#暑期创作大赛 #
Author: Nana Qiu
Source: IPOCIA Reference (ID: IPOCIA)
Recently, Neusoft Xikang, a subsidiary of the "Neusoft Department", updated its prospectus to impact the Hong Kong IPO for the fourth time. This can't help but remind people of Neusoft Medical, which has an equally bumpy road to market. Neusoft Medical, which started with CT, is the "first brother" in the industry and the "number one hero" of China's CT localization. However, Neusoft Medical has failed to IPO four times, while United Imaging Medical, which was just established in 2011, has gained momentum and was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market in August 2022.
So, is Neusoft Medical's "old ginger" planted in 1998 still spicy?
Difficult IPO
Neusoft Medical exists in this market with a halo.
Neusoft Medical was founded in 1998 as a subsidiary of Neusoft Group, and was spun off from Neusoft in 2015 to become an independent brand. Neusoft Medical is a provider of medical imaging solutions and services in China. Since its establishment, Neusoft Medical has continuously rewritten the history of China's medical imaging equipment, and China's first CT, the first superconducting magnetic resonance, the first DR and other milestone innovations have all been born in Neusoft Medical.
Neusoft Medical's earliest glory appeared in 1994. At that time, Neusoft Medical developed the first prototype of domestic CT, which was officially approved by the State Food and Drug Administration in 1997. This breakthrough achievement made Neusoft Medical occupy the limelight for a while. Because before that, mainland hospitals could only rely on imports to meet the needs of diagnosis and treatment. However, the price of these imported equipment exceeding 600,000 US dollars each, coupled with maintenance problems, has become two major pain points for domestic hospitals. In the 90s of the last century, the mainland also introduced second-hand phones to reduce costs.
Although Neusoft was known for its software services earlier, the industry is envious of the profitability of its medical business. In recent years, Neusoft Medical has successively launched China's first 256-layer 80mm covered wide physical spectrum CT, China's first 512-layer panoramic multimodal CT, trackless suspension dual-center seven-axis DSA and 1.5T superconducting magnetic resonance, leading domestic medical equipment to continuously move towards excellence and high-end.
Neusoft Medical has been rushing to list since it was spun off from Neusoft Group, and has submitted prospectuses four times: in June 2020, Neusoft Medical submitted a prospectus on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, but failed in November 2020; In May 2021, Neusoft Medical submitted a prospectus on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the first time, but the prospectus was not approved six months later; On December 31, 2021, Neusoft Medical's secondary submission to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange expired again after 6 months; On September 1, 2022, Neusoft Medical submitted its listing application to the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the third time, and there is no further progress information so far.
Neusoft Medical's previous active listing may be required by Neusoft Group's strategy of "building a cluster of listed companies, making good use of the capital market on this basis, and building a new ecology for enterprise development". It is in this context that Neusoft Medical and Neusoft Xikang, which is hitting the IPO four times, have been spun off and developed independently, and the listing road of both is quite difficult.
In sharp contrast, United Imaging Technology took the lead, successfully ringing the bell on August 22, 2022, and its share price rose by more than 70% on the first day of IPO, closing up nearly 65%, with a market value of nearly 150 billion yuan.
Little brothers who are catching up
Neusoft Medical has been at the forefront of the industry along the way, but the huge market is also constantly attracting new players. United Imaging Medical is one of the best. CT is the main battleground for Neusoft Medical and United Imaging Medical, and the CT business revenue of both is close to half of the main business revenue.
According to the annual report, the CT business revenue of United Imaging Medical in 2022 will be 3.772 billion yuan, accounting for 41.80% of its total revenue; Neusoft Medical's CT business revenue accounted for about 50% of its total revenue, and increased year by year, accounting for 55.9% as of June 30, 2022. In addition, there are Wan Dong, Anke and Mingfeng who are catching up.
CT is the starting point of Neusoft Medical's layout in the industry, and it is also its deepest accumulation and strongest business line. From 2008 to 2019, Neusoft Medical developed the first 16-layer, 64-layer, 128-layer and 256-layer CT scanners in China.
