The eventful autumn added another "ripple".
On May 10, Zhang Xiaoquan (301055. SZ) announced that due to a dispute over the loan contract, the company's actual controllers Zhang Guobiao and Zhang Zhangsheng were both "limited in height", and the relevant parties were executed with an amount of 298 million yuan. In fact, Zhang Xiaoquan's parent company and related parties have been repeatedly exposed to overdue loans recently, from which it is not difficult to see the financial pressure faced by major shareholders.
The performance of Zhang Xiaoquan, a time-honored brand, has deteriorated since its listing. After the "Broken Knife Door" incident, the company's brand image was in jeopardy. Since then, the company has failed to improve its reputation in terms of quality and service, but has continued to make stupid moves. Even so, Zhang Xiaoquan still insisted on paying generous dividends for many years, and half of them were actually controlled.
The loan was overdue, and the pledge rate of major shareholders was nearly 100%
According to the announcement, Zhang Guobiao, the actual controller of Zhang Xiaoquan, and Zhang Zhangsheng, the actual controller and chairman of the board, were listed as the persons subject to execution by the Intermediate People's Court of Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province due to the dispute over the loan contract, and at the same time, Zhang Guobiao and Zhang Zhangsheng were issued a "Consumption Restriction Order", and the enterprise involved in the case was the online IOT (Yangling) Supply Chain Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Wangdian IOT Yangling Company") controlled by Zhang Guobiao.
Source: Announcement
Tianyancha shows that Yangling Company, founded in 2018 and located in Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, is an enterprise mainly engaged in Internet and related services. Equity penetration shows that the actual controller of Yangling Company is Zhang Guobiao, with a shareholding ratio of 32.5%.
On July 12, 2023, Yangling Co., Ltd. signed a fixed asset loan contract with Yangling Demonstration Zone Branch of Chang'an Bank Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yangling Branch of Chang'an Bank") for project construction, with a loan amount of 300 million yuan.
On May 8, 2024, due to the failure of Yangling Company to repay the principal and interest in a timely manner, the Yangling Branch of Chang'an Bank applied to the Intermediate People's Court of Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province for enforcement and filed a case, and Fuchun Holding Group, Wangying Wulian Holding Group, Yangling Company, Zhang Guobiao, Zhang Zhangsheng and other parties were listed as persons subject to execution by the Intermediate People's Court of Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, with an amount of 298 million yuan;
It is worth noting that if the actual controller fails to properly resolve the debt dispute, the credit situation deteriorates further or other lawsuits are triggered, it may lead to the enforcement or freezing of the shares of the listed company held by the controlling shareholder, which means that Zhang Xiaoquan has the risk of instability or even change of control.
In addition, as Zhang Zhangsheng is one of the joint and several liability guarantors, he does not meet the qualifications for the director's position. Out of prudent consideration, Zhang Zhangsheng was not nominated as a candidate for Zhang Xiaoquan's next directorship, and after the change, he will no longer serve as a director of the company.
It is reported that the controlling shareholder of Zhang Xiaoquan is Hangzhou Zhang Xiaoquan Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhang Xiaoquan Group"), which is jointly controlled by Zhang Guobiao (80% shareholding) and Zhang Zhangsheng (20% shareholding). Zhang Xiaoquan Group holds 48.72% of the shares of listed companies.
In fact, this is not the first time that Zhang Xiaoquan's major shareholder has been exposed to a loan dispute.
On December 1, 2023, Zhang Xiaoquan Group borrowed 128 million yuan from Xi'an Daming Palace Yanta Shopping Plaza Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yanta Shopping Plaza"), and Yanta Shopping Plaza entrusted Xi'an Guoxin Microfinance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guoxin Microloan") to issue a loan to Zhang Xiaoquan Group, with a loan term of 1 month and a one-time interest settlement at maturity.
Since the principal and interest of the loan were overdue, Guosen Microfinance applied to the Xi'an Notary Office for an enforcement certificate and then applied to the Intermediate People's Court of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province for enforcement. On March 20, 2024, the company's controlling shareholder Zhang Xiaoquan Group, the actual controllers Zhang Guobiao, Zhang Zhangsheng and other guarantors were listed as the executors, with an execution target of 129 million yuan.
In addition, Tianyancha shows that Zhang Xiaoquan's parent company, Fuchun Holding Group, has recently added 2 new equity freezing information, and the enterprises whose equity is executed are Hangzhou Fuquan Investment Co., Ltd., with frozen equity amounts of 13.08 million yuan and about 390 million yuan respectively, and the freezing period is 3 years. It is reported that Hangzhou Fuquan Investment Co., Ltd. is the largest shareholder of Zhang Xiaoquan Group, with a shareholding ratio of 99.99%.
