37.5 billion has not been lost in three years, and the wealth password of "Queen of Hyaluronic Acid" Zhao Yan has failed

Produced by Radar Finance and Economics, edited by Mo Enmeng, Deep Sea

As the behind-the-scenes helmsman of Bloomage Biotech, the myth of wealth belonging to the "Queen of Hyaluronic Acid" Zhao Yan is being rewritten.

In the latest issue of the "2024 Hurun Global Rich List" released by the Hurun Research Institute, Zhao Yan ranked 900th with a wealth of 27.5 billion yuan. However, compared with the 2021 list data, Zhao Yan's wealth has shrunk by 37.5 billion yuan in three years, and her ranking has also dropped by 660 places.

Zhao Yan's wealth has shrunk sharply, which is closely related to Bloomage Biotech's performance in the capital market. In the past three years, Bloomage Biotech's share price has fallen by 67.55%, and its market value has evaporated by 62.5 billion yuan.

In fact, Bloomage Biotech is just one of the pieces of the puzzle under the Bloomage business empire built by Zhao Yan. As early as 1989, Zhao Yan founded Bloomage Group. After years of development, Bloomage Biotech has become a leading player in the hyaluronic acid industry. In addition to the health and beauty industry, Bloomage Group also has a cultural and sports industry. At present, the total assets of Bloomage Group exceed 100 billion yuan.

Although Bloomage Biotech is now a world-renowned biotechnology company and bioactive materials company, its answer sheet last year was not impressive. The financial report shows that last year, Bloomage Biotech's revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company both declined, falling by 4.45% and 38.97% respectively.

Among them, functional skin care products, which currently play a role as the pillar of revenue in various sectors of Bloomage Biotech, have dragged down the company's overall performance. Last year, the revenue of this segment decreased by 18.45% year-on-year, and its gross profit margin also declined significantly, a year-on-year decrease of 4.44 percentage points.

Bloomage Biotech has lost 62.5 billion in three years

In the "2024 Hurun Global Rich List" released not long ago, Zhao Yan ranked 900th on the list with a wealth of 27.5 billion yuan. The reason why Zhao Yan can accumulate huge wealth is inseparable from the Bloomage business empire built by him, and Bloomage Biotech is an important piece of the puzzle under Zhao Yan's huge business empire.

According to the financial report previously released by Bloomage Biotech, as of the end of last year, Bloomage Xinyu Investment Co., Ltd. held 58.86% of Bloomage Biotech's shares. With a high shareholding ratio, Bloomage Xinyu Investment Co., Ltd. has become the controlling shareholder of Bloomage Biotech.

It is worth noting that in addition to being the controlling shareholder of Bloomage Biotech, Bloomage Xinyu Investment Co., Ltd. also holds shares in other listed companies. For example, Huaxi Xinyu Investment Co., Ltd. holds 210 million shares of First Capital.

And the big man behind Huaxi Xinyu Investment Co., Ltd. is Zhao Yan herself. Zhao Yan is not only the legal representative of Bloomage Xinyu Investment Co., Ltd., but also controls Bloomage Xinyu Investment Co., Ltd. through layers of equity structure, and directly holds 0.02% of Bloomage Biotech's shares.

In other words, Zhao Yan is the actual controller of Bloomage Biotech. In addition, Zhao Yan currently serves as the chairman and general manager of Bloomage Biotech. Last year, Zhao Yan received a total pre-tax remuneration of 2.0249 million yuan from Bloomage Biotech.

Although Zhao Yan is still a super-rich man with a net worth of tens of billions, her wealth has shrunk significantly compared to before. Back to 2021, when Zhao Yan ranked 240th on the "Hurun Global Rich List" with a wealth of 65 billion yuan.

But then in 2022, Zhao Yan's wealth shrank to 48 billion yuan, and her ranking also fell 149 places. In 2023, Zhao Yan's wealth will decrease by 2 billion yuan again to 46 billion yuan. This year, Zhao Yan's wealth not only failed to stop the continuous shrinkage, but fell even more.

Compared with the highlight moments in 2021, Zhao Yan's wealth of 27.5 billion yuan on the "Hurun Global Rich List" this year has shrunk by 37.5 billion yuan, and her ranking has also dropped by 660 places. In fact, Zhao Yan's wealth has shrunk sharply, which is inseparable from Bloomage Biotech's "cold eyes" in the capital market.

