21st Century Business Herald reporter Cao Enhui, intern Fei Xinyi Shanghai report In early 2020, Zhou Shaoning, chairman of Best Group, held an annual national network conference for best express employees in Zhuhai. On the podium, he wore a red and blue-paneled Best Culture shirt, no different from the employees present.
"Faith is the beginning of omnipotence, faith is more important than gold, and greatness is the result." At the end of the speech, Zhou Shaoning clenched his fist in his right hand and shouted, "The hundred worlds will win!" Subsequently, there was a lot of applause in the venue.
But reality is always changing rapidly. Since 2020, Best Express has repeatedly been rumored to be sold, and the response of Best Group has changed from the earlier "false rumors" to "no comments", and the caliber has undergone subtle changes.
Until the end of October this year, the "explosion of thunder" and the express delivery industry exclaimed - on October 29, Best Group and J&T Jitu Express (hereinafter referred to as Jitu) jointly announced a strategic cooperation intention, and Best Group agreed to transfer its domestic express delivery business to Jitu for about 6.8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion).
In the end, Zhou Shaoning did not "boil out" the bright future of Best Express in his own hands.
Interestingly, the last time Baishi and Jitu appeared in the news at the same time, it was two companies that were punished by the Yiwu Postal Administration for low-price dumping. Therefore, when Fan Suzhou, ceo of Jitu, said that this acquisition would help "promote the healthy and benign growth of the industry", the scene of this "crazy rabbit" stirring up the domestic express delivery industry through the "price war" last year is still vividly remembered.
Best "Broken Arm"
When the domestic express delivery industry was pouring its energy into preparing for "Double Eleven", Zhou Shaoning's Baishi Group was on the hot search. The entry is, "Jitu acquired the domestic business of Best Express for 6.8 billion yuan".
Although since September this year, it has been exposed that "Best Group is considering selling its express delivery subsidiary, with a valuation of up to $1 billion", at that time, Best Group responded quickly with "no comment".
In fact, the outside world is not surprised by best group's decision to sell the express delivery business. Indeed, since Best Group went public in the United States, its express delivery business has been regarded as a "burden" leading to overall losses.
However, even if the day of getting rid of the "baggage" really came, Zhou Shaoning would definitely be uncomfortable. In an internal open letter to employees, he confessed, "It was a tough decision. ”
From the acquisition of Huitong Express in October 2010 and eventually changed its name to Best Express, unconsciously, the brand "Best" has been in the domestic express delivery industry for 11 years.
In the past 11 years, China's express delivery industry has experienced a stage of reckless growth and change of leaders, and is now transforming into the role of integrated logistics service providers. In the meantime, the "Tongda System" steadily occupied the e-commerce express delivery market, the second-tier express delivery companies were eliminated in turn, and the "latecomers" broke through the inherent pattern.
Until the appearance of the pole rabbit.
In 2019, Longbang, which was on the verge of being eliminated, was accidentally "rescued" - Jitu, who had already opened his feet in Southeast Asia, broke into the vision of China's express delivery industry through mergers and acquisitions.
Since then, the "barbaric growth" of the polar rabbit has made the "Tongda System" feel pressure. Lai Meisong, chairman of Zhongtong Express, once said bluntly at a conference call, "In the fourth quarter of 2020, the proportion of Jitu increased rapidly, and the market share of each company in the entire industry was divided up by Jitu. ”
In the echelon of the head express delivery company, the Best Group at the end is equally uncomfortable.
As of June 2021, Best Express has been able to cover more than 20,000 sites across the country, achieving a coverage rate of 100% of provinces and cities and 98% of districts and counties. But the continuous loss has always been the deepest pain.
Since its listing, Best Group has not shaken off the shadow of losses, with a cumulative loss of about 5.369 billion yuan from 2016 to 2020. Among them, under the impact of the epidemic in 2020, the market share of Best Group's express delivery business fell to 8.2%.
Therefore, this "broken arm" behavior has actually made many investors breathe a sigh of relief: while divesting some of the loss-making assets to withdraw cash, Best Group can focus on other businesses.
"After the sell-off, Best will concentrate its energy and resources to further promote the deep integration of supply chain, express transportation and international business, accelerate business development, and create an international integrated intelligent supply chain service." Zhou Shaoning also expressed the next plan at the first time.
Pole Rabbit "BombIng Field"
When the news of Jitu's acquisition of Best Express "exploded", a "Detailed Explanation of The Acquisition of Best Express by JiTu Express" (hereinafter referred to as the "Explanation") was circulated online.
The "Notes" retains the logo of The Hundred Worlds and the classic color scheme of red and blue contrast, and points out that the "double network parallel" method will be adopted later.
In this acquisition, there is a role that must be mentioned - Ali, the largest single shareholder of Best Group. Its shareholding ratio is as high as 37%, higher than founder Zhou Shaoning's 12%, and the voting rights of the board of directors reach 46.2%, which is slightly lower than the voting rights held by Zhou Shaoning.
It is reported that before this transaction, Ali fully listened to the ideas of the senior executives of Best Group. However, in this transaction, Ali did not ultimately sell its shares in Best Group, but after the completion of the tripartite agreement acquisition, Ali will maintain the interface to Best Express China for a long time, while Best Express China will maintain independent brand operation.
This means that in the delivery, Ali got the "face", Jitu got the "Lizi", the Best Group got the funds, and the three parties got what they needed.
When the acquisition of the domestic express delivery business of Best Group has become a fact, more questions from the outside world have emerged: with 6.8 billion yuan to buy 25 million daily orders, is the value of the pole rabbit?
This year, the daily single volume of Jitu once approached 30 million, and then fell back. At present, the agency estimates that the daily single volume of polar rabbits is about 20 million to 22 million. In the second quarter of this year, Best Group's express delivery business completed 2.3 billion pieces in the quarter, with a daily order volume of about 25 million.
The daily order volume after the merger of the two accounts for about 14% of the market share, which is the same as that of YTO Express and Yunda, surpassing Shentong Express.
Jitu itself spent ten months to cross the threshold of 20 million daily orders of the head express delivery company. It is worth mentioning that previously, Jitu insiders had promised to achieve a daily order volume of more than 40 million by the end of 2021.
Now, under the heavy gold and heavy pressure, the goal of jitu will soon be achieved. Even more exciting is the investment institutions behind it.
When Hillhouse, Sequoia and Boyu injected capital into Jitu, the latter was once valued at $7.8 billion. With the acquisition of Best's domestic express delivery business, the valuation of Jitu has undoubtedly further increased. Some insiders said that Jitu is expected to be listed in Hong Kong next year, with a valuation target of 15 billion to 20 billion US dollars.
With the facts of the acquisition settled, Zhou Shaoning and his Best Group still went back to continue the elite technology flow route, after all, he always believed that Best was not a courier company but a supply chain service company.
After the pole rabbit tore a crack in China's express delivery industry, its appetite was even greater. The typical performance is that Jitu got the "Taobao admission ticket" - the 21st Century Business Herald reporter learned that on October 30, Taobao merchants have been able to use Jitu to ship, and the Taobao platform can track the logistics information of Jitu.
As shown in a screenshot that has been disseminated in the industry recently, the pole rabbit at this moment must be "domineering" - "the company (pole rabbit) this integration, which brings together multiple brands of pole rabbit, Huisen, Yimi, Yousu, Huilin, Baishi has also been officially merged. ”
"Overall, the company (Jitu) has money and strength, and it is necessary to build a well-known and influential brand."
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