Text: Valuation House
Dingyuan County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, for thousands of years, a number of powerful figures have emerged, the famous general Lu Su of Eastern Wu, the leader of the righteous army Guo Zixing, the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty Li Shanchang, Hu Weiyong, etc., all came from here, Dingyuan has enjoyed the reputation of "the hometown of the general" and "the poetry of Huai, the word of longevity, and the article".
Anhui Anruisheng New Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Anruisheng" or the "Issuer"), located in Dingyuan Industrial Park, is positioned as a long-term integrated gas operator focusing on the field of clean energy supply, with its main business of gas sales, gas engineering installation and natural gas transportation, and was listed and traded on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations in December 2015, stock code: 834489.
An Ruisheng's IPO plans to issue no more than 33,629,828 shares on the Beijing Stock Exchange, with an expected issue price of not less than 8.00 yuan per share, raising 231.369 million yuan for the natural gas pipeline network project in Wanzai County and the natural gas comprehensive utilization and upgrading project in Dingyuan County. The sponsor is Xiangcai Securities, and the auditor is Rongcheng Certified Public Accountants.
An Ruisheng signed a counseling agreement with Oriental Citigroup Securities (now Orient Securities) in December 2016, and did not submit the form to the Beijing Stock Exchange until June 2023, with a time span of 5 and a half years, during which it also experienced the termination of the contract with the continuous sponsoring brokerage Orient Securities for unknown reasons in June 2022, and then introduced Xiangcai Securities as the sponsor of this issuance, all of which are suspicious.
In addition, a review of the prospectus and other public information shows that Anruisheng is in a fully competitive market downstream of natural gas, and its business is excessively concentrated in the Anhui market, and many abnormal information disclosed in the prospectus indicate that there are great doubts about the authenticity of its financial statements.
1. The authenticity of the operating income is doubtful
The operating income of the issuer during the reporting period (the same below) is shown in the following table:
Unit: 10,000 yuan
According to the prospectus information, the decline in the issuer's revenue in 2022 was due to the transfer of the controlling stake in Chuzhou Ruitong and Lixin Southern Boneng at the end of 2021 and the end of the third quarter of 2022, respectively, resulting in a decrease in consolidated income. Even so, there are still a number of doubts about the issuer's operating income.
1. There is a mismatch between the change in operating income and the change in the number of employees
The number of employees at the end of the period disclosed by the issuer is shown in the table below:
As can be seen from the above table, the issuer experienced a decrease in the number of employees during the reporting period from 452 at the end of the first year to 305 at the end of the period, a decrease of 147 people, a decrease of about 32.52%, while the issuer's operating income was 444 million yuan, 762 million yuan and 672 million yuan respectively during the reporting period, which is not consistent with the continuous decline in the number of employees of the issuer.
Whether the issuer is a production-oriented enterprise or a service-oriented enterprise, although the operating income and the total number of employees are not necessarily strictly linear positively, there should be a positive correlation when the internal and external environment changes little, but now the issuer has a negative correlation, which is obviously abnormal, and the issuer's operating income or the total number of employees may have problems in one aspect, and the number of employees is relatively easy to verify, but it is difficult to verify if there are problems with the operating income.
Corresponding to the above-mentioned mismatch between the operating income and the total number of employees, the issuer's per capita annual output value has also fluctuated abnormally. The calculated per capita annual output value of the issuer is shown in the table below:
As can be seen from the above table, the issuer's per capita annual output value in 2020 was 983,100 yuan/year, and in 2021, it more than doubled to an incredible 2,044,000 yuan/year, and in 2022, it will continue to increase by about 10% on the basis of 2021.
2. Related parties and competitors have been the second largest customers of the issuer year after year
The top five customer sales disclosed by the issuer are shown in the chart below:
Unit: 10,000 yuan
We note that Fuyang Guozhen Gas Co., Ltd., which ranks as the issuer's second largest customer every year in the above table, has sales of 85.4546 million yuan, 112.5562 million yuan and 67.1556 million yuan respectively from 2020 to 2022, accounting for about 10%-20% of the issuer's total operating income in the current period The minority shareholders of the equity, which in turn makes the two parties have a related relationship.
The prospectus information also shows that Fuyang Guozhen is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baichuan Energy Co., Ltd. (600681.SH), an A-share listed company, and Fuyang Guozhen, as a city gas operator, is mainly engaged in pipeline gas supply, compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas filling and sales, and Fuyang Guozhen and the parent company Baichuan Energy are in the same gas supply industry as the issuer and are also competitors of the issuer.
