Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1767
Huaxi Village transfers control of listed companies to reduce debt pressure
Many people’s impressions of Huaxi Village may still be based on various promotional content: “every household lives in a villa, every family has a car, there are green hills, a lake, a highway, a waterway, a tunnel, and a heliport”. There are 380 households in the village, and each household has a house of at least 400 square meters. The minimum deposit in the village is one million yuan, and the most is more than ten million yuan.
However, in recent years, there are various signs that Huaxi Group is facing increasing debt repayment pressure.
On July 20, Huaxi Shares, a listed company under Huaxi Group, announced that Huaxi Village Committee, the actual controller of Huaxi Shares, plans to transfer 80% of its shares in Huaxi Group to Jiangyin Lianhua Fund at a price of 1 yuan. After the transfer, the actual controller of Huaxi shares will be changed from Huaxi Village Committee to Jiangyin State-owned Assets Management Office.
Lianhua Fund stated that the purpose of this equity change is to support the rescue of key enterprises in Jiangyin City, promote the resolution of the debt crisis of the controlling shareholders of listed companies, maintain the stable development of listed companies, and jointly seek industrial collaboration and technical collaboration.
The development of Huaxi Village, in simple terms, is the land construction in the 1970s, the factory construction in the 1980s, the city construction in the 90s, the listing in the late 1990s, the diversified development in 2000, and the development of finance, e-sports games, investment and other emerging fields after 2010. While conforming to the trend, the good and bad of each period are redoubled on it, which not only made the past, but also led to today’s results to a certain extent.
With the dividends of labor force and reform and opening up, China has developed from small-scale manufacturing to large-scale heavy industry since the 1980s by expanding production capacity. At that time, whoever pays more attention to efficiency will be able to grow up quickly. Wu Renbao, the old secretary of Huaxi Village, started to enter the iron and steel industry by introducing the wire rod production workshop that was demolished by the No. 5 Shanghai Iron and Steel Factory due to the construction of the Yangpu Bridge. With the relatively efficient efficiency and distribution mechanism of township enterprises, the iron and steel industry has brought huge returns to Huaxi Village and has become the source of Huaxi Village’s wealth.
With China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), there has been a blowout of foreign trade orders, catching up with the surge in demand for infrastructure and real estate, foreign trade exports and demand for steel have been hitting new highs. For example, the export of textiles and clothing increased from US$54.32 billion in 2001 to US$189.6 billion in 2008. The post-financial crisis credit binge has spawned another construction boom, especially residential construction, boosting China’s overall economic growth and demand for raw materials that have kept Huaxi’s steel mills and factories humming.
Since Huaxi Group was formally established in 1993, iron and steel companies have been contributing nearly 60% of the group’s revenue. However, as the steel industry began to enter a downward cycle, the iron and steel enterprises in Huaxi Village also began to decline from the historical high in 2008. By 2012, the gross profit margin of the group’s steel sector fell to -0.22%.
According to a bond prospectus issued by Huaxi Group in 2016, Huaxi Group has increased its capital more than ten times, with at least 380 million yuan and as many as 1.6 billion yuan. While the registered capital is rapidly expanding, Huaxi Group’s industry is also expanding. It invested in warehousing and logistics in 2003, entered the financial field in 2005, started investing in ocean engineering in 2008, switched to mineral resources in 2011, and entered the agricultural product wholesale industry in 2012.
In the same year, Sun Xiyao, the grandson of Wu Renbao, the old secretary of Huaxi Village, established Yaoyu Culture, entered the e-sports game industry, and listed on the New Third Board. Established Yicun Capital in 2015, and has invested in Ningde Times, Mindray Medical and other enterprises.
In 2017, an article titled “China’s richest village has a debt of 38.9 billion, what happened to Huaxi Village, the number one village in the world?” “‘s article sparked heated discussions, bringing the debt problem of Huaxi Village into focus. According to public information, Huaxi Group’s last bond issuance also stayed in 2017. (Intern Lin Hongsheng)
Tech Weekly 丨 For the big model, the Google co-founder returned to the front line after four years
It has been eight months since ChatGPT was released, and the impact and shock it has caused has not weakened, and companies large and small are continuing to take action. From a series of media reports this week, we have seen many large companies deploying troops and cooperating vertically and horizontally. They all want to seize more opportunities.
- Google co-founder Sergey Brin (Sergey Brin) returned to the front line, coming to the office three to four days a week, and working with researchers to develop the next generation of large model Gemini-a multi-modal model that can simultaneously process text, images and other data. After Brin announced his resignation from Google management in 2019, he gradually faded out of company management affairs.
- Microsoft, which is chasing Google, isn’t resting on the sweet spot of a solid alliance with OpenAI. At the Microsoft Inspire event held this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the alliance with Meta. Microsoft’s cloud computing service Azure will be the primary cooperation platform for Meta’s open source model Llama 2. The day before this event, researchers from Microsoft Asia Research Institute announced that they had found a stronger basic model architecture RetNet than Transformer.
