According to the 2023 annual report released by Geling Shentong (688207.SH), last year, the company achieved operating income of 262 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25.84%, a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of -90.3332 million yuan, a year-on-year change from profit to loss, and a net loss attributable to shareholders of listed companies after deducting non-recurring gains and losses of 97.2647 million yuan.
According to the data, Geling Shentong mainly focuses on the deep integration of computer vision technology, big data analysis technology, robotics and human-computer interaction technology with application scenarios, and provides artificial intelligence products and solutions for smart finance, urban management, smart business, rail transit operation and maintenance, etc.
As for the reasons for the loss, Geling Shentong explained that in 2023, affected by multiple factors such as the macroeconomic environment and the postponement of the budget and procurement plan of the industry's end customers, the demand of its target customers will lag behind, and the delivery demand will be delayed, resulting in a certain degree of decline in operating income compared with the same period last year.
On the other hand, last year, the company further increased R&D investment, and R&D expenses reached 184 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39%, accounting for 70.14% of operating income, which had a certain impact on performance. According to the annual report, in 2023, the number of R&D personnel will increase from 276 in the previous year to 316, and the proportion of R&D personnel in the company's total number has even exceeded 70%.
The company's R&D expenses are mainly used to introduce excellent algorithms, industry application development, and product talents, deepen the basic R&D field, broaden the scope of R&D application scenarios, actively embrace the AIGC wave, and strengthen the development of multi-modal large models.
With the rapid development of new technologies such as the Internet of Things, 5G, cloud computing, big data, and large models, the integration and application of artificial intelligence technology and other new technologies will further promote the technological innovation and product upgrading of the industry, so continuous research and development of new technologies and the launch of new products are an important means for companies in the industry to maintain their advantages in the market.
However, the company's operating income in 2023 will be less than 300 million yuan, which is not large compared with the AI four tigers represented by SenseTime and Megvii. At present, the company's artificial intelligence products are mainly used in urban management and financial fields. Among them, smart financial products and solutions contributed the most to revenue, bringing 220 million yuan of revenue to the company last year, accounting for more than eighty percent of the revenue. However, last year, the revenue scale of the business shrank, a sharp decline of 29.28% year-on-year, while profitability also declined, and the gross profit margin fell by 4.59 percentage points compared with the previous year.
Source: Company announcement
At a time when revenue is declining, Geling Shentong's accounts receivable are still high. As of the end of December last year, the company's book accounts receivable was 115 million yuan, accounting for 43.89% of the year's revenue. In addition, last year, the company's operating cash flow turned from positive to negative to -31.2448 million yuan, a change of -120.20%, the company said that it was mainly due to the year-on-year decrease in cash received from the sale of goods, and the corresponding increase in salary payment expenses.
On the day of the release of the annual report, Geling Shentong also released the first quarter report of 2024, showing that the company continued its loss trend, and achieved operating income of 31 million yuan in the first quarter of this year, which was "halved" compared with the same period last year. In the same period, the company's net profit was -27 million yuan, and the year-on-year loss continued to expand.
In fact, Geling Shentong was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board on March 17, 2022, but looking at its performance, only the year of listing in the past five years has been profitable. From 2019 to 2023, the net profit attributable to the parent company of Geling Shentong will be -414 million yuan, -78 million yuan, -68 million yuan, 33 million yuan and -90 million yuan respectively.
Source: Wind
Titanium Media APP noticed that since its establishment, Geling Shentong has a star halo on its head, attracting a number of well-known investment institutions such as Zhen Fund, Sequoia Capital, Ceyuan Venture Capital, etc., and was once shouted out by well-known investors such as Xu Xiaoping and Shen Nanpeng with a valuation of more than 100 billion US dollars, and became the "first AI stock on the Science and Technology Innovation Board" as desired.
However, Geling Shentong's IPO fell below the issue price of 39.49 yuan on the first day, and it is still in a state of breakage, closing at 12.84 yuan as of April 26, 2024. Since then, its star shareholders have also begun to reduce their holdings one after another, among which Hyundai Motor, Zhen Fund, Sequoia Capital, and Ceyuan Venture Capital have reduced their holdings of the company more than once last year.
Source: Wind
Wind data shows that last year, the number of shares held by Sequoia Capital changed from 19,401,955 shares to 16,133,846 shares, and the shareholding ratio decreased from 10.49% at the end of 2022 to 6.23%, and the number of shares held by Zhen Fund decreased from 11,086,832 shares to 10,165,378 shares, accounting for 5.99% of the company's total share capital from 5.99% to 3.93%, and it is no longer the company's total shareholding of 5% The shareholding ratio of Ceyuan Venture Capital also decreased from 7.49% to 3.07%. (This article was first published in Titanium Media APP, author|Zhai Biyue)