23 down limits lock delisting! More than 270,000 shareholders "shattered" ST iKang, and the actual controller cashed out 2 billion yuan in advance

China Times

2024-06-05 22:03Posted on the official account of Beijing China Times

Under the continuous decline of ST shares, investors do not even have the opportunity to "cut meat".

Following the 16 one-word drop limits of ST Huawei in Shanghai, ST Akcome (002610.SZ), a listed company mainly engaged in solar panels in Shenzhen, has seen 23 consecutive one-word drop limits since May 6, and closed at 0.55 yuan per share on June 5. As of May 20, the latest number of shareholders showed that 276,800 shareholders were deeply trapped, of which the top ten shareholders also included the Hong Kong Securities Clearing Corporation, holding 49,005,800 shares, as well as the Southern CSI 1000 exchange-traded open-ended index fund and ChinaAMC CSI 1000 exchange-traded index fund, two new public index funds bought in the first quarter.

It is worth noting that on the 5th, ST iKang issued a risk warning announcement for the fourth time that the company's shares may be terminated due to being lower than the par value. However, in the eyes of industry insiders, since ST Akcome's stock price has been below 1 yuan for 20 consecutive trading days, even if the subsequent 8 consecutive days of daily limit, it cannot change its ironclad delisting fate.

"The production equipment and site are still there, and we definitely want to continue to operate in the future, the company is still receiving orders and production, and the future planning is subject to the actual matters of the company. Zou Chenghui, the founder and actual controller of the company, has also been making continuous efforts recently, contacting many parties on debt resolution, debt-to-equity swap and other matters. On June 5, ST iKang told the outside world about locking in the face value in advance and delisting.

Many contradictory statements can hardly hide the fate of delisting

According to public information, ST Akcome, founded in 2006, started with the production and manufacture of solar frames, landed on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2011 as the first listed company of photovoltaic accessories in China, and then extended to power station operation and module business, and announced in 2018 that it would choose the heterojunction technology route, and as of the end of 2023, the company has 10.4GW module production capacity, 3.2GW HJT cells, and 0.8GW PERC cell production capacity. After 2019, due to the impact of the debt crisis and guarantee matters of the controlling shareholder iKang Industrial, as well as the increase in investment in its main business and the reduction of profit margins, ST iKang's capital turnover was not smooth, and it suffered losses for three consecutive years.

However, the information also shows that although the registered place is in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, ST Akcome's office address is actually in Zhangjiagang Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jiangsu.

"Many inconsistent statements, has made investors completely lose confidence in it, today's close of 6.84 million down limit board sealed is a clear proof that small and medium-sized shareholders and even major shareholders are scrambling to escape. Today, the company said that it still hopes to continue production, and maybe it will stop work after a while; At the beginning of February this year, ST iKang replied to investors' questions on the interactive easy, saying that the company is not at risk of being ST at present, but by the end of April, ST iKang was ST after releasing its annual report; Before that, there were flickering increases in holdings by the actual controller, which all trapped investors firmly. Some investors on the trading platform said so in the comment area.

In fact, ST iKang's statement has made the regulatory authorities "unbearable" and issued a warning letter to it. On June 5, the company announced that it had received a warning letter from the Zhejiang Supervision Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, which showed that Zhejiang Aikang Technology Co., Ltd., Zou Chenghui and Tian Ye pointed out that when the company answered investors' questions about "whether the company has ST risks" on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, it directly replied that "at present, the company does not have the risk of being ST", and did not fully disclose the company's production and operation risks and internal control risks to investors, and the relevant replies were inaccurate and incomplete. The above-mentioned acts of the Company violated Article 3 of the Administrative Measures for Information Disclosure of Listed Companies (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"); Zou Chenghui, chairman of the board of directors of the company, and Tian Ye, senior vice president of the company, violated the provisions of Articles 4 and 51 of the Measures and bear the main responsibility for the above acts.

The "China Times" reporter combed and found that before the 22 consecutive falling limits, the actual controllers and major shareholders of ST Aikang, who should have stood up to boost market confidence, did not take action for a long time, and even made a "flickering increase" move.