Whether the issuer and Fuyang Guozhen are purely competitive or pure cooperative relations, or even competition mixed with cooperative relations, the prospectus does not give a clear answer. However, the prospectus mentions that Lixin Guozhen, a subsidiary of the issuer, owns a long-distance natural gas pipeline from Lixin County to Fuyang City to provide natural gas transmission business for Fuyang Guozhen, but Lixin Guozhen's natural gas transmission business income from Fuyang Guozhen during the reporting period was only 10.6103 million yuan, 12.1702 million yuan and 13.5974 million yuan respectively, which is very different from the operating income of 67 million yuan to 113 million yuan in the above table.
Other information in the prospectus shows the above-mentioned difference, that is, the issuer's revenue from the sale of natural gas to Fuyang Guozhen was 74.8443 million yuan, 100.386 million yuan, and 53.5582 million yuan respectively. Why is the business between the two so strange?
3. There are multiple shell and abnormal suppliers among the top five suppliers, and two of them share a contact phone number
There is a lot of anomaly information in the top five suppliers of issuers that is little known.
For example, Luoyang Zhenjiu Energy Sales Co., Ltd., the issuer's second largest supplier in 2022 and the third largest supplier in 2021, purchased natural gas from it for 31.655 million yuan and 26.3768 million yuan respectively, accounting for 5.33% and 3.84% of the issuer's total procurement in the current year (the same below), according to Tianyancha information, the company was only established in June 2020, and the paid-in capital contribution and the number of insured persons were 0, which can be called a shell company.
For another example, Luoyang Aojing Petrochemical Co., Ltd., the issuer's fifth largest supplier in 2022 and the fourth largest supplier in 2021, the issuer purchased 25.0735 million yuan and 19.7573 million yuan from it respectively, accounting for 5.33% and 2.87%, according to Tianyancha information, the company was also established in October 2020, and the paid-in capital contribution and the number of insured people were also 0, which can be called a shell company.
What's even more exaggerated is that, according to Tianyancha information, the contact numbers of Luoyang Zhenjiu Energy Sales Co., Ltd. and Luoyang Aojing Petrochemical Co., Ltd. are the same number! See the screenshot below for details:
There are two reasons for this "coincidence"? There are two possibilities: First, the actual controller of the two companies is the same person, and the telephone number is the telephone number of the actual controller or the relevant personnel of the actual controller; second, the two companies use the services of the same financial agency bookkeeping company, and the telephone number is the telephone number of the relevant personnel of the bookkeeping agency. If it is the second case, then in the context of dozens, or even hundreds, of financial agency bookkeeping companies in Luoyang City, it is too much of a coincidence!
It is worth mentioning that in the list of the top five suppliers disclosed by the issuer, Luoyang Zhenjiu Energy Sales Co., Ltd. and Luoyang Aojing Petrochemical Co., Ltd. were not combined as the same supplier or affiliated supplier to calculate the purchase amount (see the table below for details), nor did it disclose whether there was an affiliated relationship between the two suppliers.
In addition, among the top five suppliers of the issuer in 2022, Qidong Jovo Natural Gas Co., Ltd. and Shayang Kaida Industrial Co., Ltd. may also have problems.
According to the information in the prospectus, these two suppliers are supplying natural gas to Jiangxi Jingzhen Energy Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the issuer located in Wanzai County, Jiangxi Province.
Moreover, the prospectus also shows: "The company's subsidiaries Jiangxi Jingzhen, Huaihua Jingzhen, Henan Dingyu and Tongcheng Ruida purchase from LNG producers or LNG traders near the gas supply area." "So whether Jiangsu Qidong and Hubei Shayang are in the vicinity of Jiangxi Wanzai, especially since Jiangsu Qidong is so far away from Jiangxi Wanzai, across two provincial-level regions, it may not be economical at all in terms of spatial distance.
The procurement of natural gas across two provincial-level regions indicates that there may be problems with the commercial rationality of the issuer's natural gas procurement business, and if the issuer has a problematic supplier, the corresponding procurement business is more difficult to say normal, and the authenticity of the sales business corresponding to the abnormal procurement business is even more doubtful.
4. There were large cash receipts in each period of the report
The issuer discloses the cash receipts, as shown in the table below:
Unit: 10,000 yuan
As can be seen from the above table, the ratio of the issuer's cash receipts to operating income is 2.48%-8.55%, and the amount ranges from 16.6704 to 37.9834 million yuan.
