Han's Laser "sells" suspiciously, billionaire Gao Yunfeng is short of money?
Produced by Radar Finance Hongtu Text|Xiao Sa Editor|Deep Sea
Han's Laser, which is under pressure from performance growth, plans to sell its subsidiary to "slim down".
On the evening of January 17, the company announced that an agreement had been signed for the sale of a controlling stake in Han's Smart, a holding subsidiary, and 16 institutions, including IDG, Shenzhen Capital Group, Qianhai Laterite, CICC Capital, Yuanjing Capital, Huajin Capital, Industrial Guoxin, Unicom CICC, Weilai, and Jingwei Venture Capital, appeared on the list of acquirers.
Han's Stone, which has been "taken over" by a number of well-known investment institutions, ranks among the top in the domestic high-end galvanometer market share, and is one of the few galvanometer companies that can independently produce grating encoders. Han's Laser said that the transaction is expected to achieve investment income of 900 million yuan, and the funds obtained will be used for the company's daily operations.
As of the end of the third quarter of last year, the company's closing cash and cash equivalents balance was 5.312 billion yuan. However, the company is also facing the challenge of continued decline in performance, with both revenue and net profit declining in 2022 and the first three quarters of 2023.
The actual controller of Han's Laser is Gao Yunfeng, who was born as a university professor, from starting a business with a customer deposit of 400,000 Hong Kong dollars, to selling button laser machines to earn the first pot of gold, and then leading Han's Laser to go public and enter the Apple industry chain to usher in a performance take-off, the 2023 Hurun Report shows that Gao Yunfeng ranks 585th on the list with a wealth of 10 billion.
Gao Yunfeng once caused widespread controversy because of his "anger at CCTV reporters". It is worth noting that Gao Yunfeng has a high proportion of shares pledged. Up to now, Gao Yunfeng and Han's Holdings have a total pledge ratio of nearly 8%. According to market speculation, Gao Yunfeng's financial pressure is greater.
Sale of subsidiaries at a premium
On November 28 last year, Han's Laser announced that in order to optimize the company's industrial structure and rationally allocate resources, the company planned to sell the controlling stake of its holding subsidiary, Shenzhen Han's Star Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Han's Stone"), and the sale price was not less than 1.6 billion yuan according to the overall price of 100% equity of the target company.
According to the announcement, the funds obtained from this transaction will be used for the company's daily operation, which can effectively enhance the company's market competitiveness and help improve the company's operating quality. However, Han's Laser did not announce the counterparty at that time.
On the evening of January 17, Han's Laser made an announcement on the progress of this matter, and the receivers included 16 investment institutions, including IDG Capital, Shenzhen Venture Capital, Qianhai Laterite, CICC Capital, Yuanjing Capital, Weilai, Jingwei Venture Capital, etc.
According to the agreement, according to the overall valuation of 1.6 billion yuan, Han's Laser transferred 65.38% of the equity of Han's Smart to the above 16 investors at a price of 1.046 billion yuan.
At the same time, Hengqin Industrial Fund and Industrial Guoxin increased their capital by 50 million yuan according to the valuation of 1.6 billion yuan before the investment of 100% equity of Han's Site.
After the completion of this transaction, Han's Laser's equity ratio in Han's Laser has been reduced from 70.06% to 4.55%, and it no longer has control and is no longer included in the company's consolidated financial statements, but the transaction is expected to achieve investment income of 900 million yuan.
Tianyancha shows that Han's Smart was established on August 26, 2017 and is located in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, with a registered capital of 26.69 million yuan.
In terms of business, Hanstech's main business is the R&D and production of optical scanning galvanometer motors, voice coil motors, micro motors and other products.
According to the announcement, Han's Star currently ranks among the top in the domestic high-end galvanometer market share, and is also one of the few galvanometer companies that can independently produce grating encoders.
At the same time, Han's Star is the first galvanometer company in China to successfully develop a digital driver plate, and has achieved the performance of foreign competitors' products by matching the self-developed and self-produced grating galvanometer motors, and has the level and strength to compete with international manufacturers.
