The chairman of the "first share of energy storage" Peneng Technology was placed on file and retained, and some shareholders or accurately reduced their holdings and cashed out before the stock price plummeted

On the evening of May 19, the "first share of energy storage" Peneng Technology announced that the company's controlling shareholder ZTE New Communications Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "ZTE") received a notice issued by the Yongqing County Supervision Commission that Wei Zaisheng, chairman of the company, was placed on file for investigation and detention.

It is reported that Wei Zaisheng is not only the chairman of Peneng Technology, but also serves as the chairman and legal representative of ZTE, and has long-term experience in ZTE and other "ZTE" enterprises.

On May 20, the reporter of "International Financial News" called the securities department of Pine Technology and the person in charge of information disclosure of ZTE New Information respectively. The relevant person in charge of Paineng Technology said, "The company only received a notice of retention in custody and did not know the specific situation"; The phone of the person in charge of ZTE Xinxin Phi affairs went unanswered.

In the secondary market, the share price of Peneng Technology fell sharply on the 20th, reaching an intraday low of 64 yuan per share, a decline of more than 15%. As of the close of the day, Peneng Technology reported 64.81 yuan per share, down 14%, with a total market value of 11.382 billion yuan.

The chairman of the board of directors was placed on file for retention

On the evening of May 19, Peneng Technology suddenly disclosed that the company's controlling shareholder ZTE issued a notice on the company's chairman Wei Zaisheng being investigated and detained. However, in the announcement, Peneng Technology did not announce the reason and time of the detention.

On May 16, Paineng Technology mentioned in the announcement of the resolution of the 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders that Mr. Wei Zaisheng, chairman of the company, was unable to preside over the meeting due to official business. Whether Wei Zaisheng was unable to attend "due to official business" at that time, or whether he had been placed in custody and could not perform his duties, became a major concern of the market.

According to the Administrative Measures for Information Disclosure of Listed Companies, if the controlling shareholder, actual controller, director, supervisor or senior management of a company is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law or crimes abusing public office, and the discipline inspection and supervision authorities have taken retention measures and affect their performance of their duties, the listed company shall immediately disclose it. This means that if the chairman of the company is unable to perform his duties but does not announce it in time, there is still a risk of disclosure violations.

One detail worth noting is that on May 16, five shareholders swooped to increase their holdings of Peneng Technology shares. UBS AG, Shanghai Muxin Private Equity Fund, Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Lingding Investment Management Co., Ltd., Founder Securities Co., Ltd., Nord Fund Management Co., Ltd. and other institutions bought about 2 million shares of the company at a price of 74.62 yuan per share. On the same day, the second largest shareholder of 12.45%, Paili (Ningbo) Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partner), accurately reduced its holdings of 2 million shares of Peneng Technology at a price of 74.62 yuan per share. In an interview with the reporter of the "International Financial News", an industry insider said that the two shareholders reduced their holdings by 2 million shares, and coincidentally some institutions bought all of them, does this mean that the institutions are cooperating with the cash-out after the news leaks in advance? In addition, judging from the trading volume around May 16, before the reduction, the daily trading volume of Paineng Technology was about 150 million yuan, but after the news of the negative lien came out on May 20, the trading volume soared to more than 700 million yuan, which further proves that this buying and selling is questionable.

On May 20, the reporter of "International Financial News" asked the Securities Department of Peneng Technology to verify the details of the lien. The relevant person in charge said that the company's controlling shareholder, Zhongxingxin, received a notice issued by the Yongqing County Supervision Commission that Mr. Wei Zaisheng, the chairman of the company, was investigated and retained on May 18. After receiving the notice from the controlling shareholder, the company disclosed the "Announcement on Major Matters of the Company" on the website of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in a timely manner in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and there were no undisclosed matters that should be disclosed. However, in addition to the disclosed announcement information, the company does not know the specific situation of the chairman being investigated at this stage.

In addition, the reporter repeatedly called the person in charge of ZTE's new information disclosure, but no one answered.

Regarding the impact of the chairman being investigated and retained, Paineng Technology said in the announcement that the company has a sound organizational structure and a standardized governance system, and the company will operate in accordance with laws, regulations and related systems. As of the disclosure date of the announcement, the control of the company has not changed, the board of directors and the board of supervisors are operating normally, and the production and operation order of the company and its subsidiaries is normal, and this matter will not have a significant impact on the company's daily production and operation.

Regarding the sharp drop in stock prices, the above-mentioned person in charge said, "Today's stock price performance has a certain panic and risk aversion, rather than a decline caused by the company's business problems." The company will also actively implement share repurchases in the future, demonstrating the company's confidence in future development.

It is closely related to the "ZTE system".

In addition to the reason for the retention has not yet been announced, the resume of the chairman involved, Wei Zaisheng, is also a major focus.