The issuer for the existence of large cash receipts explained that "the company has some customers with small purchase volumes, such as drivers of natural gas vehicles and resident users of urban gas companies, and such customers prefer to adopt cash settlement methods due to transaction Xi and transaction convenience." ”
According to the issuer's above explanation, since there are such customers who prefer cash settlement, why does it reverse a large decrease and a decrease in the proportion of the issuer's revenue when the issuer's income rises. In addition, considering that most domestic residents have developed the habit Xi of online payment, the operating income corresponding to the issuer's cash collection does not meet the requirements of internal control, and there are certain doubts about the authenticity of the issuer's cash receipt.
As mentioned above, the four major anomalies in the issuer's operating income all point to the possibility of inflated operating income to a certain extent.
Second, many anomalies in financial data point to doubts about the authenticity of profitability
The main profit indicators of the issuer's gross profit margin and net profit margin are shown in the table below:
Unit: 10,000 yuan
As can be seen from the above table, the average comprehensive gross profit margin of the issuer was 16.95%, and the consolidated gross profit margin maintained an upward trend during the reporting period. But is a gross profit margin of 15%-20% normal for an issuer, and how true is the profitability of the issuer?
1. The loss of direct customer business and the profit of wholesale customer business point to the authenticity of profitability
In terms of the price of natural gas, it is divided into urban gas supply and non-city gas supply. According to the information in the prospectus, "for the gas supply price of urban residential gas that is related to the basic people's livelihood, according to the "Price Law" of the mainland, the current sales price of urban gas is formulated under the guidance of the provincial price administrative department. In terms of sales pricing, the price of natural gas for residential use is basically fixed, mainly based on the price approved by the local government, and if it needs to be raised, it still needs to go through a hearing procedure; the upper limit of the sales price of natural gas for industrial and commercial users is determined by the local government, and the actual sales price can be flexibly controlled by the city gas company according to market conditions.
For non-city gas supply, the price is mainly determined by market supply and demand. Based on the market open price, the sales pricing is adjusted according to the purchase price. ”
The prospectus information also shows: "In 2019, the top priority of the reform of the natural gas system, the official establishment of the National Petroleum Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd., is a major measure to deepen the reform of the oil and gas industry and ensure the safe and stable supply of oil and gas, marking the basic establishment of the new "X+1+X" oil and gas market system of multi-subject and multi-channel supply of upstream oil and gas resources in the mainland, efficient gathering and transportation of intermediate unified pipeline network, and full competition in the downstream sales market. ”
The above shows that the price of natural gas is regulated, and the downstream sales market is a fully competitive environment, and the national pipeline network is mainly operated on the backbone natural gas transportation pipelines.
As mentioned above, the exploitation and supply of domestic natural gas is basically operated by PetroChina and CNOOC, and the supply price of the two is also limited by the relevant documents, the issuer as a middleman in the natural gas industry, resulting in the price at the procurement end, the issuer also has no room for negotiation, and even the prospectus also discloses that the issuer in the annual fixed supply agreed by PetroChina, even if the issuer's purchase volume does not reach the agreed amount, the issuer must pay PetroChina a three-fold discount on the amount of gas purchased, that is, the so-called "take or pay", " Deviation Settlement" clause.
Corresponding to the above-mentioned regulation of natural gas prices and the fact that the downstream market is fully competitive, the issuer also disclosed part of the annual loss-making market business in the prospectus, as shown in the following table:
Unit: 10,000 yuan
As can be seen from the above table, the issuer's industrial customers, residential users and commercial users in 2022 are all loss-making, and we can understand these three types of customers as the issuer's direct customers. However, the wholesale customers with the highest proportion in the above table of the issuer are equivalent to the issuer's subordinate distributors, and the issuer is profitable.
The issuer sells natural gas directly at a loss, but selling it to subordinate distributors has become the largest source of profit, and the issuer not only does not leave a certain profit margin for the distributor, but also puts forward the superpower requirement for the distributor to sell at a higher price. As a result, there is a possibility that the issuer's wholesale customer revenue may be inflated, and the car users in the above table may also have false problems. If these two types of income are not confirmed, it may be the biggest direct driver of the issuer's high gross profit margin, and it also points to the authenticity of the issuer's profitability.
2. There is a lack of direct labor costs in the operating costs, but there are a large number of production personnel, and the authenticity of the gross profit margin is doubtful
There is no direct labor expenditure in the composition of the main business costs disclosed by the issuer, as detailed in the table below.
As can be seen from the above table, the issuer's main business costs are classified according to the cost accounting elements of the production enterprise, including direct materials, manufacturing expenses, and even transportation costs and safety production costs, but the direct labor costs are not listed.
