The time is very fast, and the release of the new "National Nine Articles" has been full moon. Looking back on this year, the policy environment has undergone positive changes, and the capital market has started a new round of deepening reform.
After the new "China Nine Articles" were proposed, the exchanges followed up with a series of draft revisions to the business rules to make key arrangements for the provisions on dividends. Going back to March this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued four policy documents, including the "Opinions on Strictly Controlling the Access to Issuance and Listing and Improving the Quality of Listed Companies from the Source (Trial)" and "Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Listed Companies (Trial)", all of which released strong regulatory signals on the issue of corporate dividends in the capital market.
At present, the effect of the policy is very significant. On the one hand, the number and amount of listed companies that will pay annual dividends in 2023 have hit a record high, and many companies have joined the ranks of quarterly dividends.
On the other hand, the improvement of IPO rules on dividends and other aspects has come to an end, and the IPO review of A-shares has been restarted after three months, and Marco Polo has become the first IPO company to "eat crabs" after the introduction of the new "National Nine Articles".
According to the announcement of the Listing Committee of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on May 10, the Listing Committee is scheduled to review the initial offering of Marco Polo at the 9th review meeting in 2024 on May 16. After updating the financial information on May 10, Marco Polo stepped into the meeting.
As a large manufacturer of architectural ceramics, why was Marco Polo the first to break the three-month silence in the IPO market?
Breaking the "window period" of A-share IPOs
During this period of IPO silence, every week there are companies that choose to withdraw voluntarily and withdraw from the queue, many of which obviously do not meet the listing threshold standards in terms of dividend ratio and financial indicators. Therefore, the appearance of Marco Polo this time can reflect that this company has quite strong confidence in the above aspects.
Previously, the "Opinions on Strictly Controlling the Access to Issuance and Listing and Improving the Quality of Listed Companies from the Source (Trial)" proposed that it is necessary to strictly investigate and strictly prevent enterprises to be listed from raiding "clearance" dividends.
According to the latest guidance of the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, the cumulative dividend amount in the reporting period accounts for more than 80% of the net profit in the same period; or if the cumulative dividend amount in the reporting period exceeds 50% of the net profit in the same period and the cumulative dividend amount exceeds 300 million yuan, and the total proportion of replenishment and loan repayment in the raised funds is higher than 20%, it will not be allowed to be issued and listed.
Looking at Marco Polo's latest updated financial information, from 2021 to 2023, the company's revenue will be 9.365 billion yuan, 8.661 billion yuan, and 8.925 billion yuan respectively, and the net profit will be 1.653 billion yuan, 1.514 billion yuan, and 1.353 billion yuan respectively. In terms of dividends, in 2022 and 2023, Marco Polo will pay dividends of 500 million yuan and 323 million yuan respectively.
After calculation, it can be found that Marco Polo's cumulative net profit during the reporting period was about 4.52 billion yuan, and the dividend amount accounted for 18%. In this way, it is not difficult to judge that Marco Polo meets the relevant regulations on pre-listing dividends, and the dividend measures do not belong to the surprise "clearance" dividends.
It is worth noting that Marco Polo took the initiative to delete the "supplementary liquidity project", and the funds to be raised were reduced from 4.018 billion yuan to 3.158 billion yuan, and the funds raised in the initial offering were fully invested in business-related projects:
Jiangxi Jiamei Ceramics Co., Ltd. Intelligent Ceramic Home Furnishing Industrial Park (Phase I) Construction Project, Guangdong Dongwei New Materials Co., Ltd. with an annual output of 5.4 million square meters of special high-performance ceramic plate project, Jiangxi Weimei Ceramics Co., Ltd. Ceramic Production Line Green Intelligent Manufacturing Upgrading Project, Guangdong Jiamei Ceramics Co., Ltd. Green Intelligent Manufacturing Upgrading Project, Jiangxi Hemei Ceramics Co., Ltd. Building Ceramics Production Line Green Intelligent Manufacturing Upgrading Project, Marco Polo Holding Co., Ltd. Comprehensive Capacity Improvement Project.
