iFLYTEK Chairman Liu Qingfeng's recent huge reduction of holdings has caused great controversy.
On August 14, Liu Qingfeng sold 39.96 million shares through block trading, involving 2.35 billion yuan, and his shareholding ratio was reduced from 7.27% to 5.54%.
For the cash-out of this reduction, iFLYTEK's explanation is that Liu Qingfeng's reduction is due to the maturity of the 2.35 billion yuan debt of the 2.35 billion yuan borrowed from the increase in 2021, and the need to repay the principal of the loan. "No more than 1 cent of shares sold for consumption".
Some people say that Liu Qingfeng took advantage of the popularity of artificial intelligence to reduce his holdings and cash out, he himself is not optimistic about the company's future development prospects, and cashed out in the company's stock price in a high range.
In fact, Liu Qingfeng did make a lot of money by cashing out this reduction. Liu's increase price that year was 33.58 yuan, and the average transaction price of this sale was 58.82 yuan, a premium of 75%.
Some professional analysts pointed out that through this operation, Liu Qingfeng lost 2.1 billion empty gloves.
In July 2021, iFLYTEK subscribed for 70.4 million shares issued privately at a price of RMB33.38 per share at a cost of approximately RMB2.35 billion. On August 14, 2023, iFLYTEK reduced its holdings by 39.956 million shares, with a turnover of 2.35 billion. Liu Qingfeng currently has about 30.44 million shares left in the fixed increase, with a floating profit of more than 2.1 billion yuan.
For the doubts of the market, iFLYTEK constantly explained, such as "Liu Qingfeng has had many opportunities to reduce his holdings at high prices, but he has not reduced his holdings" "Liu Qingfeng did not choose to reduce his holdings after the company's Xinghuo model V2.0 conference on August 15."
These explanations seem reasonable, but Liu Qingfeng's huge reduction of holdings to cash out still chilled investors' hearts. "It's all taking profits. The common people are still holding on. "Not a single leek was killed by mistake."
On August 16, iFLYTEK opened with a flash crash, once touching the drop limit, although the decline has narrowed since then, but it still fell by more than 8%.
It is worth noting that just before Liu Qingfeng's huge reduction, on August 12, the China Enterprise Development Research Center of Xinhua News Agency Research Institute released the "Artificial Intelligence Large Model Experience Report 2.0", "iFLYTEK Spark" ranked first in the domestic mainstream large model evaluation list with a total score of 1013 points, while Baidu large model ranked second.
A financial inquiry found that the Xinhua News Agency Research Institute was officially launched on October 28, 2021, mainly undertaking the construction of national high-end think tanks, news theory and news business research, media integration development research and other work. The China Enterprise Development Research Center is one of the nine sub-centers of the Institute.
In addition to being recognized by Xinhua News Agency, at the Xunfei Xinghuo Cognitive Big Model V2.0 Upgrade Conference held on August 15, Liu Qingfeng said that the Xinghuo Cognitive Big Model V2.0 "has surpassed ChatGPT in the two dimensions of generation and completion".
Liu Qingfeng also confirmed the long-term development goals at the meeting, "According to the plan, on October 24 this year, the capabilities of all dimensions of the Spark cognitive big model code will surpass ChatGPT, and GPT-4 will be benchmarked in the first half of next year." ”
Some media analysis pointed out that the news related to the Spark model can almost be regarded as the vane of iFLYTEK's market sentiment. After the release of the first quarter earnings report at the end of April, the stock price fell for a while due to the year-on-year decline in financial indicators such as its net profit; This trend was reversed after the release of the Spark model in early May, which rose by 10.01% in the first trading day after the release. Affected by the topic of large models, as of the close of trading on August 16, iFLYTEK's share price has increased by 70.6% compared with the closing price on January 3 at the beginning of this year.
Despite this, iFLYTEK's profitability has not improved.
On the evening of August 11, iFLYTEK released its 2023 half-year report showing that the operating income was 7.842 billion yuan, down 2.26% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to the parent was 74 million yuan, down 73.54% year-on-year. However, the net loss excluding non-recurring profit and loss was 304 million yuan, down 208.99% from the same period last year.
Non-recurring profit and loss refers to some income and expenses incurred by the company that are not directly related to the operation of the business, such as government subsidies. According to the half-year report, iFLYTEK's non-recurring profit and loss projects in the first half of 2023 amounted to RMB221 million from government subsidies.
In the process of Liu Qingfeng's reduction of holdings, China Mobile, the largest shareholder of iFLYTEK, reduced its stake in the company by 1%.
In addition, as of June 30, a total of three major shareholders reduced their holdings in iFLYTEK in the second quarter, of which natural person shareholders Zhang Wei and Ge Weidong reduced their holdings by 16.900 million shares and 3.254 million shares respectively, and the number of shares held after the reduction was 41.98 million shares and 18.4443 million shares respectively.
iFLYTEK is the first listed company in China to start a business among college students, and Liu Qingfeng started his business as a college student. The success of iFLYTEK not only allowed him to grow his personal wealth rapidly, but also allowed him to hold many social positions.
According to the "Hurun Global Rich List" released in March this year, Liu Qingfeng ranked 2,620 with a wealth of 8 billion yuan. Liu Qingfeng was elected as a deputy to the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th National People's Congress.
Liu Qingfeng once said: "Dreams are not static. But no matter how dreams change, two things are particularly important. First, we must be diligent and work hard to accumulate; The second is to be an honest person. By doing these two things, the power of the community to support you will slowly push you to success. ”