Puli Pharmaceutical, which was once hot last year because of the concept of "miracle drug for weight loss", has recently fallen into the whirlpool of public opinion. First, the Hainan Securities Regulatory Bureau found that the financial information disclosure in the company's 2021 and 2022 annual reports was inaccurate during the on-site inspection, and Puli Pharmaceutical was ordered to make corrections. Subsequently, due to the "difficult birth" of the 2023 annual report, Puli Pharmaceutical received a letter of concern from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and then the company's shares and convertible bonds were suspended; On May 6, Puli Pharmaceutical replied to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's letter of concern, focusing on the progress of its audit work; On May 8, Puli Pharmaceutical also announced that the China Securities Regulatory Commission decided to file a case against the company because the company failed to disclose the 2023 annual report within the statutory time limit and was suspected of violating laws and regulations in information disclosure.
The reporter of "Economic Information Daily" noticed that there were some abnormalities in the financial data of Puli Pharmaceutical in 2021 and 2022, among which the sales expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 reached 180 million yuan, which not only accounted for more than half of the company's annual sales expenses, but also 100 million yuan more than the highest value in other quarters.
The only pharmaceutical company with an annual report of "dystocia".
According to the recent announcement issued by Puli Pharmaceutical, because the company failed to disclose the 2023 annual report within the statutory time limit, and was suspected of illegal information disclosure, in accordance with the "Securities Law of the People's Republic of China", "Administrative Punishment Law of the People's Republic of China" and other laws and regulations, on May 8, 2024, the China Securities Regulatory Commission decided to file a case against it.
The reporter of "Economic Information Daily" noticed that Puli Pharmaceutical's 2023 annual report can be described as "ill-fated". On April 26, the company issued the "Reminder Announcement on the Extension of Disclosure of the 2023 Annual Report", stating that it was originally planned to disclose the company's 2023 annual report and related announcements on April 29, 2024, and in order to further improve the work related to regular reports, in line with the principle of prudence and a responsible attitude to the majority of investors, to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the company's information disclosure, the company will postpone the disclosure time of the 2023 annual report and related announcements to April 30, 2024.
On April 29, Puli Pharmaceutical also announced that due to the company's self-examination on the authenticity and accuracy of operating income and profit in the 2021 and 2022 annual reports, in view of the fact that the company's self-examination and rectification still takes a certain amount of time, and may involve the correction of accounting errors in the financial reports of 2021 and 2022, the company is expected to be unable to complete the preparation of the 2023 annual report on time, and may not be able to disclose the 2023 annual report and the first quarter of 2024 within the statutory period (April 30, 2024).
As of press time, Puli Pharmaceutical has not released its 2023 annual report. Flush iFinD data shows that among the 5,363 listed companies in A-shares, 7 companies have not disclosed their 2023 annual reports within the statutory period, including Dongxu Blue Sky, Dongxu Optoelectronics, Weichuang Co., Ltd., ST Huatie, etc., of which only Puli Pharmaceutical belongs to the pharmaceutical and biological industry company (according to Shenwan's first-level industry classification).
At present, the trading of Puli Pharmaceutical's shares and convertible bonds has been suspended. According to the regulations, if the annual report of more than half of the directors is not disclosed within 2 months after the suspension, Puli Pharmaceutical will be subject to a delisting risk warning.
It is worth mentioning that as a pharmaceutical company with a heavy institutional position, Puli Pharmaceutical still has a number of institutions "deeply involved". According to Flush iFinD data, as of December 31, 2023, 88 institutions held Puli Pharmaceutical, with a cumulative number of 17.2583 million shares, a market value of 390 million yuan, and a shareholding ratio of 5.10%. Among them, CEIBS Value Discovery Hybrid Securities Investment Fund A holds 4,098,500 shares of the company, CEIBS Potential Value Flexible Allocation Hybrid Securities Investment Fund A holds 2,601,000 shares of the company, and CEIBS Growth Preferred Return Flexible Allocation Hybrid Initiation Securities Investment Fund A holds 2,205,000 shares of the company.
"On the spot" to replace the signing accountant
At present, the market is generally concerned about when Puli Pharmaceutical will be able to disclose the company's annual report, what is the latest progress of its audit work, whether there is a possibility for the audit institution to issue a non-standard audit opinion, and what impact the aforementioned events will have on the company.
In response to the above problems, the reporter of the "Economic Information Daily" recently called the Securities Affairs Department of Puli Pharmaceutical in the name of investors, and its relevant staff said: "The annual report depends on the progress of the data review, and we are actively sorting out and preparing the data, and the progress will be made around May 16 We will have an announcement to make relevant disclosures." "Tianjian has been doing audits with us, and I have not been exposed to the audit process, so I don't know whether there is a possibility of being issued a non-standard audit opinion." "All the efforts we are making now are to hope that the annual report can be issued, and as for the final situation, it depends on the results of the coordination after the data is reviewed."
