China's network finance and economics on October 18 (reporter Ye Qian Hu Jingting) Affected by the news that the demand side is good and the cold winter is coming, the A-share oil and gas concept stocks have strengthened recently. As a company for natural gas transmission and sales in Henan Province, blue sky gas stock price has also risen, on September 28, the company's stock price has reached a recent high of 17.51 yuan, compared with the low of 12.70 yuan on July 28, blue sky gas stock price rose by 32.42% in two months. As of the close of trading on October 18, the company's stock price has retreated to 15.14 yuan.
However, the company's stock price rose, and the chairman left. China network financial reporter noted that Blue Sky Gas planned to list for nearly 10 years, 3 IPO, after the twists and turns of the listing road, chairman Chen Qiyong resigned less than a year after the company's listing. This evening, Blue Sky Gas issued an announcement that Chen Qiyong applied to the board of directors for personal reasons to resign as the chairman of the company and the chairman of the company's strategy committee, and Chen Qiyong is still a director of the fifth board of directors of the company.
Chen Qiyong is a veteran figure of Blue Sky Gas. According to the announcement of Blue Sky Gas, Chen Qiyong has been a director of Blue Sky Group since September 2007 and a director and general manager of Blue Sky Gas since December 2008. In May 2017, former Chairman Li Xinhua resigned as chairman and legal representative of the company for personal reasons. At the same time, Chen Qiyong took over as the chairman of the board of directors of the company and served as the legal representative of the company. Blue Sky Gas's 2020 annual report shows that Chen Qiyong's annual salary from the company is 330,400 yuan.
Large dividends flow to the pockets of the actual controllers
According to public information, Blue Sky Gas was established in 2002 and began to plan for listing as early as around 2010. In 2011, Blue Sky Gas will be rejected due to serious defects in business independence. In 2014, the company restarted its listing work and changed the proposed listing location from the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, but the review was soon terminated. In 2015, blue sky gas, which was folded twice, was listed on the New Third Board, and in November 2016, blue sky gas relocated to the poverty-stricken county of Qishan County, and the proposed IPO companies in the county can enjoy the dividends of the CSRC's IPO poverty alleviation policy. It was not until 2018 that the IPO hit for the third time, but it was a long queue of more than 2 years before reaching the meeting stage.
On January 29 this year, Blue Sky Gas was listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. However, just after the completion of the listing and issuance, the core management was replaced, and before the resignation of chairman Chen Qiyong, on September 24, Xiang Huanrong, a director of Blue Gas, left for personal reasons. China net financial reporter noted that in the critical stage of the sprint IPO, Blue Sky Gas also has a number of senior executives left, on November 22, 2020, independent directors Cai Ting and Tang Wei resigned due to the expiration of their term of office, directors Wang Ru left due to the election of the new term, and on January 9, 2020, deputy general manager Cheng Pingsong reached the retirement age and left.
According to media reports, Blue Sky Gas's large-scale dividends in the IPO stage flowed to the pockets of the actual controllers, and the actual controllers and major shareholders were also involved in taking bribes from officials.
According to the Financial Investment News, the three impacts on the IPO show that Blue Sky Gas is eager for funds, but a careful review found that the company is planning to raise a large amount of funds while continuing to pay dividends. According to the prospectus, the company intends to raise 870.87 million yuan for the Zhumadian township natural gas utilization project, and the company also vigorously explained the necessity and urgency of the fundraising project.
The purpose of the company's prospectus
Blue Sky Gas has been paying a lot of dividends. According to the prospectus, from 2016 to 2018, in the three years, the company paid an annual dividend of 119 million yuan, with a total dividend of 357 million yuan. According to the statistics of the annual report, the company's total dividend in 2019 and the first half of 2020 was 357 million yuan. This also means that from 2016 to the first half of 2020, the company's cumulative dividend amount is as high as 714 million yuan, and the dividend amount is close to the amount of funds required for the above-mentioned Zhumadian township natural gas utilization project.
As of the end of the second quarter of 2020, Blue Sky Group, the controlling shareholder of Blue Sky Gas, held 46.24% of the company's shares, Li Xinhua, the actual controller of Blue Sky Gas, held 64.08% of the equity of Blue Sky Investment, Blue Sky Investment held 100.00% of the equity of Blue Sky Group, and Li Xinhua also directly held 8.41% of the shares of Blue Sky Gas. In other words, blue sky gas has fallen into the pocket of the actual controller over the years.
The majority shareholder was implicated in a bribery case by an official
Blue Sky Gas is mainly engaged in pipeline natural gas business, city gas and other businesses in Henan Province, located in the middle and lower reaches of the natural gas industry chain.
According to The China Economic Network, Blue Sky Gas's major shareholder 3 was involved in a bribery case with officials. On September 17, 2020, the first listing of Blue Sky Gas was approved. Among the inquiries at the NDRC meeting were the bribery cases involving the actual controllers and shareholders of Blue Sky Gas. According to the application materials, Li Xinhua, the actual controller of Blue Sky Gas, and Blue Sky Group, the controlling shareholder, were both involved in bribery cases involving others. The NDRC requested Blue Sky Gas to explain whether the determination of the nature of Li Xinhua's conduct in the relevant criminal judgment constituted a major illegal act, whether Li Xinhua was at risk of being investigated or punished, and whether it constituted a substantial obstacle to the issuance and listing; whether Li Xinhua's bribery funds came from Blue Sky Gas, and whether the purpose of the bribe was to seek benefits for Blue Sky Gas; whether the specific circumstances of the case in which Blue Sky Group was involved in bribery by others constituted a major illegal act, and whether it constituted a substantial obstacle to the issuance and listing.
According to the Yangtze River Business Daily, Blue Sky Gas has been involved in corruption cases one after another. On November 22, 2018, the CSRC issued a feedback opinion on Blue Sky Gas, which involved whether Li Xinhua, the actual controller of the company, was involved in the corruption case of Liu Guoqing, the former secretary of the Zhumadian Municipal Party Committee.
On November 13, 2018, 10 days before the CSRC's feedback was issued, Blue Sky Gas's involvement in Li Xinzhong's corruption case was confirmed. According to the court's judgment, Li Xinzhong took advantage of his position as the secretary of the working committee of the Zhumadian Urban-Rural Integration Demonstration Zone to provide assistance for the Blue Sky World Trade Center project developed by The Blue Sky Group, and twice accepted a 40,000 yuan shopping card from the legal representative of the Blue Sky Group. The fu who gave the gift is Fu Tingming, director and general manager of Blue Sky Group. According to the prospectus, Fu Tingming is also one of the top ten shareholders of Blue Sky Gas, holding 4.512 million shares.
Blue Sky Group's involvement in corruption cases dates back 10 years. In March 2009, Hu Hancheng, former deputy director of the China Development Bank, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court for accepting bribes. According to the case, between the first half of 2002 and October 2004, Blue Sky Group applied for a loan from China Development Bank for the "West-to-East Gas Transmission" project. Li Xiangjun, the former loan manager of Blue Sky Group and one of the shareholders of the company, took 9 million yuan from Blue Sky Group in the name of signing a consulting contract, of which 4 million yuan was paid to Hu Hancheng, and 5 million yuan was embezzled by himself. Subsequently, Li Xiangjun was criminally punished for the above acts.
(Editor-in-Charge: Chu Dye Xi)