Yangtze River Business Daily reporter Shen Yourong
The world's leading wet diaphragm company (002812. SZ) reported an adjustment in operating results for the first time.
On the evening of April 24, the company released its 2023 annual report, the company's operating income exceeded 12 billion yuan, a slight decrease from the previous year, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company (hereinafter referred to as "net profit") slightly exceeded 2.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of more than 35%.
The predecessor of the company was Innovation Shares, which was renamed as the company in 2018. Purely from the perspective of operating performance, whether it is the period of innovative shares or after the name change, the net profit of revenue has declined, which is the first time since 2012.
In response to the decline in performance in 2023, the company explained that due to the downstream destocking and cost reduction requirements, and the concentrated release of new production capacity in the industry, industry competition has intensified, and product prices have fallen, resulting in a decline in net profit.
In 2023, the company will launch an unprecedented large cash dividend.
On the basis of the medium-term cash dividend of 200 million yuan, the company plans to pay another dividend of 1.5 billion yuan at the end of the period. This year's cash dividend will be more than the sum of the past seven years.
However, there is more obvious financial pressure on the company. As of the end of 2023, the company's monetary funds were 3.836 billion yuan, and the corresponding long-term and short-term debts totaled 13.508 billion yuan.
Net profit declined for six consecutive quarters
The market environment has changed, and the operating performance of the company has declined.
According to the annual report, in 2023, the company achieved operating income of 12.042 billion yuan, a decrease of 549 million yuan from the previous year, a year-on-year decrease of 4.36%, a net profit of 2.527 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 1.5 billion yuan, a decrease of 36.84%, and a net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses (hereinafter referred to as "non-net profit") of 2.461 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.379 billion yuan, a decrease of 35.90%.
The gap between the non-net profit and the net profit is small and the change range is basically the same, indicating that the decline in the company's net profit is directly related to the main business.
From the perspective of a single quarter, in the first, second, third and fourth quarters of 2023, the company's operating income will be 2.568 billion yuan, 3 billion yuan, 3.525 billion yuan and 2.949 billion yuan respectively, with a year-on-year change of -0.92%, -5.19%, 0.05% and -10.95%, and the net profit will be 649 million yuan, 755 million yuan, 749 million yuan and 373 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 29.10%, 31.57%, 37.92% and 51.82% respectively , continuous decline.
In fact, although the operating income and net profit of the company in 2022 have grown strongly, the weakness has emerged in the fourth quarter of that year. In 2022, the company's operating income and net profit were 12.591 billion yuan and 4 billion yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 57.73% and 47.20%, of which in the fourth quarter, the company's operating income was 3.311 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.27%, and the net profit was 774 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 19.51%.
The decline in quarterly results has continued into this year. According to the latest disclosure of the first quarter report of 2024, in the first three months of this year, the operating income and net profit of the company were 2.328 billion yuan and 158 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 9.38% and 75.64%.
To sum up, starting in the fourth quarter of 2022, by the first quarter of this year, the company's net profit has declined for six consecutive quarters.
From the perspective of decline, the net profit in the first quarter of 2024 fell the most, by more than 70%, with an amount of less than 200 million yuan, while from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023, the company's net profit is still around 700 million yuan.
The Yangtze River Business Daily reporter found that the annual revenue and net profit both declined, which was the first time since the company's operating performance data was disclosed (before 2018, it was an innovative share).
In response to the decline in performance in 2023, the company said in its annual report that the overall product price of the diaphragm industry continued to decline due to factors such as downstream destocking and cost reduction requirements, the centralized release of new production capacity of diaphragm enterprises, and intensified market competition.
In 2023, the company's comprehensive gross profit margin and net profit margin will be 37.43% and 22.01% respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 10.4 percentage points and 11.44 percentage points, respectively.
It is planned to pay a dividend of 1.7 billion, exceeding the sum of the previous seven years
The operating performance continued to decline, but the cash dividends of the company increased significantly.
According to the 2023 profit distribution plan released by the company, the company will distribute a cash dividend of 15.51 yuan (tax included) to all shareholders for every 10 shares based on the total share capital of about 978 million shares as of April 11, 2024 after deducting about 967 million shares in the company's repurchase special securities account, with a total cash dividend of 1.5 billion yuan.