According to the "2023-2028 China CT Machine Industry Supply and Demand Analysis and Development Prospect Research Report" by the Central Research Institute of Industry, CT machine market manufacturers are gradually rising with the improvement of China's manufacturing capabilities, the gap between product performance and international leading companies is rapidly narrowing, and the rise of domestic medical devices is inevitable. Under the background of the state's encouragement of import substitution of domestic equipment, China is expected to usher in a new stage of prosperity of domestic medical equipment, and domestic leading enterprises will enjoy the double dividends of rapid industry growth and import substitution.
Neusoft Medical, known as the "first brother of CT", is expected to obtain a larger market space from localized substitution. From the current market share, Neusoft Medical does not have an absolute advantage in the domestic alternative market.
According to the data compiled by the medical procurement platform according to the CT public bidding and procurement data in 2022, United Imaging Medical's market share ranked first in 2022, accounting for 26.82%; GE Healthcare accounted for 21.55%, Siemens 17.11%, Neusoft Healthcare 13.41%, Philips 10.76%, Acro 2.25%, Mingfeng 1.82%, Sinovisun 1.16%, Wandong 1.09%, and Kangda 1.02%.
From the perspective of profitability, the advantages of film alliance medical are also obvious. The data shows that from 2019 to June 30, 2022, the gross profit margin of Neusoft Medical CT scanner was 39.2%, 39.6%, 36.2% and 39.9%, respectively. From 2019 to 2021, the gross profit margin of United Imaging Medical's CT scanner business was 46.54%, 51% and 49.56%, respectively. From the data point of view, the gross profit margin of United Imaging Medical is significantly higher than that of Neusoft Medical.
High-end breakthroughs are key
Unlike United Imaging Medical, which is more pragmatic in the low-end market and quickly makes a lot of money for itself, Neusoft Medical, which is more idealistic, has been looking forward to making breakthroughs in the high-end market in recent years and taking advanced technology as its starting point for forming differentiated competitive advantages.
From the current product layout, Neusoft Medical's "technologically advanced" strategy has achieved initial results. As the "first brother of CT", Neusoft Medical's CT business advantages mainly lie in the courage, determination and strength to continue to break through and move towards the high-end market that is almost monopolized by GPS.
In the field of high-end CT, rotational speed is a hardcore indicator, and higher rotational speed often means higher precision imaging capabilities. But when the speed is fast to a certain extent, every 0.01 second increase is a challenge to the physical limit. This is also the reason why CT machines have not been rapidly iterated after more than ten years of evolution from 0.3 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
High-end CT scanners with 256 layers or more are a key focus of Neusoft Medical. It is worth mentioning that CT with 256 layers or more can greatly improve imaging quality and shorten scanning time, which has both scientific research and clinical value, and can meet the upgrading needs of large-scale medical institutions now and in the future.
According to the information disclosed by Neusoft Medical, in 2021, Neusoft ranked first among manufacturers selling CT scanners with 256 layers or more in China in terms of revenue and sales volume. Recently, Neusoft Medical launched the NeuViz Glory+ series CT, which is currently the world's fastest spiral CT: the body rotates for one week, and it takes only 0.235s. As the latest product of Neusoft Medical's in-depth high-end CT layout, this product is equipped with the innovative NeuAI platform, and has also reached a new level in artificial intelligence intelligent connection, realizing the intelligent workflow of the whole process from patient positioning, scanning, reconstruction to diagnosis, greatly improving imaging quality and scanning efficiency.
Neusoft Medical also adopts a high-flying strategy for its other key business, DSA (digital subtraction angiography). Dr. Liu Jiren, Chairman of Neusoft Group, once proposed: "Neusoft Medical must be the technical ceiling of domestic DSA, product quality and reliability must be high, reputation must be hard, and it must compete with the world-class level." "Since Neusoft released China's first trackless suspension dual-center seven-axis vascular machine in 2019, it has formed a series of related products such as Hanwu series suspended vascular machine and Han Guangwu series floor-standing vascular machine. As of December 2022, Neusoft Medical DSA has achieved more than 200 orders worldwide and has shown a good momentum of development. As a result, Neusoft Medical has become a veritable "game breaker" for the localization of high-end DSA.