According to the announcement disclosed by the company on March 22, Zhang Xiaoquan Group, the controlling shareholder of Zhang Xiaoquan, as the borrower, has a total overdue loan principal of 169 million yuan, and as a guarantor, the cumulative overdue principal amount is 432 million yuan.
As of March 22, the cumulative pledge rate of the company's shares held by Zhang Xiaoquan Group was 99.90%. Among them, three pledges have overdue financing, with an overdue financing principal amount of 420 million yuan, involving 49.4563 million shares, accounting for 31.70% of the company's total share capital; In addition, there is a pledge that has triggered the agreed early warning line, involving 5.5 million shares, accounting for 3.53% of the company's total share capital.
The word-of-mouth performance has collapsed, and the decline has deepened
Founded in 1628, Zhang Xiaoquan brand is the first batch of Chinese time-honored brands recognized by the Ministry of Commerce. In September 2021, Zhang Xiaoquan was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) with a total market value of 4.6 billion yuan, becoming the first listed company in China's knife and scissors industry.
After listing, Zhang Xiaoquan did not enter the period of rapid development as imagined. As the listing plan raised 455 million yuan, the actual net amount of funds raised was only 205 million yuan, and the fundraising shrank by more than half. Among them, the Yangjiang knife and scissors intelligent manufacturing center project was reduced from the original plan of 354 million yuan to 180 million yuan.
In 2022, the "Broken Knife Gate" incident caused Zhang Xiaoquan to fall into a storm of public opinion. In July 2022, after a woman in Guangzhou slapped garlic with Zhang Xiaoquan's kitchen knife, the kitchen knife was disconnected. The woman asked Zhang Xiaoquan about the after-sales customer service of the kitchen knife, and the reply was "The kitchen knife can't shoot garlic". In January 2023, the event was selected as one of the "Top Ten Public Opinion Hotspots for Consumer Rights Protection in 2022" jointly announced by the China Consumers Association and the Public Opinion Data Center of People's Daily Online. Soon after, "Zhang Xiaoquan's knife break" once again rushed to the hot search on Weibo.
In November 2023, the Credit China website updated an administrative penalty information showing that Hangzhou Zhang Xiaoquan E-commerce Co., Ltd. was fined 250,000 yuan by the Hangzhou Linping District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau for false propaganda and ordered to stop the illegal acts. The information shows that the parties organized internal personnel to establish a WeChat group to shoot A to send B or shoot A to send A, with a transaction price of 0 yuan or 1 yuan, to improve the praise rate of the product and pull down the bad reviews by taking pictures and praise.
Relying on praise can't save the company's business decline. According to the financial report data, Zhang Xiaoquan's revenue in the year of listing in 2021 will reach 760 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.81%; The net profit was 79 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.96%, and the main operating indicators hit a record high.
However, the highlights are fleeting. In 2022, Zhang Xiaoquan will increase revenue but not profits, with revenue increasing by 8% year-on-year and net profit decreasing by 47.3% year-on-year; In 2023, Zhang Xiaoquan will have a double decline in revenue and net profit, of which revenue will reach 811 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.82%; net profit was 25 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 39.45%.
来源：Wind
Zhang Xiaoquan explained the reasons for the decline in performance as two points: first, in 2023, the domestic macro economy as a whole will show a weak recovery trend, and consumption growth will be less than expected, especially in the second and third quarters; Second, affected by the aftermath of the brand public opinion incident in the previous year, the company's overall performance in the first three quarters declined significantly compared with the same period last year.
As of December 31, 2023, Zhang Xiaoquan's inventory book balance was 165 million yuan, the price decline provision was 5.8092 million yuan, and the book value was 159 million yuan. Among them, the book amount of inventory commodities is 112 million yuan, accounting for nearly 7 percent, indicating that Zhang Xiaoquan's products are at a greater risk of unsalable.
It is worth noting that despite the deterioration of performance, Zhang Xiaoquan still insists on generous dividends. In 2921, 2022, and 2023, the company's total cash dividends will be 78 million yuan, 39 million yuan, and 22.71 million yuan respectively, with dividend rates of 99.07%, 94%, and 90.43% respectively.
Since the company's listing, the company has accumulated cash dividends of nearly 140 million yuan. Since the actual controller controls about 50% of Zhang Xiaoquan's shares, that is to say, about half of the dividends fall into the pocket of the actual controller.
However, compared with the financial pressure faced by major shareholders, such a bold dividend may only be a drop in the bucket.
(This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, by |.) Ma Qiong)