On the other hand, there is a large number of production personnel in the staff structure disclosed by the issuer, as detailed in off-hours.
As can be seen from the above table, the number of production personnel at the end of the recent period of the issuer was 83, accounting for 27.21% of the total number of employees, and the issuer has a large number of production personnel but lacks direct labor expenditure.
Corresponding to the issuer's lack of direct labor costs, the issuer's average salary is also abnormally high, and the average salary of the issuer calculated by Valuation House is shown in the following table through the data on the cash flow statement:
Unit: 10,000 yuan, person, 10,000 yuan/person
As can be seen from the above table, the average salary of the issuer has increased from 68,700 yuan in 2020 to 105,100 yuan in 2022, and the average annual salary of 100,000 yuan is not only too high but also very unreasonable in Anhui Province, where the issuer's main market is located.
On the one hand, the issuer may have intentionally omitted direct labor expenses, and on the other hand, there may be a large cash outflow from wages and salaries, which means that there may be problems with the logical relationship of the issuer's financial data.
3. Why do you often use large amounts of raised funds to buy raw materials?
In 2016, the issuer raised 122.9846 million yuan for the second time after landing on the New Third Board, of which 90.1467 million yuan was used to purchase raw materials, accounting for about 73.30%, and in May 2019, the issuer issued preferred shares to raise 80 million yuan, all of which were used to purchase raw materials. If we use the raised funds to purchase and build fixed assets, it is easy to understand that it is rare for an issuer to purchase raw materials in such a large amount.
The valuation house has sorted out all the consolidated net profits that can be queried after the issuer lands on the New Third Board, as shown in the following table:
Unit: 10,000 yuan
As can be seen from the above table, the issuer has no loss problem in the well-documented year, not only making a profit every year, but also making a profit of nearly 60 million yuan in 2018, and the cumulative undistributed profit at the beginning of the reporting period is also as high as 90 million yuan, on the other hand, the closing balance of the issuer's accounts receivable balance during the reporting period is only between 16 million yuan and 27 million yuan, and the inventory is only 800-1. Between RMB 2 million, theoretically, the issuer can carry out capital circulation in the normal commodity purchase and sales cycle, and does not need to use large part of the financing to purchase raw materials. The issuer's behavior of using the financing funds to purchase a large amount of raw materials and the undistributed profits on the account but the high amount of profits on the account is a bit like the monetary funds of Furen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. exceeded 1.8 billion yuan in the account but was unable to pay more than 60 million yuan in dividends, and was investigated by the CSRC.
In the case where the issuer uses a large amount of external financing to purchase raw materials, there may be two situations: one is that the actual controller misappropriates and embezzles the raised funds in large amounts through the purchase of raw materials, and the other is that the issuer often loses money, so it is not allowed to use the financing funds to purchase a large amount of raw materials. For these two possible scenarios, the issuer is more likely to fall into the second category, given the industry in which the issuer operates.
4. The fluctuation of long-term and short-term borrowings is not consistent with high profitability
In addition to the above-mentioned annual profits of the issuer and the cumulative undistributed profit at the end of the reporting period as high as 307 million yuan, as well as the large amount of funds raised by the issuer to purchase raw materials, the issuer also had the problem of irregular long-term and short-term loan balances during the reporting period.
According to the financial data of the issuer, the short-term loan balance of the issuer in 2020 was 20 million yuan and the long-term loan balance was 69.6001 million yuan, and at the end of 2021, there was no loan balance, and there was a short-term loan balance of 20.0248 million yuan in the case of net profit of 206 million yuan in 2022. In the absence of a large increase in fixed assets, the issuer's long-term and short-term borrowings can be said to be irregular, and there is almost no correlation with profitability.
5. There are regular changes in financial indicator data
When explaining the issue of regional concentration of business, the issuer mentioned: "During the reporting period, the company's main business income in Anhui Province accounted for 85.86%, 78.01% and 71.58% of the overall main business income respectively, showing a downward trend year by year, and the regional concentration is improving. ”
A simple calculation shows that the proportion of the issuer's revenue in Anhui Province has decreased by about 7% on average per year.
During the reporting period, the gross profit margin of the issuer's business in Jiangxi was 33.03%, 21.58% and 9.44% respectively, with a steady decrease of about 12% per year.
The issuer's key financial indicators that change regularly, taking into account the various anomalies in the issuer's business process and financial statements, all reflect that there are certain doubts about the authenticity of the issuer's profitability.