DSA is also a differentiated market segment between Neusoft Medical and United Imaging Medical. In contrast, United Imaging Medical has chosen to continue to make efforts in the field of high-end MI molecular imaging systems.
Soft and hard combination or into a way out
It is reported that Neusoft Medical not only pays attention to the breakthrough and innovation of hardware, but also pays attention to the in-depth mining of the software field. Thanks to Neusoft's DNA as a software service company, the combination of software and hardware to form an integrated solution may eventually become an important advantage of Neusoft Medical. This is also an ability that "little brothers" are not easy to form quickly.
Wu Shaojie, CEO of Neusoft Medical, also recently said that "product + MDaaS service" is the core of Neusoft Medical's future business. He further said that Neusoft Medical should not simply sell equipment, but deeply participate in the clinical treatment path of the hospital, providing a full set of solutions for emergency first aid, stroke, chest pain, trauma and other departments.
Among them, MDaaS medical equipment and data service platform is an open intelligent service platform built by Neusoft Medical in recent years based on equipment and medical image data, combined with Internet, artificial intelligence and big data technologies. Neusoft Medical builds a one-stop emergency emergency solution with the characteristics of "one horizontal, one vertical and one capability" based on MDaaS.
"One horizontal" refers to the organic and physical integration of hardware facilities to create a one-stop diagnosis and treatment platform for emergency emergency scenarios such as stroke and chest pain. This organic integration between devices has changed the situation of patients "revolving around the equipment, running upstairs and downstairs" in the past, forming a truly patient-centered solution.
"One vertical" refers to supporting the standardization and integration of the emergency treatment process through the information sharing and interconnection of the whole process before, within and after the hospital. In the process of in-hospital treatment, Neusoft Medical provides characteristic software.
"One capability" refers to helping clinicians and technicians, especially grassroots medical staff, improve their diagnosis and treatment capabilities through intelligent tools and platforms, telemedicine, professional ability training, etc.
In this way, imaging equipment is no longer a simple hardware product, but has become a key link to promote the construction of multi-center hospitals in a coherent way.
Can internationalization be sustained?
Another area of strength for Neusoft is the international market. Some insiders analyzed that the international market is the real battlefield of domestic medical devices. Under the background of the current "going out" strategy of domestic enterprises, Neusoft Medical can be said to have won at the starting line. According to statistics, in 2021, Neusoft Medical's overseas sales accounted for 16.8%, while United Imaging Healthcare accounted for 7.15%.
It is reported that Neusoft Medical's internationalization strategy is divided into three steps: the first step is to go out, the second step is to walk in, and the third step is to go up. Since 2002, Neusoft Medical's products have gone abroad through exhibitions to achieve "going global"; "Going in" means that Neusoft Medical has achieved localization in more and more countries, there are 13 spare parts centers around the world, the localization rate of employees of overseas subsidiaries has reached more than 90%, the general managers of most subsidiaries are foreign employees, and overseas subsidiaries are basically operated independently, with a series of complete systems of sales, service, marketing and clinical training; Now Neusoft Medical is in a new stage of "going up", that is, seizing the overseas high-end market.
In recent years, Neusoft Medical has been increasingly recognized by overseas high-end customers, forming a coverage of the high-end market. It is reported that on this basis, Neusoft Medical will further strengthen its coverage of high-end customers internationally, target key countries, and create model demonstrations around professional organizations and top hospitals.
However, whether it is a high degree of breakthrough, a breakthrough in integrated solutions, or internationalization, there is a lot of investment, but the return on investment period is long. This is probably the reason why Neusoft Medical is eager to go public.
(This article is for reference only, does not constitute investment advice, and operates at your own risk)