A few days ago, Nongshang Environment (300536. SZ) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Wuhan Xinlian Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xinlian"), signed a "Procurement Contract" with Aishangyou (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aishangyou") on December 21, 2023. The subject of the contract is the supermicro server, with a purchase quantity of 50 units and a total contract price of 148 million yuan.
Or affected by this news, today's company's shares opened sharply higher and then hit the daily limit, and then quickly fell back, and the end of the session fell 6%. Judging from the performance of the secondary market, investors seem to be less confident in the company's move. As of the close of trading on December 25, the company's share price fell 4.92% to close at 20.3 yuan, with a total market value of 5.954 billion yuan.
Titanium media APP noticed that the company's transaction partners only added a number of related business projects such as cloud computing equipment sales at the end of March this year, and whether it has complete qualifications remains to be examined. At the same time, the source of funds for the company's procurement has not been clarified, as of the end of September this year, the company's monetary funds are only 77 million yuan, and the amount of this procurement needs to be paid is as high as 148 million yuan. In addition, as an enterprise that has been deeply engaged in the garden business for a long time, the reason why it has crossed borders or been affected by the downturn of the industry in recent years has put the company's operating performance under obvious pressure, and its growth has declined, so it is urgent to find a second growth curve.
Cross-border AI for garden enterprises
According to the data, Xinlian Micro, established in November 2020 with a registered capital of 20 million yuan, is an enterprise mainly engaged in the manufacturing of computers, communications and other electronic equipment. However, from the perspective of the business scope of Xinlianwei, it is all related to electronic chips, and there are no licenses related to cloud computing and computing power servers.
It should be noted that the company, as the parent company of Xinlianwei, is engaged in garden business that is not related to the concept of "computing power". According to the 2023 semi-annual report, the company adheres to the stable development of the main business of landscaping, while actively expanding the integrated circuit business. The company's main business income is 71.3 million yuan, of which 55.47 million yuan is for municipal gardens and 10.19 million yuan for software development and technical services.
So how will the company and Xinlian Micro carry out this business in the future without the blessing of AI computing power-related qualifications? The listed company replied to the titanium media APP, the company's subsidiary Xinlian Micro has been involved in the chip business, and the relevant qualifications can be consulted in the annual report. When asked whether the microchip business of Xinlian is closely related to the AI computing business, the listed company did not answer.
It is also questionable whether the company has sufficient funds to start its business. It is reported that the total contract price (including tax) of this procurement transaction is 148 million yuan. As of September 30 this year, the company's monetary funds were 77 million yuan, short-term borrowings were 25 million yuan, notes payable and accounts payable totaled 128 million yuan, and current liabilities totaled 288 million yuan. In this context, will the company's large-scale purchase of 140 million yuan affect its follow-up liquidity?
According to the announcement, the subject matter of this transaction contract is ultra-micro servers, and a total of 50 units are purchased, which is equivalent to a unit price of 2.96 million yuan per unit. According to Supermicro's official website, the two versions of servers currently on sale are 8U GPU (8 GPUs per server) and 4U GPUs (4 GPUs per server). In this regard, some market sources said that the company's 2.96 million servers may be the 8U version.
In September this year, Lotus Health purchased 330 NVIDIA H800GPU series computing servers (each server also includes 8 GPUs) at a price of 693 million yuan, and its purchase unit price was 2.1 million yuan. By comparing the above purchase price, why is the price of the server purchased by the company so high? In this regard, the listed company replied to the titanium media APP, and the specific price is a matter of the business department.
Titanium Media APP found that as an enterprise that has been deeply involved in the garden business for a long time, the reason why it crosses borders is mainly because of the decline in performance in recent years, and it needs to find a second growth curve. It is understood that in 2020, due to the dual adverse effects of domestic public health events and the Yangtze River flood season, the company's operating performance will decline sharply. In order to boost the future business performance, the company promoted the new main business of integrated circuit chips and entered the LCD panel display driver chip market.
In fact, in terms of the general environment in 2020, the demand for localization of the semiconductor industry chain is more urgent, and the trend of cross-border "core making" is becoming more and more obvious.
It is worth noting that although there are frequent capital moves to develop new businesses, there are few specific data reflected in the financial reports.
The counterparty is suspicious
Tianyancha shows that Aishangyou was established in 2013 with a paid-in capital of 16.64 million yuan, and is an enterprise mainly engaged in science and technology promotion and application services. Aishangyou has been established for many years, and only on March 29 this year did it change its business project, adding "storage support services, cloud computing equipment technical services, and cloud computing equipment sales." ”
According to the official website of Aishangyou, by the end of 2022, it has two invention patents related to cloud computing. However, one of the patents, "A Cloud Application in Accordance with the Method", was applied for in 2018, and this is only a granted patent, while the other patent was applied for in 2021, but the patent is still in the substantive examination stage.
So does Aishangyou have all the qualifications or approvals necessary for the sale of ultra-micro servers? Does the company conduct a comprehensive review of its main business scope, performance ability, supplier qualifications, etc.? The listed company told Titanium Media APP that the specific questions of Aishangyou can be asked to the company, and whether the company does a comprehensive review of Aishangyou is a matter of the business department.
Interestingly, Aishangyou mentioned in the 2023 interim report that if the cloud-related business cannot develop as expected as soon as possible, or cannot further improve the technical capabilities of cloud computing and maintain a certain leading edge with competitors, it is likely to face the risk of being seized by competitors and eliminated.
As for countermeasures, the company has developed its own advanced and efficient management platform through R&D investment in cloud computing resource scheduling and management technology in recent years, and has continuously iteratively updated it according to market demand. However, a query of Aishangyou's 2023 semi-annual report found that the company's R&D expenses were 5 million yuan in 2021, 2 million yuan in 2022, and 0 yuan in the first half of 2023.
In addition, judging from the financial data of Aishangyou, it is also doubtful whether it has the strength of computing power services. From 2022 to June 30, 2023, the operating income will be 11.7294 million yuan, 14.3665 million yuan, 27.273 million yuan and 31.9302 million yuan respectively, and the net profit will be 1.2166 million yuan, -8.9244 million yuan, -59,100 yuan and 292,600 yuan respectively.
It is worth mentioning that Tianyancha shows that the number of insured people in Aishangyou will be 12 in 2020, 11 in 2021, and 5 in 2022. (This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, by Zhai Zhichao)