It was just revealed yesterday that a new round of large-scale layoffs was launched, and today it announced a secondary listing in Hong Kong. To the outside world, the two incidents of Shell are both tragic and sighing.
On May 11, Shell was officially listed on the main board of Hong Kong, with an issue price of HK$30.854 per share, and the opening broke. As of the close, the stock price was HK$30.75, and the total market value was HK$15,982.7 billion. Shell went to Hong Kong in the form of introduction and listing this time, while maintaining the main listing status and trading of the New York Stock Exchange, and did not involve new share financing, and there was no sale link.
On May 10, the news of the start of a new round of layoffs came out again. According to surging news reports, this new round of layoffs involves production and research, operations, middle and back offices, etc., and personnel in many departments have been adjusted. Some internal employees of Shell broke the news that the overall proportion of the new round of layoffs is about 50%, involving almost all departments, of which more than 60%, 70%, and less than 30%, 40%, also known as Shell Rebirth Plan.
If the rumors are true, it means that the three-round layoff of Shell has exceeded 60%. In addition, there are also multiple reports that pregnant women who have been laid off are also listed, and they only pay N+1 and breastfeeding insurance money, and are currently seeking legal help. At present, the brokerage part of this layoff ratio should not be included, and product development is the main target of layoffs.
At present, on social platforms, a large number of Shell employees have come forward to say that the layoffs are true, and a large number of users who have been certified as Shell employees have expressed that they have been laid off.
However, in response to the rumors of this round of layoffs, the official response and confirmation of Shell has not yet been obtained.
It is understood that Shell conducted a live listing in the company building today, and some laid-off employees heard Shell’s song when they left the company after completing the resignation procedures.
A laid-off Shell employee said on the social platform, “It’s ironic. When I left today, I heard the sing of the song: We are all a family, we walk together through wind and rain.” There are also ex-shell employees who commented that we in the song are a family and walking together through wind and rain. Currently, it is only applicable to the leader’s cronies and the leader’s old subordinates.
In this regard, in response to this phenomenon, some netizens commented that today’s shells should be mournful upstairs and singing and dancing downstairs.
In the past year, the downward pressure on the real estate market has increased, and negative news such as shell closures, layoffs, and plummeting performance have continued.
On the other hand, the unexpected death of the founder Zuo Hui, the departure of investment capitals such as SoftBank, Hillhouse, and Sunac, as well as the encounter with the largest short seller in the United States at the end of the year, all made this mainland’s largest intermediary in a bad mood.
Shell has started several rounds of layoffs, and has lost nearly 100,000 people within six months
In 2021, things will be tough for Shell.
From an internal perspective, the founder died of illness, shareholders reduced their holdings, was short-sold by muddy waters, and laid off large-scale employees; the external environment was severely investigated for operating loans, crackdowns on school district housing, real estate tax reform pilots, real estate company thunderstorms, the cold winter of the real estate market, and continuous localization. Outbreak of the new crown epidemic.
It can be said that Shell has been in a period of internal and external difficulties for more than a year. Peng Yongdong also admitted that 2021 is a year “full of challenges and never difficult” for Shell.
Today, the time when Shell returned to Hong Kong for listing also happened to be the first anniversary of the death of Zuo Hui, the founder of Shell.
On May 20, 2021, Zuo Hui, founder and chairman of Shell, passed away due to an unexpected deterioration of the disease. Shell lost its spiritual leader, and its stock price plummeted 10% that day.
Subsequently, Shell announced that Peng Yongdong, the company’s co-founder and CEO, took over as the chairman of Shell, and appointed Mr. Xu Wangang, Chief Operating Officer of Shell, as the executive director of Shell.
Since then, Shell began to spread the news of layoffs many times.
In October last year, Shell started its first large-scale layoff, mainly involving first-line real estate brokers, with a total optimization of more than 30,000 people and about 2,000 people in platform functional departments (including local areas). In addition to layoffs, Shell’s middle and senior management personnel are also facing huge departure turmoil. At present, more than 20 middle-level and high-level executives of Shell have left one after another, including a vice president of finance, two general managers, senior directors and directors, etc. Some management even chose to give up their options and leave.
In March of this year, Shell conducted a new round of large-scale layoffs, mainly involving second-hand and new house transaction service business groups, and the refurbishment large home business group and the Pratt & Whitney housing business group were basically not affected. Shell insiders revealed that the director of the second-hand and new house transaction service business group was notified that the personnel optimization ratio was 10%.
In response to the rumors of layoffs, Shell responded that since 2021, the industry environment has undergone major changes, and the company has adjusted some businesses such as finance in Shanghai. In accordance with relevant laws and regulations, employees will be given priority to provide internal job transfer opportunities.
On May 10, the news of “starting a new round of layoffs” was again reported by Shell, and some even mentioned that Shell’s latest layoffs reached 50%, but this news has not been officially confirmed.