In terms of financial data, Han's Smart achieved revenue of 139 million yuan and net profit of 31.5044 million yuan in 2022, and revenue of 114 million yuan and net profit of 23.8385 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2023.
In terms of pricing basis, this transaction estimates that the net profit of Han's Smart in 2023 will be 38 million, so the price-earnings ratio corresponding to the valuation of 1.6 billion yuan is as high as 42.11 times.
In addition, as of the third quarter of last year, Hanstech's net assets were only 116 million yuan, a premium of more than 12 times compared with the valuation of 1.6 billion yuan.
For Han's Laser, although selling its subsidiary at a premium may seem like a good deal, some small and medium-sized shareholders do not.
In the announcement of the resolution of the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders disclosed on December 14, 2023, shareholders holding 129,500 shares of Han's Laser voted against the proposal to sell assets, and shareholders holding 5,850,500 shares abstained from voting, all of which came from small and medium-sized shareholders.
According to media reports, on the one hand, some investors questioned the sale of high-quality assets, and on the other hand, small and medium-sized shareholders were worried about how Han's Laser would maintain sustainable profitability if it lost Han's Laser.
In the secondary market, Han's Laser's share price continued to decline. As of the close of trading on January 19, the company has fallen by 12.4% since 2024 on the basis of a cumulative decline of 18.59% in 2023, and the total market value is now less than 20 billion yuan.
The wealthy Gao Yunfeng has a high proportion of pledges
The actual controller and chairman of Han's Laser is the wealthy Gao Yunfeng. According to the 2023 Hurun Report, Gao Yunfeng ranks 585th on the list with a wealth of 10 billion.
According to media reports, Gao Yunfeng was born in 1967 in Huadian City, Jilin Province, which is located on the north side of the Longgang Mountains, upstream of the Songhua River, and is one of the larger counties (cities) in Jilin Province
Bright and tenacious, Gao Yunfeng has been the pride of his hometown since he was a child, and he entered Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics to study aircraft design when he was in college.
After graduating from Beihang University, Gao Yunfeng briefly went to Nanjing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics to teach. Subsequently, he met friends who imported laser equipment in Shenzhen, and he also helped solve some technical problems. In this way, Gao Yunfeng has studied the laser marking machine for the production of electronic components.
In 1995, one of his customers wanted to order a laser marking machine from Germany, and Gao Yunfeng intercepted this opportunity halfway and took the initiative to say that he could produce this machine.
The newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, Gao Yunfeng got a deposit of 400,000 Hong Kong dollars from the customer, rented an apartment in Huaqiangbei, and built the machine needed by the customer in 3 months.
Subsequently, Gao Yunfeng got another 400,000 Hong Kong dollars investment from customers and decided to start his own business. In December 1996, at the age of 29, he registered a company in Shenzhen, the predecessor of Han's Laser.
When Han's Laser started, it was faced with the dilemma of "no capital, immature technology, and no market". Gao Yunfeng once revealed that in 1996, there were only 10 pieces of equipment in the domestic laser market, and the market capacity was only 3 million yuan.
After some research, Gao Yunfeng aimed at the market segment of button marking. By printing the brand logo on the buttons, the button industry has changed from weighing to selling by the number, which is very imaginative for button manufacturers.
With his efforts, a Wenzhou button factory was finally willing to spend 300,000 yuan to buy Han's Laser's button laser machine, and the sales channel was opened. "Later, we made 300 million on the button laser machine. 300 million in the 90s is equivalent to 3 billion now, and the company is just like that. ”
In 2004, Han's Laser was successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, raising 230 million yuan at that time. Since 2008, Han's Laser has entered the Apple industry chain. Two years later, Han's Laser provided Apple with almost all of the laser spot welding equipment used in iPad manufacturing and some of the iPhone 4 laser spot welding equipment.