On February 27, ST iKang announced that the company's controlling shareholder, Jiangsu Aikang Industrial Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "iKang Industrial") and its affiliates, plan to increase the total amount of Aikang Industrial within six months from the date of disclosure of the announcement, and the total amount of Aikang Industrial will not exceed 200 million yuan (inclusive), and not less than 100 million yuan, and the proposed increase price will not exceed 3.5 yuan per share. However, on May 27, ST iKang said that the controlling shareholder had not increased its stake in the company.

In this regard, the reason given by the company's announcement is that due to the impact of holidays, the 2023 annual report window period and other factors, the effective time to increase the company's shares is relatively limited.

On May 31, ST iKang successively released two major negative effects to further "help increase" its successive downward limits. The first is that 62 bank accounts of four subordinate companies have been frozen, with a total of 84.0224 million yuan frozen, and 20.3437 million yuan actually frozen, and the second is to guarantee the overdue amount of 185 million yuan for the companies on and off the balance sheet.

The actual controller cashes out in advance

"The company's main business is vacillating, with a net loss for three consecutive years; As of the end of March 2024, Zou Chenghui has only 6.4% of the shares held by 4 companies including iKang Group, and the remaining shares are basically pledged. A small shareholder of the company told the "China Times" reporter.

Wind data shows that before this "flickering" increase, iKang Industrial held 98 million shares of ST iKang, with a shareholding ratio of 2.19%, and iKang Industrial and its concerted actors Zhejiang Aikang Future No. 1 Business Consulting Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Aikang Future No. 2 Business Consulting Co., Ltd., and Hangzhou Aikang Future No. 3 Business Consulting Co., Ltd. held a total of 287 million shares of ST iKang, accounting for 6.4% of its total share capital, and the company's major shareholder Zou Chenghui's family actually controlled ST Aikang through the above-mentioned companies.

According to ST iKang's first quarterly report, there are no shareholders in the top 10 shareholders of the company who hold more than 5% of the shares. Although the shareholding ratio is only 2.19%, iKang Industrial is still the second largest shareholder of the company. However, the few remaining shares have also been pledged by iKang Industry, with a proportion of 99.99%, and the pledge has fallen by 75.3% so far.

Back at the beginning of iKang's listing in 2011, the Zou Chenghui family held a total of 43.63% of the company's shares, and from 2017 to 2022, major shareholders continued to reduce their holdings, reducing their holdings by a total of 627 million shares and cashing out 2.054 billion yuan.

On June 5, a person in the photovoltaic industry in the Yangtze River Delta told the "China Times" reporter that the main reason for ST iKang's continuous losses is that it has taken a "road of no return", and in 2021, ST iKang will set its sights on the HJT (heterojunction) track, aiming to seize the development opportunities of photovoltaic from P-type to N-type, and develop four major industrial manufacturing bases in Huzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou and Zhoushan.

It was also in this year that ST Akcome began to fall into continuous losses, achieving revenue of 4.662 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 30.32%, a net loss of 826 million yuan, and a loss of 213 million yuan in the first quarter. From 2021 to 2023, the net profit deducted from non-attributable to the parent company will be negative, and the cumulative loss will reach 2.066 billion yuan. The person said.

However, in his view, even if the company's operation is deteriorating, ST iKang's cooperation with local state-owned assets has not stopped. On May 16, ST iKang announced that the state-owned capital of Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province plans to invest 350 million yuan in Ganzhou Aikang Optoelectronics, and on May 8, ST Aikang also released investor research minutes showing that the 600MW HJT cell production line of Ganzhou base has also achieved mass production, and the annual production capacity will reach 3.2GW heterojunction cells and 6.4GW of module production capacity, and the bracket and frame production capacity are 10GW and 5GW respectively, and the sales revenue excluding tax can be 8 billion yuan at full production. What is puzzling is that while listed companies are betting on the HJT route, Zou Chenghui is investing in TOPCon cells outside the listed company's system.

On February 29, ST iKang Holdings' official WeChat message said that Zhejiang Guokang New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guokang New Energy"), a subsidiary of iKang Holding Group, had a trial production of the TOPCon project, and the first 182TOPCon cell was successfully rolled off the production line, marking the completion of the project's production line. Guokang New Energy was renamed by Zhejiang Aikang New Energy Co., Ltd. in December 2022, and is an enterprise actually controlled by Zou Chenghui, and the listed company also provides guarantees for Guokang New Energy.

Editor-in-charge: Xu Yunqian Editor-in-chief: Gong Peijia

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