As of the close of trading on May 10, the latest market value of Bloomage Biotech was 30.009 billion yuan. According to Flush iFinD, in the past year, Bloomage Biotech's share price has fallen by 35.13%, and its market value has evaporated by more than 16.2 billion yuan during this period. If the timeline is further extended to the last three years, Bloomage Biotech's share price has fallen by 67.55%, and its market value has evaporated by about 62.5 billion yuan during this period.

How is the "Queen of Hyaluronic Acid" made?

As the behind-the-scenes contributor to Zhao Yan's rise to the rich list, Bloomage Biotech was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in November 2019. After landing in the A-share capital market, Bloomage Biotech took advantage of the trend to win the title of "the first share of hyaluronic acid". Since Bloomage Biotech is a leading enterprise in the field of hyaluronic acid, Zhao Yan has also been given the reputation of "Queen of Hyaluronic Acid" by the outside world.

Radar Finance learned that Zhao Yan, who was born in 1966, majored in biology at Central China Normal University, and then obtained a master's degree in business administration from Fordham University in the United States. However, looking back on the entrepreneurial journey of this "hyaluronic acid queen", she did not start with the health and beauty industry at the beginning.

According to public reports, after Zhao Yan entered the society from school, she worked in a refrigerator, worked in a garment factory business, and also came into contact with the real estate investment industry in Hainan. It was not until 1989 that Zhao Yan relied on the first pot of gold earned in the early stage to officially establish Bloomage Group.

In the 90s of the last century, Bloomage Group mainly took industry as the core and carried out equity investment business. In 1999, Bloomage developed and constructed the Huaxia Bank project in the core area of Chang'an Avenue, thus entering the Beijing market.

By the time Bloomage officially entered the biomedical field, it was around the turn of the millennium. At that time, Zhao Yan was studying EMBA at Peking University. It was this experience that allowed Zhao Yan to get acquainted with Dr. Guo Xueping, a disciple of Ling Peixue, a leader in hyaluronic acid, and a biochemical company at Freda.

At the time, Ling Peixue ran a company called Shandong Freda Biochemical Co., Ltd., which produced hyaluronic acid. However, due to poor management, Freda needs new investors to take over.

"1 hyaluronic acid can lock 1,000 water molecules", Zhao Yan, who is a woman and understands women very well, was quite moved after hearing the previous sentence. In her view, the health and beauty industry has broad market prospects. As a result, Zhao Yan, who is quite forward-looking and courageous, has become the new owner of the previous company.

In 2000, Bloomage Biotech was officially founded and began to mass-produce hyaluronic acid through microbial fermentation. By 2007, Bloomage Biotech had become the world's largest producer of hyaluronic acid. In 2011, Bloomage Biotech entered the terminal field of hyaluronic acid. In 2018, Bloomage Biotech once again entered the field of functional skin care products, which has now become the company's largest source of revenue. In 2021, Bloomage Biotech launched the first hyaluronic acid food brand "Black Zero" in China.

However, while making a layout in the field of biomedicine, Bloomage has not forgotten its old business. In 2003, Bloomage developed the Bloomage International Center project in the central area of Beijing's CBD. In 2005, Bloomage developed and built the Wukesong Stadium project, so as to enter the cultural and sports industry.

After more than 30 years of development, Bloomage Group has now formed a dual-engine development model of the cultural and sports industry and the health and beauty industry. Up to now, Bloomage Group has more than 80 wholly-owned subsidiaries and investment holding and joint-stock companies at home and abroad, with total assets of more than 100 billion yuan.

Bloomage Biotech temporarily bids farewell to the myth of high growth

As a part of Zhao Yan's huge business empire, Bloomage Biotech plays an important role in the Bloomage system. However, Bloomage Biotech, which used to gallop at high speed, is also facing a certain dilemma.

Radar Finance noticed that since its listing in 2019, Bloomage Biotech's revenue has maintained a high growth trend for four consecutive years. From 2019 to 2022, Bloomage Biotech's revenue climbed from 1.886 billion yuan to 6.359 billion yuan. During this period, Bloomage Biotech's revenue growth rate remained above 28%, and its revenue growth rate even reached 87.93% in 2021.