It can be seen that through the listing of fundraising, around the deployment of production capacity, the core of Marco Polo is to promote the transformation and upgrading of the building ceramics industry to green, high-end, branding and intelligence, which has positive significance.
In fact, Marco Polo is currently at a critical stage of the development of the industry. In 2023, the credit risk clearance of the real estate industry is coming to an end, and this year, under the continuous care of favorable policies, the industry has begun to accelerate the recovery of the bottom, and the related industrial chain will also usher in the restoration. With the clearing of the production capacity of the building ceramics industry, it is foreseeable that the market share of the leading will be further increased.
For Marco Polo, it was very necessary to go public to raise funds. Thanks to this, Marco Polo is expected to bring further growth in terms of enterprise scale and operating performance after accelerating the completion of the construction of advanced production capacity in the future, and consolidate its leading position in the industry.
Dividends also have their "necessity" and "reasonableness"
Looking through Marco Polo's latest updated financial information, it will also be noted that the company has cited the first listing standard of the newly revised listing rules, which is a higher listing threshold in terms of financial indicators.
After the promulgation of the new "National Nine Articles", the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges "increased the cumulative net profit index in the last three years in the first set of listing standards from 150 million yuan to 200 million yuan, the net profit index in the last year from 60 million yuan to 100 million yuan, the net cash flow index from cumulative operating activities in the last three years increased from 100 million yuan to 200 million yuan, and the cumulative operating income index in the last three years increased from 1 billion yuan to 1.5 billion yuan." "
That is to say, returning to the company's operation itself, Marco Polo's performance in the main performance indicators, cash flow from operating activities, monetary funds and other aspects is in line with the development stage of the capital market and can withstand the test of the policy level.
On the one hand, Marco Polo has the ability to repay shareholders for their long-term support through dividends; On the other hand, Marco Polo was able to make reasonable dividends based on performance to avoid a significant adverse impact on the financial situation and the interests of new and old shareholders.
To put it simply, Marco Polo's dividend method can match the business development and the financial situation of the enterprise, and there is no "necessity" and "reasonableness" of dividends.
From a long-term perspective, companies like this with relatively healthy operating conditions and excellent performance fundamentals also provide investors with better investment targets after listing. Giving back to shareholders through dividends is also a positive signal to the market, that is, the company has sufficient profitability and financial strength to support the company's future development.
Last year, the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, at the same time, revised the guidelines for improving and standardizing operations, clarifying operational requirements, guiding companies to actively pay dividends, and further tilting towards high-dividend companies in the information disclosure evaluation of the exchanges, encouraging listed companies to pay dividends to shareholders. After a series of new regulations such as the new "National Nine Articles" this year, the ability and willingness of listed companies to pay dividends have steadily improved, and it has become the consensus of all participants in the market to return investors through cash dividends.
Then, Marco Polo and other normal IPO companies in the future have already had the awareness of giving back to shareholders with cash dividends in the past, and there is a high probability that they will maintain a trend of continuous dividends after listing in the future. Marco Polo's previous cancellation of the "fundraising replenishment" also made investors focus more on the necessity and development prospects of the fundraising project, so as to pay more attention to the long-term development of the company itself.
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In general, Marco Polo's meeting brought some "warmth" to the long-dormant A-share IPO market. For investors, this also brings new thinking to everyone's investment logic. On the basis of policy guidance and industry prosperity, grasping good fundamentals has always been the immutable law to win the capital market.
For the IPO projects of high-quality enterprises, their pre-listing dividends need to be viewed more rationally and objectively. And investors can support their reasonable financing needs, so as not to "mistakenly kill" good companies and bury their value after listing. In the long run, this is also to promote the healthy development of related industries and capital markets, and ultimately benefit investors.
![Can Marco Polo, the first company to go to the meeting after the IPO restart, successfully "break through"?[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)