The net profit of Aopu Home Flossing has been standing still for five years, earning 1 billion yuan, distributing 1.1 billion yuan, and the Fang Shengkang family has taken 700 million

Yangtze River Business Daily News ● Yangtze River Business Daily reporter Shen Yourong

In response to the call of supervision, a number of A-share listed companies actively distributed cash dividends to shareholders. However, there are also individual companies that show signs of excessive dividends. Aopu Home (603551. SH) was questioned by the market for excessive dividends.

According to the annual report, in 2023, Aopu Home Furnishing achieved operating income of nearly 2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 6%, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company (hereinafter referred to as "net profit") of 309 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 29%.

In 2023, the company plans to distribute a total cash dividend of 309 million yuan (tax included) to all shareholders. This means that basically all the money earned in the year will be divided.

Not only in 2023, but also in 2021 and 2022, the annual dividend amount of Aopu Home Furnishing will be higher than the net profit of the year. From 2019 to 2023, the company's cumulative profit will be 1.037 billion yuan, and the cumulative dividend amount will reach 1.131 billion yuan.

The actual controller of Aopu Home Fnishing is the Fang Shengkang family. For the above 1.131 billion yuan in cash dividends, Fang Shengkang's family will share 721 million yuan.

In 2018, the company's net profit was 302 million yuan, and after five years, the company's net profit is still hovering at 300 million yuan.

Net profit increased by only 2.32% in five years

The operating performance of Aopu Home, which is famous for its bath bomb products, continued to grow, but it was lower than market expectations.

According to the annual report, in 2023, Aopu Home Furnishing will achieve operating income of 1.996 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.17%, a slower growth rate, a net profit of 309 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.82%, and a net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses (hereinafter referred to as "non-net profit") of 302 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.91%.

Judging from the above data, the year-on-year growth rate of net profit and non-net profit is significantly higher than the growth rate of operating income, which seems to be a good performance, but in the long run, the company's operating performance is not ideal.

As early as 2015, the operating income and net profit of Aopu Home Furnishing reached 945 million yuan and 245 million yuan respectively, and by 2018, the operating income was 1.684 billion yuan and the net profit was 302 million yuan.

From 2019 to 2022, the company's operating income was 1.650 billion yuan, 1.593 billion yuan, 2.058 billion yuan and 1.880 billion yuan respectively, with year-on-year changes of -2.05%, -3.44%, 29.19% and -8.64%, and net profit was 268 million yuan, 189 million yuan, 31 million yuan and 240 million yuan respectively, with year-on-year changes of -11.41%, -29.42%, -83.56% and 673.21% respectively.

In 2023, the company's operating income will increase by about 18.53% compared with 2018, and its net profit will only increase by 2.32% compared with 2018.

In terms of a single quarter, in the fourth quarter of 2023, the company's operating income was 625 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.18%, net profit was 92 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20%, and non-net profit was 109 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 139.43%.

However, in the first quarter of 2024, the company's operating income will be 381 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.06%, and the net profit and non-net profit will be 52 million yuan and 46 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 9.82% and 0.10%.

The growth rate of 0.10% is flat, which is the lowest growth rate of the company's non-net profit since the second quarter of 2022.

It is worth mentioning that the R&D investment of Aopu Home also lacks bright spots. In 2018, the company's R&D investment was 105 million yuan, and in 2023, the R&D investment will be 101 million yuan, which is lower than in 2018.

The accumulated dividend amount exceeds the net profit

After five years, although the profitability of Opu Home Furnishing has not been significantly improved, the company's tradition of high proportion of dividends has not been adjusted.

In 2019, Aopu Home Furnishing achieved a net profit of 268 million yuan, and distributed cash dividends of 132 million yuan that year, with a dividend rate of 49.32%. In 2020, the company's net profit was 189 million yuan, with a dividend of 162 million yuan and a dividend rate of 85.87%.

Since 2021, the dividend rate of Aopu Home has increased significantly. From 2021 to 2023, the company's net profit will be 31 million yuan, 240 million yuan, and 309 million yuan respectively, and the corresponding annual dividends will be 237 million yuan, 291 million yuan, and 309 million yuan respectively, and the corresponding dividend rates will be 762.83%, 121.31%, and 99.99%.

From 2019 to 2023, the cumulative net profit realized by Opu Home will be 1.037 billion yuan, and the cumulative cash dividend will be 1.131 billion yuan, exceeding the net profit.

According to the 2023 annual report, Fang James (formerly known as Fang Jie in Chinese) and Fang Shengkang are the actual controllers of the company and are acting in concert, Fang James indirectly holds 40.83% of the equity of Tricosco Limited through SeeSi Universal Limited, and Fang Shengkang indirectly holds 42.42% of Tricosco Limited through Sino Broad Holdings Limited Fang Shengkang directly holds 0.24% of the company's equity. Wu Xingjie and Fang Wenwen are the persons acting in concert with the actual controller, Fang Wenwen is the daughter of Fang Shengkang, and indirectly holds 9.39% of the equity of Tricosco Limited through Sino Virtue Global Limited, and directly holds 0.0044% of the equity of Aopu Home, and Wu Xingjie is the son-in-law of Fang Shengkang, who directly holds 6.16% of the equity of Aopu Home.

The controlling shareholder of Opu Home is Tricosco Limited, which holds 61.91% of the company's shares. Fang Jie and Fang Shengkang are cousins.

According to this calculation, at present, the Fang Shengkang family directly and indirectly holds a total of about 63.76% of the shares of Aopu Home.

Of the above 1.131 billion yuan in cash dividends, Fang Shengkang's family shared 721 million yuan.

It is worth mentioning that from 2016 to 2019, before the IPO, Aopu Home paid a surprise dividend of 711 million yuan, and the Fang Shengkang family shared about 500 million yuan.

The cash dividends paid to shareholders on several occasions were more than the company's earnings, and Opple Home Furnishing was questioned for excessive dividends.

Visual China Diagram