It is worth mentioning that in response to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's letter of concern on May 6, Tianjian Certified Public Accountants (Special General Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Tianjian"), the auditor of Puli Pharmaceutical's 2023 annual report, also revealed the relevant situation, saying: "Puli Pharmaceutical's self-inspection of the authenticity and accuracy of the financial information such as operating income and profit in the 2021 and 2022 annual reports is still in progress, and the results of the self-inspection may affect the financial data of Puli Pharmaceutical Company in the relevant years." As of the date of receipt of the letter of concern, Puli Pharmaceutical has not provided us with the documents required for the audit of important audit areas such as operating income and operating costs in a complete and timely manner, nor has it provided us with the 2023 annual financial statements, so we are unable to issue the audit report on time. ”
At the same time, Tianjian also said: "Since Puli Pharmaceutical has not yet provided us with the 2023 annual financial statements, and the company's self-inspection conclusions have not yet been formed, we are not yet able to determine whether there are material differences with the company's management on matters related to the audit work." We will judge based on the relevant audit documents further provided by Puli Pharmaceutical Company and the implementation of further audit procedures, and there may be non-standard audit opinions in the future. ”
The reporter of "Economic Information Daily" noticed that since the listing of Puli Pharmaceutical in March 2017, Tianjian has been serving as its audit institution, and has issued standard unqualified audit reports. It is worth mentioning that Puli Pharmaceutical originally planned to disclose its 2023 annual report at the end of April, however, just more than 20 days before the disclosure of the annual report, the company suddenly announced a change in the signing accountant.
Puli Pharmaceutical announced on April 3 that Tianjian, as the company's 2023 audit institution, originally appointed Shi Qilin and Shen Xiaomin as the signing certified public accountants of the company's 2023 annual audit report. In view of the adjustment of Shi Qilin and Shen Xiaomin's work, Tang Binbin and He Changjian are now appointed as the signatory certified public accountants to provide audit services for the company.
According to Puli Pharmaceutical, Tang Binbin has been engaged in the audit of listed companies in Tianjian since 2010, became a Chinese certified public accountant in 2013, and has signed the audit reports of many listed companies such as Henglin shares, Nuobang shares and Hexing shares in the past three years. In the past three years, Tang Binbin has been subject to the supervision and management measures of issuing a warning letter by the Tianjin Supervision Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in 2022 due to problems in the audit project of the 2021 financial statements of Zeda Yisheng (Tianjin) Technology Co., Ltd.
Sudden increase in selling expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022
Founded in July 1992 and listed on the GEM in March 2017, Puli Pharmaceutical is an enterprise engaged in drug research and development, registration, production and sales. The company's sales products are mainly prescription drugs, covering anti-allergic drugs, non-steroidal analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotic drugs, digestive drugs, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular drugs, contrast agents, emergency drugs and other fields.
The reporter noted that since the listing of Puli Pharmaceutical, revenue and net profit have maintained double-digit growth from 2017 to 2020, but the performance growth rate has slowed down year by year since 2018. In 2021 and 2022, Puli Pharmaceutical's operating income will be 1.509 billion yuan and 1.806 billion yuan respectively, and the growth rate of operating income will be 26.94% and 19.72% respectively; The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 417 million yuan and 421 million yuan respectively, and the net profit growth rate was 2.25% and 0.96% respectively, which shows that its performance growth has gradually come under pressure.
In the first three quarters of 2023, Puli Pharmaceutical's revenue and net profit both declined. According to the financial report data, in the first three quarters of 2023, Puli Pharmaceutical achieved operating income of 1.352 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.35%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 404 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11.23%; The non-net profit was 353 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 19.18%.
In addition to the growth of performance, the authenticity of Puli Pharmaceutical's performance has been paid more attention. On April 16, Puli Pharmaceutical announced that due to the inaccurate disclosure of financial information such as operating income and profit in the company's 2021 and 2022 annual reports found by the Hainan Securities Regulatory Bureau during the on-site inspection, according to relevant regulations, the Hainan Securities Regulatory Bureau decided to take administrative supervision measures against the company to order corrections, and required Puli Pharmaceutical to conduct a self-inspection on the authenticity and accuracy of financial information such as operating income and profits in the relevant years.
The reporter of "Economic Information Daily" noticed that there were some abnormalities in the financial data of Puli Pharmaceutical in 2021 and 2022, which were found to be problematic. For example, from the perspective of sales expenses, in 2022, Puli Pharmaceutical's sales expenses increased by 50.39% year-on-year to 351 million yuan, reaching a record high. It is understood that Puli Pharmaceutical's sales expenses are mainly composed of marketing expenses, wages and wage expenses, travel expenses, etc., of which the company's marketing expenses will reach 279 million yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 52.91%.
Statistics of single-quarter sales expenses of Puli Pharmaceutical since its listing
Data source: Straight Flush iFinD (unit: 10,000 yuan)
Judging from the single-quarter data, Puli Pharmaceutical's sales expenses in 2022 mainly came from the fourth quarter, when the company's sales expenses were 180 million yuan, accounting for 51.2% of the company's annual sales expenses. It is worth mentioning that except for the fourth quarter of 2022, the highest single-quarter sales expenses of Puli Pharmaceutical since its listing were 76.18 million yuan in the second quarter of 2023, compared with the highest sales expenses of Puli Pharmaceutical in the fourth quarter of 2022 by 100 million yuan more than the highest value in other quarters. (Reporter Li Huang reports from Beijing)
Source: Economic Information Daily