- Apple, which has been keeping silent in the boom of large models, was also exposed this week to quietly develop a large-scale model application Apple GPT similar to ChatGPT, trying to assist product prototyping and text writing. According to media reports, Apple has regarded the promotion of AI technology as a major task to solve potential privacy issues.
It has basically become a consensus that large models will have an impact on the existing business structure. But is it sustaining innovation, as management scientist Clayton Christensen defined it in The Innovator’s Dilemma, or disruptive innovation? The answer to this question will directly determine whether this is an opportunity for a large company or an opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Well-known analyst Ben Thompson (Ben Thompson) believes that the continuous actions of large companies may mean that large models are more beneficial to large companies. Continuous innovation: “When disruptive innovations appear, the business models, shareholders and most important customers of large companies make management unable to respond.” (He Qianming)
The new car price war hits second-hand cars, and market inventory is approaching historical highs
According to data from the China Automobile Dealers Association, the average inventory days of used cars reached 57 days in June this year, maintaining growth for two consecutive months and remaining at a historically high level. Small and medium-sized car dealers in the used car market generally face the challenges of transformation and survival.
Since last year, the price wars between fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles have continued one after another, and the prices of products of many brands have dropped significantly. The price of new cars of some models is even lower than the purchase price of second-hand cars, and second-hand car consumers have intensified their wait-and-see sentiment.
The direct sales model in the era of new energy vehicles has also brought an impact on the second-hand car market. The most intuitive thing is that the price transparency caused by the shift from 4S store consignment sales to OEM direct sales has reduced the profit margins of used car dealers. In recent years, due to the low demand for maintenance services for electric vehicles, the dependence of users and OEMs on dealer 4S stores has been greatly reduced. The new retail direct sales model consisting of experience centers + online sales + service delivery centers has not only improved market coverage but also reduced costs, becoming a new choice for OEMs.
In July, the auto market entered the traditional off-season. Many provinces and cities’ consumption promotion policies came to an end at the end of June. Strong promotions in May and June diluted the potential sales in July and August. The dealer association judged that the inventory increase caused by weak demand in the used car market may be difficult to absorb in the short term.
At the same time, the second-hand car market is still facing the pain of transformation brought about by industry standardization. For a long time, the vast majority of second-hand car transactions are carried out through brokerage through matching transactions between individuals. Among the nearly 600,000 second-hand car dealers, nearly 70% are still self-employed.
On January 1 this year, the Ministry of Commerce and other 17 departments jointly issued the “Notice on Several Measures to Invigorate Automobile Circulation and Expand Automobile Consumption”, which stipulates that if a natural person sells 3 or more second-hand cars that have been held for less than one year in a natural year, automobile sales companies, second-hand car trading markets, auction companies, etc. shall not issue unified invoices for second-hand car sales, and shall not go through transaction registration procedures. The new regulations force second-hand car dealers operating in an individual form to transform or exit, further regulate the second-hand car market, and raise the industry’s entry threshold.
Recently, various departments have also introduced relevant policies to restore and expand consumption. On July 20, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued a notice on “Several Measures to Promote Automobile Consumption”, requiring to speed up the cultivation of the second-hand car market, implement policy measures such as canceling the restriction on the movement of second-hand cars, and facilitating the registration of second-hand car transactions. Encourage the opening of non-confidential and non-private information in the automotive field to the public, and improve the transparency of transaction information in the used car market. At the same time, policy guidance and services for export tax rebates will be strengthened to support and encourage the export of used cars that meet relevant quality requirements. (Intern Chen Yutong)
OTHER NEWS
Shanghai will suspend the processing and issuance of online car-hailing transportation certificates.
According to the official WeChat account of the Shanghai Municipal Road Transportation Business Development Center, “Lexing Shanghai”, from 0:00 on July 22, Shanghai will suspend the acceptance of online car-hailing (online car-hailing) transport license-related business; from September 20, it will suspend the acceptance of new online car-hailing transport license issuance business. At present, “three certificates” are required to open an online car-hailing service in China. The platform needs to have the “Online Taxi Booking Business License”, the vehicle needs to have the “Network Booking Taxi Transport Certificate”, and the online car-hailing driver needs to hold the “Network Booking Taxi Driver’s License”.
The competent department of road transportation in Shanghai stated that the next step will be to track and evaluate the capacity scale of the online car-hailing industry in Shanghai, and to scientifically regulate the taxi capacity in conjunction with the compliance work of the online car-hailing industry; the relevant business recovery time and specific requirements will be notified separately.
The Ministry of Commerce held a policy communication meeting for foreign-funded business associations.
On July 21, the Ministry of Commerce held a special policy interpretation and communication roundtable for foreign-funded business associations. Representatives from more than 30 business associations, including the American Chamber of Commerce in China, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in China, attended the meeting. Chen Chunjiang, assistant minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said at the meeting that the Chinese government puts more emphasis on attracting foreign investment and is committed to creating a fair, transparent and predictable business environment; the Ministry of Commerce will further carry out normalized exchanges with foreign-funded enterprises and business associations, and strengthen policy publicity and interpretation with relevant departments.
