Laopu Gold (06181.HK) was successfully listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today, and the sole sponsor is China Securities Construction Investment International.
Laopu Gold is the first brand in mainland China to promote the concept of "ancient gold" certified by the China Gold Association, and is the first professional brand of ancient handmade gold in China. According to Frost & Sullivan, the company's market share of China's ancient gold jewellery market and gold jewellery market in 2023 is 2.0% and 0.6%, respectively. As of the Latest Practicable Date, the Company had opened 33 self-operated stores in well-known commercial centers in 14 cities in China, most of which are first-tier and new first-tier cities.
老铺黄金本次香港IPO引入基石投资者包括Huang River Investment Limited(“Tencent Huang River”，由腾讯控股(0700.HK)全资拥有)、南方基金管理有限公司、CPE Greater China Enterprises Growth Fund(“CPE Fund”，由源峰基金管理有限公司管理)。
At the opening of today's trading, Laopu Gold rose 70.49% to HK$69.05 per share, with a market value of HK$11.193 billion.
Synthesis | Company Announcement Prospectus Edit | Arti
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute any trading advice
Laopu Gold is the first brand in China to promote the concept of ancient gold jewelry, and it is also the first company to engage in the brand operation of traditional craft gold jewelry.
Judging from the prospectus, the performance of Laopu Gold has made a significant breakthrough in 2023, and the company has grown significantly in terms of revenue scale and profitability. In terms of revenue, it ranks seventh in the Chinese ancient gold jewelry market.
According to Frost & Sullivan data, among all gold jewelry brands in China in 2023, Laopu Gold will rank first in single-store revenue. In 2023, Laopu Gold will rely on 30 self-operated stores to achieve revenue of 3.18 billion yuan, a significant increase of 145.75% year-on-year, and the average revenue of a single store will exceed 100 million yuan.
Founded in 2009, the founders set their sights on the field of ancient gold jewelry, where there were few large-scale gold stores before. It is understood that ancient gold jewelry refers to a kind of pure gold jewelry that combines modern design with Chinese classical culture, has warm color, exquisite appearance or other characteristics of ancient court gold jewelry, and applies at least two or more traditional Chinese handmade gold manufacturing processes stipulated in the group standards issued by the China Gold Association.
As of the Latest Practicable Date, the Company had opened 33 self-operated stores in well-known commercial centers in 14 cities in China, most of which are first-tier and new first-tier cities. It is worth mentioning that, unlike most domestic jewelry retail brands that use franchises to develop channel networks, Laopu Gold has always adopted a self-operated model, which may also explain why the number of stores of the company is far less than that of the leading players in the industry.
In terms of store location, Laopu Gold aims to open stores in top domestic business districts. As of April 2024, Laopu Gold has entered 8 of the top 10 high-end department stores in the country. Among them, the stores of Beijing SKP, the "king of shops", will contribute 336 million yuan in revenue to Laopu Gold in 2023, accounting for about 10.57% of its annual revenue.
From the perspective of financial performance, the performance of Laopu Gold has made a big breakthrough in 2023. According to the data, from 2021 to 2023, the revenue of Laopu Gold will be 1.265 billion yuan, 1.294 billion yuan, and 3.18 billion yuan respectively, and the net profit attributable to the parent company will be 114 million yuan, 94.529 million yuan, and 416 million yuan respectively. Among them, in 2023, the company's revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company will grow by 145.7% and 340.4% respectively.
The high performance of long-established gold in 2023 may be related to the higher operation center of gold prices in this year, and the continuous rise in gold prices has undoubtedly pushed up the demand for gold products.
Specifically, the revenue of Laopu Gold is mainly contributed by two categories: pure gold gold products and pure gold inlay products.
In 2023, pure gold products will contribute revenue of 1.394 billion yuan, accounting for 43.9% of revenue; In the same period, pure gold inlay products contributed 1.781 billion yuan in revenue, accounting for 56%.
It is understood that the average selling price of pure gold gold products in 2023 will reach 729 yuan/gram, and the average selling price of pure gold inlaid products will be as high as 1043 yuan/gram.
In terms of profitability, the gross profit margin of old gold has basically remained stable in recent years, with 41.2%, 41.9% and 41.9% respectively from 2021 to 2023.
Combined with the current situation and prospects of the industry, the ancient gold industry has obvious room for growth. According to the prospectus, the size of the ancient gold jewelry market in mainland China in 2023 will be about 157.3 billion yuan, and the compound annual growth rate of this market from 2018 to 2023 will be as high as 64.6%. By 2028, the size of the ancient gold jewelry market is expected to expand to 421.4 billion yuan, and the compound annual growth rate in the next few years is expected to slow significantly compared with previous years, but still remain at a relatively high level of 21.8%.
In November 2023, Laopu Gold completed a round of pre-IPO financing, which was also the only round of financing conducted by Laopu Gold in the primary market before it hit the IPO.
Black Ant Capital subscribed for 2.66 million shares of Laopu Gold with 97 million yuan, accounting for 1.86% of the total share capital; Yuyuan Co., Ltd. (600655. SH), Suzhou Yifu Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Fuxing Hanxing (Hangzhou) Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) subscribed for a total of 3.49 million shares for 128 million yuan, accounting for 2.45% of the total share capital.
The post-investment valuation of this round reached 5.225 billion yuan, and the PE reached 12.56 times, which was lower than the rolling price-earnings ratio of more than 18 times of the Wind Gold and Jewelry Index in the same period.
In this Hong Kong stock IPO, Laopu Gold plans to raise funds to expand its sales network (including opening 35 stores in first-tier and new first-tier cities in Chinese mainland and opening 12 new stores in overseas markets); Maintain brand positioning and increase brand loyalty; improve the level of informatization; strengthening R&D capabilities; and replenishment of liquidity.