position in relevant subsidiaries or affiliated companies of the group will also be removed.
As for the reason for the dismissal, BabyTree bluntly stated in the announcement that the company was not satisfied with its performance, and the board of directors believed that it was in the best interests of Babytree and the company's shareholders as a whole to remove him from relevant positions.
According to the Supplementary Bulletin issued on April 17. BabyTree said that Xu Chong had unreasonably suspended the payment of employees' wages when the funds were sufficient, and refused to approve the timely payment of payments from several suppliers during the year. "Therefore, the board believes that Mr. Xu's performance is not satisfactory."
And it was in the previously issued announcement that the contradiction between Xu Chong, who was dismissed, and the company surfaced on "paper". According to the announcement on April 11, BabyTree Group has requested Xu Chong to immediately return all cheque books, seals, bank authorized signatory authority, etc. held by Xu Chong in his possession involving the company, but Xu Chong has not returned it to the company as of the date of the announcement. In this regard, BabyTree Group stated that since April 11, Xu Chong has not been authorized to conduct any matters or transactions on behalf of the company and any of its subsidiaries or affiliates, and if any authorization has occurred or existed, it has been terminated immediately.
BabyTree Group also stressed in the announcement that after the dismissal incident, the remaining members of the board of directors will do their best to protect the interests of shareholders, which will not affect the normal operation of the group.
However, judging from the things exposed since then, the company's normal operation seems to have been greatly affected.
After being removed from office
He broke into his office with a long sword and locked it for 3 days
According to informed sources on a social platform, Xu Chong not only refused to hand over to the new CFO on the day he was dismissed. When the company asked him to leave the office area, he forcibly entered his office with a long sword and locked himself in the office for three days, with a physical altercation in between.
Xu Chong began to expose his real name after he was ousted.
According to public information, Xu Chong has rich experience in corporate finance and financial management. Born in 1975, he received a bachelor's degree in law from Nanjing University in July 1998 and a master's degree in law from Chinese Minmin University in July 2001. He has worked for BOC International Holdings, Zhongshi Jinqiao International Media, Huakang Insurance Agency and other companies, and since 2014, he has served as the executive director and chief financial officer of BabyTree Group, responsible for strategic development, financial operation management and capital operation. In addition, after Xu Chong was dismissed, Gao Xiaoguang, who succeeded as the new CFO, worked for Fugalaxy for many years.
Rush to the hot search! The stock price has fallen by more than 95% since listing
After the news was exposed, it also quickly triggered heated discussions among netizens, and some netizens ridiculed that "the mainland's business war is always so simple."
According to public information, BabyTree Group is a mother and baby community platform that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 27, 2018. Before listing, the company had been invested by many well-known institutions such as Fosun Group, Good Future, Jumei Youpin, Alibaba, etc., and in the prospectus, BabyTree also claimed to be "the largest and most active mother and baby community platform in China" at that time.
However, judging from the performance since listing, the company began to lose money in the second year of listing. Wind data shows that in terms of revenue, the company's revenue in 2018 was 760 million yuan, but since then it has declined year by year, and the annual revenue in 2022 is only 315 million yuan; in terms of net profit, the company achieved a net profit of 526 million yuan in 2018, and continued to lose money from 2019 to 2022, with a cumulative net loss of more than 1.8 billion yuan in four years.
However, from the perspective of revenue composition, the company's e-commerce revenue has increased significantly in recent years. Financial report data shows that in 2022, the company's advertising revenue decreased by 8.3% year-on-year to 234 million yuan, but e-commerce revenue increased by 222.2% year-on-year to 76.947 million yuan.
BabyTree said that by the end of 2022, the company's external platforms, including Weibo, WeChat public account, Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu, had accumulated a total of about 3 million fans. Among them, the WeChat community had about 1.62 million active users, a year-on-year increase of 42.1%; The core monetization user traffic of the BabyTree Pregnancy App was 21.6 million, unchanged from the previous year, and the next-day retention rate was 52.6%, a slight increase of 1.9% year-on-year.
In terms of stock prices, as of the close of trading on April 19, BabyTree reported HK$0.325 per share, and the stock price fell by more than 95% since listing, and its market value also evaporated nearly HK$10 billion to HK$540 million.
Editor: Joey
Reviewed: Wooden fish