With the advent of the era of smart phones, the performance of Han's Laser, which has entered the "fruit chain", has maintained positive growth for many years, and the stock price has risen from the initial 21 yuan to nearly 60 yuan.
However, after 2017, due to the bottleneck of Apple's product sales, Han's Laser's performance also declined for two consecutive years.
It is worth mentioning that in 2019, the news of Gao Yunfeng's "angry CCTV reporter" made Han's Laser public opinion whirlpool, and then the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued an overnight document urging the company to issue an apology announcement, reminding the company's actual controller, directors, supervisors and senior executives to accept media supervision with an open mind.
In addition to Han's Laser, Gao Yunfeng is also passionate about the real estate business. The article of "City Boundary" pointed out that Han's real estate projects are located in Shenzhen, Beijing, Nanjing and other places, and it is also involved in beauty medicine and gender health care.
At present, there is little attention paid to the progress of Gao Yunfeng's real estate business, but he has raised funds through a high proportion of pledged shares.
On January 5, Han's Laser announced the latest pledge of the controlling shareholder Han's Holdings and the actual controller Gao Yunfeng. According to the announcement, Han's Holdings and Gao Yunfeng have pledged a total of 206 million shares of Han's Laser, accounting for 79.95% of their total shares.
According to Han's Closed Bet, as of December 5, 2023, the total pledged loan amount of Han's Holdings and Gao Yunfeng reached 3.459 billion yuan.
Among them, the latest warning line for multiple share pledges is 21.75 yuan, and the latest forced liquidation line is 20.2 yuan. As of January 19, the closing price of Han's Laser was 18.15 yuan.
This means that a number of pledged loans of Han's Holdings and Gao Yunfeng have reached the latest warning line, and if they cannot add additional guarantees in time, they may face the risk of liquidation.
Han's Laser's performance stalled
For Han's Laser itself, the biggest challenge at present may be the decline in performance.
Flush iFinD data shows that in the first three quarters of 2022 and 2023, Han's Laser's revenue and profit both declined. Specifically, in 2022, the company's operating income will reach 14.961 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.4%, and its net profit will reach 1.21 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 39.35%
In the first three quarters of 2023, Han's Laser achieved revenue of RMB9.387 billion, down 11.12% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to the parent company of RMB633 million, down 37.59% year-on-year.
In the 2023 semi-annual report, the management pointed out that under the influence of complex factors such as macroeconomic downturn and industry cycle changes, downstream customers tend to be cautious in investment, and the company's orders have declined.
Entering the third quarter, the company's performance did not improve, and the net profit during the period was 209 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 45.37%. In this regard, Han's Laser explained that the reason for the decline in performance was the lack of demand from the company's downstream customers and the decrease in orders.
It is worth noting that the development of the new energy industry is accelerating, and laser processing has received more and more attention as a relatively environmentally friendly processing method.
To this end, Han's Laser continues to increase resource investment in new energy industries such as photovoltaic industry and power battery industry, and in terms of new energy vehicle companies, the company has accumulated customers including BYD, Great Wall Motor, Volkswagen, Yutong and so on.
However, this has also caused the company's costs to rise, the management said that the company in the photovoltaic industry, power battery industry and other new energy industries to increase resource investment, in the semiconductor industry and core devices to increase investment in research and development, have increased the company's personnel salary expenses and other expenditures.
At the same time, the revenue scale of Han's Laser's new energy sector is still small at this stage. In the first half of 2023, the company's new energy equipment business achieved revenue of 1.153 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%.
At present, there is still uncertainty about the timing of Han's Laser's performance improvement. Industrial Securities Research Report believes that considering that the demand for the PCB industry is still relatively weak, the company's profit forecast is slightly revised downward, and the company's revenue in 2023, 2024 and 2025 is predicted to decline by 7.8%, 19.7% and 19.9% year-on-year respectively, and the net profit attributable to the parent company is forecast to decline by 24.8%, 70.2% and 23.6% year-on-year respectively.