ST Jiajia was on the verge of delisting, with a three-and-a-half-year performance loss, and the controlling shareholder was filed for bankruptcy

Source: Times Investment Research

Author|Huang Youqian

Edited by Sun Yiming

After 12 years of ups and downs in the capital market, the "first soy sauce stock" has fallen from a market value of 10 billion to ST shares, and ST Jiajia (002650.SZ) once held a good hand but is now on the verge of delisting.

Recently, ST Jiajia has successively issued negative announcements such as the controlling shareholder and the actual controller being included in the list of dishonest judgment defaulters, the semi-annual report is expected to be lost, and the controlling shareholder has been applied for bankruptcy review, which has attracted market attention.

In 2012, ST Jiajia was listed on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which is better than Haitian Flavor (603288. SH), Qianhe Flavor (603027. SH), Zhongju High-tech (600872. SH, the parent company of Chubang and Meiweixian brands) landed on the A-share market earlier and became the "first soy sauce stock".

At its peak, the total market value of ST Jiajia exceeded 10 billion yuan, but as the company's performance went downhill, ST Jiajia's stock price fluctuated downward.

On June 12 this year, ST Jiajia's share price fell to 1.58 yuan per share, with a market value of less than 2 billion yuan. According to the stock listing rules, if its stock price is lower than $1 for 20 consecutive trading days, it will be forced to delist. Subsequently, the company's share price rebounded, and as of July 23, it closed at 1.89 yuan per share, with a total market value of 2.177 billion yuan.

In response to the semi-annual report loss, the controlling shareholder was filed for bankruptcy review and other related issues, on July 22, Times Investment Research sent a letter to ST Jiajia to inquire about it, and the other party replied that everything is subject to the company's public disclosure information.

The performance has been losing money year after year

According to the annual report data, in 2021, ST Jiajia suffered a net profit loss for the first time since its listing, with a loss of 80.1639 million yuan. Since then, the company has been "out of control" on the road to losses. In 2022 and 2023, ST Jiajia's net profit will be -84.3693 million yuan and -191 million yuan respectively.

It can be seen that the extent of ST Gaga's losses is expanding year by year. After calculation, from 2021 to 2023, the company has accumulated a loss of about 355 million yuan.

According to the 2024 semi-annual performance forecast, ST Jiajia's net profit attributable to the parent company has turned from profit to loss, compared with 3.8943 million yuan in the first half of 2023, and the net profit attributable to the parent company in the first half of this year is expected to lose 28 million yuan to 45 million yuan. It delivered its first semi-annual report since its listing in 2012.

As for the reasons for the loss, ST Jiajia said in the performance forecast that the net profit in the first half of the year was negative mainly due to the increase in advertising and marketing expenses, the estimated liabilities of litigation provisions, and the provision for inventory impairment, etc., and the operating loss was large compared with the previous period.

Twice ST

The deterioration in performance has made it more difficult for ST Jiajia, which has previously been listed by ST.

On April 12, the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Strengthening Supervision and Preventing Risks and Promoting the High-quality Development of the Capital Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "New Nine Articles"), adding and revising the mandatory delisting indicators for finance, regulation, major violations and transactions, and the delisting standards for listed companies have been tightened across the board.

Among them, the new Article 9 adds the delisting of non-standard audit opinions on internal control. According to the regulations, if the internal control audit report for two consecutive years is unable to express an opinion or negative opinion, or the internal control audit report is not disclosed in accordance with the regulations, the company's shares will be subject to a delisting risk warning, and if the company's internal control audit report is not unqualified in the third year, the company's shares will be terminated from listing.

It is because of this that ST Jiajia has been put on other risk warnings, and since April 30, its stock abbreviation has been changed from "Jiajia Food" to "ST Jiajia".

According to the announcement, China Audit Hua Certified Public Accountants, as the internal control audit institution of ST Plus Plus in 2023, issued an audit report with a negative opinion on the company's current internal control, touching the "other risk warning".

And this is not the first time ST Gaga has been "hatted".

As early as June 15, 2020, ST Jiajia was put on other risk warnings by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange because of the violation of guarantees by its controlling shareholder, Hunan Excellence Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Excellence Investment") and its affiliates.

On July 28, 2021, ST Gaga was "hatted" for more than a year before being able to "take off the hat". But the company's performance began to decline that year, and the stock price also fluctuated downward.

As of July 23, the closing price of ST plus plus was 1.89 yuan per share, with a total market value of about 2.177 billion yuan. The company's total market value in its glory days once soared to more than 10 billion yuan, reaching 11.101 billion yuan. According to the calculation, the total market value of ST plus at this time has shrunk by more than 80% compared with the peak period, with a decline of 80.39%.

The controlling shareholder was filed for bankruptcy review

At present, the par value of ST Jiajia shares has fallen below 2 yuan, and the semi-annual report forecast loss will further put pressure on its stock price.

According to the relevant provisions of the Rules for the Listing of Stocks on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (Revised in 2024), if the closing price of the shares of a company issued on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange is lower than RMB 1 through the trading system for 20 consecutive trading days, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange will terminate the listing and trading of its shares.

This means that if the share price of ST Jiajia continues to decline, the company will be forced to delist by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange when it falls below 1 yuan for 20 consecutive trading days.

It is worth mentioning that at present, the actual controller is in a deep debt crisis.

According to the announcement issued by the company on the evening of June 24, ST Jiajia's actual controllers Yang Zhen, Yang Zijiang (Yang Zhen's son), and Xiao Saiping (Yang Zhen's wife) were included in the list of dishonest judgment debtors by the People's Court of Tianxin District, Changsha City, due to personal debt disputes and obstruction and resistance to execution.

And Yang Zhen's record of being listed as a dishonest person subject to execution is far more than that.

Tianyan check shows that the number of cases in which Yang Zhen is the person subject to execution is as high as dozens. In 2024, Yang Zhen will be executed in 2 cases, with an amount of 1.36 billion yuan. From 2019 to 2023, it has a total of 42 historical judgment records, with a total amount of 4.638 billion yuan.

In addition, Yang Zhen and Yangzijiang hold a total of about 71% of the shares of Excellence Investment, which was filed for bankruptcy review by the creditor Wanxiang Trust Co., Ltd. on June 13, 2023.

In the future, will the share price of ST Jiajia fall below 1 yuan and be forced to delist? Will the application for bankruptcy review of the controlling shareholder lead to a change of control of ST Plus? In this regard, Times Investment Research will continue to pay attention.

(1778 words)

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