In the middle of 2023, the company has implemented a cash dividend of 2.05 yuan (tax included) for every 10 shares, with a total cash dividend of 200 million yuan.
To sum up, in 2023, the company will distribute a total cash dividend of 1.7 billion yuan (excluding the amount of repurchased shares).
From 2016 to 2018, the company's net profit was 165 million yuan, 156 million yuan and 518 million yuan respectively, and the annual cash dividend was 100 million yuan, 150 million yuan and 180 million yuan, with dividend rates of 60.71%, 96.26% and 34.64% respectively.
In August 2018, Chuangxin Co., Ltd. completed the acquisition of 100% equity of Shanghai NXT, with a transaction price of about 5 billion yuan. Subsequently, the company changed its name to Engjie shares.
From 2019 to 2022, the cash dividends distributed by NXT were 101 million yuan, 151 million yuan, 270 million yuan and 174 million yuan respectively, with dividend rates of 11.85%, 13.51%, 9.94% and 4.34% respectively.
To sum up, from 2016 to 2022, the cumulative amount of cash dividends distributed by the company is 1.125 billion yuan. In 2023, the cash dividends paid by the company are much higher than the sum of the cash payouts in the past seven years.
A high proportion of cash dividends was originally worth encouraging and advocating by the regulators, but is the operation of the company reasonable when it comes to sudden high cash dividends?
In 2020 and 2023, the company will successively implement fixed increases, raising 5 billion yuan and 7 billion yuan to expand production and replenish working capital.
As of the end of 2023, the company's monetary funds were 3.836 billion yuan, corresponding to short-term borrowings of 7.291 billion yuan, non-current liabilities due within one year of 1.096 billion yuan, long-term borrowings of 4.685 billion yuan, bonds payable of 436 million yuan, and long-term and short-term debts totaled 13.508 billion yuan.
It can be seen that there is obvious financial pressure on the company.
The performance declined, the financial pressure was obvious, but the company paid a large amount of cash dividends, and the company's move was questioned.
It is worth mentioning that previously, the family of Li Xiaohua, the direct controller of the company, had cashed out a total of 4 billion yuan, which was questioned by the market. Since last year, Li Xiaohua's family and company executives have increased their holdings.
Exclusive In-Depth Recommendations:
Junzheng Group's net profit fell three times in a row, its cash flow decreased by 3.1 billion, the annual dividend was 2.7 billion, and the Du Jiangtao family was 1.44 billion
The inventory of Gujing Gongjiu was 7.5 billion yuan, an increase of 120% in three years, and the sales fee exceeded 5.4 billion, ranking second among A-share wine companies
Li Liangbin's wealth shrank by 50 billion yuan, and he lost the richest man in Jiangxi, Ganfeng Lithium's net profit fell by 75%, and Li Chenglin took over the baton with 25 billion debts
Yiling Pharmaceutical's first year of handover was a rare single-quarter loss of 400 million, Wu Xiangjun was under pressure, and Lianhua Qingwen's income plummeted by 51%
iFLYTEK has dropped by 70% for two consecutive years, with a record loss of 300 million yuan in a single quarter, and the stock price continues to be sluggish
Shenghua New Material's net profit fell by 97%, the fixed increase was 2 billion, the stock price fell by 80%, and the market value shrank by 62 billion
Oriental Yuhong assets impairment of 433 million caused the first loss in a single quarter, the stock price fell by 50%, and Li Weiguo's pledge rate was 64%, which was at risk
Huayou Cobalt's net profit fell by 49%, the dividend rate soared to 69%, the debt was 53.6 billion, the financial expenses were 1.4 billion, and the stock price fell by 80%.
Harbin beer was detected with vomitoxin, saying that it is only sold in the mainland, and the parent company Budweiser APAC has been listed for five years, and its net profit has dropped by four and one liter
Wang Zelong, the second generation of the rich post-90s, was fined 133 million for illegal arbitrage, and the stock price of China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide's performance roller coaster fell by 80%
Mengniu is trapped in a 10 billion merger and acquisition crisis, and 8.95 billion goodwill is hanging to the top, and it is urgent to get out of the era of Lu Minfang to boost market value and break the situation
Behind the Chongqing gas incident, China Resources Gas became the owner a year ago, and its operating profit soared 11 times in the fourth quarter of 2023, which raised questions
26 A-share companies have zero dividends, and 45 have less than 10 million dividends