Weilai slowed down investment and postponed the mass production plan of self-developed batteries.
According to 36 Krypton, people familiar with the matter said that Weilai has recently slowed down the purchase of some equipment for the battery factory, and Weilai has also confirmed that it will postpone the mass production of self-made batteries. In the second quarter of last year, NIO revealed that it had formed a battery research and development team of over 400 people, and mass production is expected to begin in the second half of 2024. However, as revenues declined and costs increased, NIO’s cash gap widened in the first quarter. The management said last month that it “will be very careful” in managing cash. In addition, the shortage of battery supply in the industry has been greatly alleviated this year.
New Oriental and other education and training institutions have launched summer “research and study tour” products.
This summer, the research and study tour products of training institutions such as New Oriental, Xueersi, and EF Education have attracted attention. According to rough statistics, there are more than 2,000 research and study products on New Oriental’s official website. The price of a one-day tour mostly ranges from 200 yuan to 800 yuan. Studying abroad is more expensive. New Oriental’s 12-day “Fa Ruiyi” study tour camp is priced at 57,800 yuan, which is currently sold out. The price of the 12-day UK study tour camp in 2019 is 31,900 yuan.
The development of fresh food e-commerce has driven the development of cold chain logistics, and the construction of pre-cold warehouses in production areas has become a shortcoming.
In the first half of this year, the transaction volume of fresh food e-commerce reached 182.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 137.6%, and the increase in demand for fresh food has also made cold chain logistics enter the “fast lane”. Cold chain logistics is currently facing two major challenges: pre-cooling at the source and distribution at the end. Among them, pre-cooling at the source is the most critical, which determines the freshness quality of subsequent fresh products. However, pre-cold storage has seasonal characteristics, and the economic benefits generated cannot support large-scale investment by enterprises for the time being. The market is looking forward to the end of the government and state capital, or financial measures to attract market capital.
China Securities Regulatory Commission: Clarify and refine the applicable standards for specific short-term transactions.
On July 21, the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission released the “Several Provisions on Improving the Supervision of Specific Short-term Trading (Draft for Comment)”, which intends to determine the scope of the applicable subjects of the specific short-term trading system, the scope of securities applicable to the specific short-term trading system, and the definition of specific short-term trading behavior.
Specific short-term trading refers to the behavior of shareholders, directors, supervisors, and senior managers who hold more than 5% of the shares of listed companies and companies listed on the New Third Board, buying and selling the company’s stocks or other securities with equity properties within six months, or buying after selling.
Blackstone becomes the first private equity firm with over one trillion dollars in assets.
In the second quarter of this year, Blackstone Group’s inflow of assets reached US$30.1 billion, and its assets reached US$1 trillion by the end of the quarter. In 2018, Blackstone set a goal of achieving trillion-dollar assets in 2026. Today, its early realization is mainly due to the promotion of insurance, infrastructure, credit (including real estate credit) and real assets, and private equity assets account for about 30% of the total. Apollo Global Management, also known for its insurance and credit businesses, currently has assets of approximately US$600 billion.
The Dow notched its longest nine-session winning streak since 2017.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose again on July 20 by about 160 points, or 0.5%. Although the overall increase was not very large, it still closed higher for the ninth consecutive trading day, marking the longest winning streak since September 2017. This is also the largest one-day percentage point difference between the Dow and the Nasdaq Composite in two years and four months (since March 2021). Strategist Cameron McCrimmon warned that the rally underpinned by a handful of tech stocks may have been overdone, which could be a harbinger of a pullback.
TikTok cooperates with suppliers to launch “pay now, buy later” in Malaysia.
TikTok’s e-commerce department has established a partnership with Malaysia’s Atome, which will provide TikTok Shop buyers with a 3-6 month payment buffer period. TikTok previously said it would invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia in the next few years. As of April this year, TikTok had approximately 325 million monthly active users in Southeast Asia.
Zhang Li, the founder of R&F Properties, has returned to China and reached an agreement with US prosecutors to drop the charges after three years.
According to media reports, Zhang Li, the founder of R&F Properties, has reached an agreement with US prosecutors to drop the charges after three years and has returned to China. The agreement calls for Zhang to admit to wrongdoing, including bribery, and to pay a $50,000 fine. Z&L, Zhang Li’s personal real estate development platform in the United States, will also pay a fine of US$1 million and enter the company’s compliance procedures. Previously, Zhang Li was arrested in the UK on November 30, 2022, and agreed to be extradited from London to the US six months later. Zhang Li is accused of offering high-end meals and luxurious accommodations to bribe Nulu, the head of the San Francisco Public Works Department, to obtain various approvals during the development of the 555 Fulton project in San Francisco.
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