Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Yuchen, intern Shu Anzheng
Recently, Puyuan Varitronix (688337. SH) released its 2023 annual report, during the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 671 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.34%, a net profit attributable to the parent company of 108 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.72%, and a net profit of 60 million yuan.
Previously, after the disclosure of the third quarter report, Guoyuan Securities, Southwest Securities and Soochow Securities' forecasts for Puyuan Varitronix's net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023 dropped from 164 million yuan, 160 million yuan and 190 million yuan to 124 million yuan, 140 million yuan and 130 million yuan respectively.
In other words, after lowering the profit target, the performance of Varitronix still did not meet market expectations. And the reporter noticed that the investment income accounted for a relatively large proportion of Puyuan Varitronix's profit in 2023, close to half of its operating profit of 115 million yuan.
Wealth management income contributed nearly half of the profit
According to public information, the company was founded in 2009 and landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in April 2022, and the company's main business is the design, research and development, production and sales of digital oscilloscopes, radio frequency instruments, waveform generators, power supplies and electronic loads, multimeters and data collectors in general electronic measuring instruments.
In terms of products, in 2023, the operating income of Varitronix electronic test and measurement instruments will be 604 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.55%, and the revenue of other products will be 58 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.63%.
From the perspective of gross profit margin, the comprehensive gross profit margin of RITRONIX in 2023 will reach 56.45%, a year-on-year increase of 4.06 percentage points, of which the gross profit margin of digital oscilloscope products will be 58.26%, an increase of 3.31 percentage points year-on-year.
Among them, it is worth noting that the change in trading financial assets of Puyuan Varitronix in 2023 will reach 175 million yuan, the impact on the current profit will be 54 million yuan, and the impact of derivative financial liabilities on profits will be 53 million yuan, accounting for nearly half of its operating profit, and the operating profit of Puyuan Varitronix in 2023 will be 115 million yuan, the net profit will be 108 million yuan, and the net profit attributable to the parent will be 108 million yuan.
And the reporter noted that this situation also happened in 2022, in 2022, Puyuan Varitronix will achieve an operating profit of 94 million yuan, a net profit of 92 million yuan, and a net profit attributable to the parent company of 92 million yuan, of which the impact of changes in trading financial assets on the current profit will be 40 million yuan.
If this gain is excluded from the net profit of Varitronix in 2022 and 2023, the actual net profit will be reduced to 55 million yuan and 52 million yuan respectively.
In this regard, Puyuan Varitronix also said in the financial report, "It is mainly the financial income generated by the use of its own funds and idle raised funds for cash management this year, which is not sustainable." ”
Image source: Varitronix 2023 annual report
Judging from past data, in 2020 and 2021, Puyuan Varitronix was still in a state of net loss, and its performance soared in the first year after listing, with a net profit increase of 96 million yuan. However, in 2023, its net profit will only increase by 15 million yuan, which is even lower if the impact of financial income is excluded.
According to public information, the integrated sales model of "distribution-based, direct sales supplemented, and a small amount of ODM" has been adopted, of which the revenue of the distribution model has been accounting for more than 70%, and the direct sales model has been rapidly developing in 2020, and the proportion of revenue contributed to the total revenue of the company has stabilized at more than 20%.
Source: Varitronix Prospectus
The general manager of R&D left the company after two years in office
Along with the annual report, there is also an announcement on the resignation of the general manager of R&D, the announcement said, "Mr. Luo Qiyong, a core technical personnel, recently applied for resignation from his position in the company for personal reasons, and after his resignation, Mr. Luo Qiyong no longer holds any position in the company." ”
According to public information, Luo Qiyong has senior experience in large technology companies, with rich experience in software development, system architecture and R&D management, and has served as the general manager of RITRONIX R&D since April 18, 2022, and has only been for 2 years.
When Luo Qiyong took office, Puyuan Varitronix also opened its IPO during the same period. According to the announcement of Puyuan Varitronix, in April 2022, all the funds raised by the company's initial public offering of 1.8 billion yuan were used for R&D and construction, including the research and development of oscilloscope chipsets and high-end microwave RF instruments, as well as the construction or expansion projects of two major research centers in Beijing and Shanghai.
In the first quarter after Luo Qiyong's arrival, that is, in the second quarter of 2022, the net profit attributable to the parent company of Varitronix was 24 million yuan, an increase of 467% from the previous quarter. In 2022, the total R&D investment of Varitronix will be 126 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.74%.
In September 2023, Varitronix launched a fixed increase and raised 280 million yuan again, of which 110 million yuan was used for the construction of Xi'an R&D center. In 2023, the total R&D investment of RITRONIX will be 143 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.70%, and the proportion of R&D investment in operating income will be 21.30%.
According to the announcement of Puyuan Varitronix, as early as November 2022, Luo Qiyong replaced Zhang Hong as the company's core technical personnel, and the 2023 annual report shows that Luo Qiyong has withdrawn from the core technical personnel, and there is no personnel to replace him.
Source: Puyuan Varitronix announcement on November 8, 2022
Source: Puyuan Varitronix's announcement on March 21, 2024
According to the financial report data, in 2023, there will be a total of five projects under research of Puyuan Varitronix, with an estimated total investment scale of nearly 100 million yuan. In the announcement, Puyuan Varitronix said that "Luo Qiyong has completed the handover of work, and his departure will not adversely affect the research and development process of the project." The intellectual property rights that Luo Qiyong participated in the research and development during his tenure are owned by the company, and there are no disputes or potential disputes involving job results and intellectual property rights, and his resignation does not affect the integrity of the company's intellectual property rights. ”
Image source: Varitronix 2023 annual report
It is worth mentioning that Luo Qiyong is also the only one among many core technical personnel who has obtained shares through the incentive plan.
According to the 2023 annual report of Puyuan Varitronix, Luo Qiyong holds 148,000 shares of Class I restricted shares that have been granted but have not yet been released from restricted sales and 148,000 shares of Class II restricted shares that have not yet been vested through the company's 2023 restricted stock incentive plan, with a market price of 43.87 yuan at the end of the reporting period.
However, Times Weekly learned from consulting the patent information of the State Intellectual Property Office that the number of patents related to Puyuan Varitronix reached 191, but there was no name of Luo Qiyong among the inventors. The number of patents related to Luo Qiyong reached 10, which belonged to four companies, and there was no universal varitronix.
Image source: official website of the State Intellectual Property Office
In response to related questions, Times Weekly sent an interview email to Puyuan Varitronix, but the other party has not replied as of press time.