According to the Qichacha APP, since 1988, Wei Zaisheng has worked in Shenzhen ZTE Semiconductor Co., Ltd., ZTE New Communications Co., Ltd., and ZTE Corporation. Since September 2017, he has served as the new chairman of ZTE; Since October 2019, he has served as the chairman of the board of directors of Peneng Technology, and led the company to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the following year.

Among them, Wei Zaisheng's work experience as chief financial officer, senior vice president, executive vice president and director of ZTE has aroused heated discussions in the market. In this regard, an insider of ZTE told the media, "Mr. Wei Zaisheng does not hold any position in the company, the company has not received any relevant information from any authority on this matter, and the company is operating normally." ”

Despite the swift dissociation, ZTE's stock price was still affected. As of the close of trading on May 20, ZTE's A-shares fell 1.83% to 27.83 yuan per share, with a total market value of 133.1 billion yuan, and H-shares fell 2.21% to HK$17.72 per share, with a total market value of HK$84.759 billion.

According to public information, ZTE was founded in 1993, and in 1997, it initiated the establishment of ZTE and achieved listing, and Paineng Technology is the company's second listed company. Up to now, ZTE is the controlling shareholder of Peneng Technology and ZTE, with a shareholding ratio of 24.61% and 20.09% respectively.

As a large-scale investment holding group with assets of more than 100 billion yuan, ZTE's new investment industries cover information and communication, intelligent manufacturing, new energy energy storage, enterprise-level services, fund investment and other fields. In terms of performance, the company achieved revenue of 129.885 billion yuan last year, down 0.91% from the same period last year.

It is worth noting that ZTE's new equity relationship is quite complex. ZTE has a total of four shareholders, of which the largest shareholder, Shenzhen ZTE Weixiantong Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "ZTE"), holds 49% of the shares. ZTE's new founder, Hou Weigui, is ZTE's largest shareholder, holding 18% of the shares. However, according to ZTE's 2023 bond annual report, no shareholder can control its financial and operational decisions, nor can any shareholder actually control the listed company through ZTE, and the company does not have an actual controller or controlling shareholder.

In addition, the chairman of the board of directors, Wei Zaisheng, served as the new chairman of ZTE and the chairman of Peneng Technology respectively, but did not receive remuneration from Peneng Technology and did not directly hold the company's shares. As of March 31, 2024, Gongqingcheng Xinwei Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) is the seventh largest shareholder of Peneng Technology, accounting for 0.99% of the shares; Wei Zaisheng's shareholding in Gongqingcheng Xinwei Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) is 43.12%.

Shareholders "retreated" after sudden changes in performance

According to public information, Peneng Technology was founded in 2009 and listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2020. The company is mainly engaged in the R&D, production and sales of lithium iron phosphate cells, modules and energy storage battery systems, and is known as the "first stock of energy storage".

Judging from the performance of the past five years, Peneng Technology has experienced a "roller coaster" mutation. From 2019 to 2023, the company achieved operating income of 820 million yuan, 1.12 billion yuan, 2.063 billion yuan, 6.013 billion yuan, and 3.299 billion yuan respectively; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 144 million yuan, 274 million yuan, 316 million yuan, 1.273 billion yuan and 516 million yuan respectively. Among them, the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2023 will lose 38.3103 million yuan and 139 million yuan respectively.

Entering 2024, the company's performance has not eased. In the first quarter of this year, Paineng Technology achieved operating income of 386 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 79.05%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 4.0044 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 99.13%. Regarding the decline in performance, Peneng Technology explained that on the one hand, the company was affected by the decline of subsidy policies in some countries and regions and the destocking of overseas downstream enterprises, and the growth rate of household energy storage market demand slowed down compared with the same period last year; On the other hand, the sales volume of products in the reporting period decreased compared with the same period last year, and the new production lines increased fixed costs such as depreciation and amortization.

The company also said that if the macroeconomic environment deteriorates further in the future, the subsidy policy changes, market competition intensifies, the company can not effectively expand new customers at home and abroad, can not continue to maintain cooperative relations with existing customers or the company's existing customers have major adverse changes in the operation of the scale of procurement, the company will face certain operating pressure and the risk of declining performance or even losses.

In this context, the second largest shareholder of Peneng Technology began to seek opportunities to reduce its holdings. On May 17, Paineng Technology issued a shareholder inquiry transfer plan, and the shareholder who intends to participate in the shareholder inquiry transfer before the initial offering of Paineng Technology is Pinepower (Ningbo) Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership). The total number of shares to be transferred by the transferor is 2 million shares, accounting for 1.14% of the total share capital of Paneng Technology.

As of March 31, 2024, Paili (Ningbo) Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership) is the second largest shareholder of Paineng Technology, with a shareholding ratio of 12.45%. The reduction of shares has accounted for 9.14% of its shares.

Regarding whether the above matters are affected, the relevant person in charge of Peneng Technology told reporters that as of now, the company's shareholder inquiry transfer has been implemented.