Cash out 2 billion! A magical scene happens: the business has not yet succeeded, and the ex-wife begins to get rich

Author | Pencil Road Editorial Office

Recently, such magical events have always happened frequently: AI concept stocks have soared, triggering the chairman's "ex-wives" to cash out intensively. On June 20, Kunlun Wanwei issued an announcement: founder Zhou Yahui's ex-wife plans to reduce her holdings by 2 billion.

The announcement said that in order to support the development of Kunlun Wanwei's AI career, his ex-wife Li Qiong will lend 50% of the cash out to the company again at an annual interest rate of 2.5% (about 25 million / year).

Judging from the timing of cashing out, Li Qiong chose a particularly "coincidence".

Before 2023, Kunlun Wanwei's main business is social entertainment, games, advertising, etc.; After 2023, the company's vision for the next 10 years will focus on AI, including AGI (General Artificial Intelligence) and AIGC (Generative AI).

Since labeling AI in 2023, Kunlun Wanwei's stock price has soared, with a year-to-date increase of more than 336%.

Li Qiong's cash-out date is the highest point of market value in recent years, about 75.42 billion yuan.

I didn't expect that AGI and AIGC had not yet had time to make money for the company, but first let the "ex-wives" make a lot of money.

The Kunlun Wanwei phenomenon is not an isolated case. Previously, this cash-out path has been practiced by a number of AI concept stocks: first use AI to increase the company's market value, and then cash out at the right high level.

For example, the 360 Group. On April 4 this year, Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Group, divorced his ex-wife, who received about 9 billion yuan in stock. Since 2023, 360's stock has risen by more than 200%, and its market value has soared from 40 billion yuan to 150 billion yuan.

Another example is the semiconductor company Joyson Micro. On June 20 this year, Tang Zhuang, the actual controller of Zhuosheng Micro, announced his divorce from his wife (Yi Gebing) - Tang Zhuang transferred 80.05% of his shares to the latter (market value of about 3.41 billion yuan).

Like 360, Zhuosheng Micro is also closely following the AI hot trend, but the former's stock price pulling effect is not obvious.

Once the three major divorce cases come out, they must not trigger the vigilance of the industry. Taking Kunlun Wanwei as an example, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange has issued a letter of concern to inquire whether to manipulate stocks with the help of market hot spots to cooperate with Li Qiong's reduction of holdings.

Historically, the answer to this question is complex. In fact, Kunlun Wanwei founder Zhou Yahui has been divorced from Li Qiong for 7 years.

According to China Fund News, Zhou Yahui and Li Qiong have a small relationship.

According to the announcement, Li Qiong was born in November 1977, is 46 years old this year, graduated from Tianjin University, received a master's degree from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, and was a freelancer from 2011 to 2016.

On the evening of September 12, 2016, Zhou Yahui announced his divorce from Li Qiong and reached a share division agreement. Based on the stock price at that time, Li Qiong received a breakup fee of about 7 billion yuan.

Since 2018, Li Qiong has begun to continuously reduce her holdings in Kunlun Wanwei. From 2018 to 2020, Li Qiong reduced her holdings by about 5% in total, cashing out a total of about 1.307 billion.

It is worth noting that Li Qiong's reduction amount this time is the largest in history, more than the sum of the past five years.

The use of funds is also of concern. According to the announcement, 50% of the reduction will be lent to Kunlun Wanwei for the development of AI business, but according to the announcement, it can be found that Kunlun Wanwei's capital situation is relatively sufficient.

In 2022, Kunlun Wanwei's annual revenue will be about 4.74 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be about 1.15 billion yuan. Since 2020, Kunlun Wanwei has continued to invest in the field of AIGC.

On April 28 this year, Kunlun Wanwei announced that "the company currently has sufficient cash reserves and rapid growth in operating net profit. ”

It can be seen that only "supporting the Kunlun Wanwei AI cause" is not a sufficient reason for Li Qiong to reduce his holdings. Regarding the other 50% of the funds reduced, Li Qiong will be used for "personal fund arrangements".

Capital markets have responded negatively to the behavior. On the second day after the announcement of the reduction of holdings, Kunlun Wanwei's share price fell by more than 16%, falling by about 20 billion yuan in market value. The same is true of 360 Group: its share price fell more than 5% after the divorce announcement.

Since this year's AI wave, quite a few listed companies have announced ALL in. However, the comprehensive announcement can find that most enterprises are in the investment period and have not yet contributed to revenue.

Taking Kunlun Wanwei as an example, from 2020 to 2023, the AI sector will not make a large contribution to the company's financial status, but will need to continue to consume large-scale capital investment, and the return on investment will be slow.

Whether it is AGI or AIGC, it also needs a long-term verification process, which should be true for commercial returns and capital returns: AI should not become a tool for short-term income generation for enterprises and individuals, otherwise it is no different from cutting leeks.

In the long run, the reduction of holdings by 360, Kunlun Wanwei, and Zhuosheng Micro has objectively had an overall negative impact on the AI sector. On June 26, domestic artificial intelligence concept stocks continued to fall, including but not limited to 360, Hanwang Technology, Haitian AAC, entrepreneurial dark horse, etc.

The more new things are, the more they need to wait for long-termists, and the same is true for AI.