According to the latest financial report disclosed by Bloomage Biotech, in the past year, Bloomage Biotech recorded a total revenue of 6.076 billion yuan. Although Bloomage Biotech will still maintain a revenue scale of more than 6 billion yuan in 2023, its revenue will decrease by 4.45% compared with the previous year.

At the same time that the continuous revenue growth record was forced to end, Bloomage Biotech's profit indicators also went downhill. In the year of listing, Bloomage Biotech recorded a net profit attributable to the parent company of 586 million yuan, and by 2022, Bloomage Biotech's net profit attributable to the parent company has soared to 971 million yuan.

However, in 2023, Bloomage Biotech will not be able to continue to stage a period of continuous growth in net profit attributable to the parent company. This year, Bloomage Biotech's net profit attributable to the parent company fell to 593 million yuan, and the scale of its net profit attributable to the parent company plummeted by nearly 40% compared with the same period last year.

When reviewing the results in 2023, Bloomage Biotech admitted that in the past year, the company's rapid growth has encountered pressure, mainly due to the rapid growth of the business in the past, resulting in internal organizational management lagging behind the development speed of the business, organizational management needs to be improved, and operational efficiency needs to be improved. The company's net profit attributable to the parent company fell by more than three percent, mainly due to the decline in the company's operating income and comprehensive gross profit margin.

In terms of products, Bloomage Biotech currently has four major business segments, which are raw material products, medical terminal products, functional skin care products and others. Last year, the above four major sectors contributed 1.129 billion yuan, 1.09 billion yuan, 3.757 billion yuan, and 98.79 million yuan of revenue respectively.

From the perspective of revenue proportion, functional skin care products are undoubtedly the current revenue pillar source of Bloomage Biotech. Although the proportion was less than 72.45% of the previous year, functional skin care products still contributed 61.83% of Bloomage Biotech's revenue last year. In the same period, raw material products, medical terminal products, and other revenue accounted for 18.58%, 17.95%, and 1.63% respectively, all of which were less than two percent.

Last year, the revenue of Bloomage Bio's raw material products, medical terminal products, and others increased by 15.22%, 58.95%, and 15.34% year-on-year respectively, but it still failed to stop the decline in the company's overall revenue.

In the final analysis, this is precisely because the revenue of functional skin care products, which accounts for the highest proportion of revenue in all segments of Bloomage Biotech, has declined significantly. Last year, the revenue of functional skin care products decreased by 18.45% year-on-year, dragging down the company's overall revenue growth.

It is worth noting that in fact, in the year of listing, functional skin care products were not the largest source of revenue for Bloomage Biotech, and raw materials accounted for 40.3% of Bloomage Biotech's total revenue at that time, while functional skin care products accounted for 33.64% of total revenue in the same period. The reason for such a change is that due to the impact of the decline in the price of hyaluronic acid raw materials, Bloomage Biotech has gradually shifted its business focus from the production of B-end raw materials to the sales of functional skin care products at the C-end.

After years of exploration, Bloomage Biotech currently owns a number of brands such as Runbaiyan, Quadi, BM Muscle Activation, and Medrepair, covering secondary essences, creams and lotions, facial masks, hand masks, eye masks, sprays, scalp care, maternal and child, men's personal care and some makeup products.

While the overall revenue declined, the gross profit margin of Bloomage Biotech's main business last year also decreased by 3.67 percentage points to 73.32%. Among them, the gross profit margin of medical terminal products and others increased by 1.24 and 17.67 percentage points to 82.1% and 51.64% respectively last year; However, in the same period, the gross profit margin of functional skin care products and raw material products decreased by 4.44 and 6.83 percentage points to 73.93% and 64.71% respectively.

Some analysts have pointed out that functional skin care products, as the current growth engine of Bloomage Biotech, will affect the company's overall performance once it faces an obvious stall. With the intensification of competition in the health and beauty industry, Bloomage Biotech, which originally occupied a dominant position in the hyaluronic acid industry, has no obvious advantages in other fields such as botulinum toxin; The medical device business, which has relaxed its vigilance, has now been done by Aimeike, and the former has gained a market value of more than 65 billion yuan. This series of changes are affecting the market's enthusiasm for Bloomage Biotech.