However, according to the financial report data, in the second quarter of 2012, the number of shell brokers was 548,600. In the third quarter, the number of brokers dropped sharply to about 515,500, a decrease of 6% compared with the second quarter; in the fourth quarter, shell Only 454,500 brokers remain.
That is to say, in the second half of 2021, nearly 94,100 people left Shell, which confirms the above optimization rumors.
Shell losses intensified, gross profit plummeted, and shareholders retreated collectively
Leifeng.com learned that due to the downturn in the market and the explosion of real estate companies, real estate agency companies have experienced a collective dive in performance. Even if the shell is expensive as a “faucet”, it is no exception.
Previously, Shell released its 2021 financial report, which turned from profit to loss, with a net loss of more than 500 million yuan for the year.
The overall downward trend of the real estate industry and the gradually declining transaction volume of Shell have gradually exposed the contradiction between Shell, a trading platform, and consumers and brokers.
Looking at a single quarter, after the second quarter, the GVT of Shell’s turnover began to decline significantly, and the GVT in the third quarter dropped by more than 20%.
Peng Yongdong, chairman and CEO of Shell, said that 2021 will be a year of “challenges and no difficulties” for Shell, which is particularly reflected in the financial report.
The financial report data shows that in 2021, the total transaction volume of Shell reached 3.85 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%; operating income was 80.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%; net loss was 525 million yuan, a year-on-year change from profit to loss; adjusted net profit Profit was 2.294 billion yuan, down nearly 60% year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the total transaction volume of Shell was 732.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 34.6%; the operating income was 17.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.5%; the net loss was 933 million yuan, and the adjusted net profit was 42 million yuan.
In addition, in the fourth quarter, the transaction volume of existing shell houses decreased by 39.4% year-on-year, and the total transaction value of new houses decreased by 24.0% year-on-year. Shell’s fourth-quarter operating income also fell sharply due to the scale of transactions, down 21.5% from 22.7 billion yuan in 2020 to 17.8 billion yuan in 2021.
Although the revenue performance was dazzling, Shell’s operating loss, gross profit and fourth-quarter performance declined. The net loss for the year reached 525 million yuan. Shell, which has just achieved profitability in 2020, turned from profit to loss.
The data shows that the gross profit of Shell in the past four quarters was 4.816 billion, 5.333 billion, 2.80 billion and 2.915 billion respectively, a sharp drop of more than 46% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of this year.
In addition to gross profit, Shell’s performance in gross profit margin is also unsatisfactory.
The gross profit margins for the four quarters of 2021 are 23%, 22%, 15.2% and 16.4%, respectively. The fluctuations in the first half of the year were not obvious, but in the second half of the year, the gross profit margin of Shell declined significantly, and the third quarter fell by 8% compared with the first quarter. about.
In contrast, in the second quarter of 2020, Shell’s gross profit margin was once more than 30%, and today’s gross profit margin is only half of its high point.
Judging from the annual data, Shell’s gross profit has also dropped from 16.9 billion yuan in 2020 to 15.8 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year decrease of 6.2%; gross profit margin has dropped from 23.9% in 2020 to 19.6% in 2021 .
CFO Xu Tao explained that the reasons for the decline in gross profit margin are: first, the proportion of new house transaction services that contribute lower profit margins in the revenue structure continues to increase; second, the fixed labor costs of Lianjia brokers and the proportion of labor costs of transaction support personnel Rising, resulting in a decline in the contribution margin of stock housing transactions.
However, the plight of shells is far more than that.
It is obvious that the share price of Shell has also shrunk significantly while the performance has declined. Since 2021, Shell’s share price has been declining, and the total market value has now fallen to about $13.7 billion.
Affected by multiple influences such as real estate market conditions and shorting in muddy waters, SoftBank, Hillhouse Capital, Sunac and other old shareholders have successively reduced their holdings.
The first is Sunac China, which will reduce its holdings of Shell twice in the second half of 2021, with a total cash out of about US$1.084 billion. Followed by SoftBank’s institutions, it also reduced its holdings by about 32 million shares from February 8, 2021 to the end of the year; in addition, Hillhouse Capital reduced its holdings by about 87 million shares, reducing its shareholding ratio to 3.3%.
On February 28 this year, the main shareholders of Shell were Propitious Global holding 24.80%, Tencent holding 11.50%, Softbank holding 6.1%, Peng Yongdong holding 3.1%, and Single Gang holding 1.3%.
In the shell equity structure disclosed on May 5 this year, SoftBank and Hillhouse Capital are no longer among them. Tencent’s shareholding also fell from 12.3% to 10.8%, but it is still Shell’s largest institutional shareholder.
At present, judging from the latest disclosed equity details, after listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Shell Chairman and CEO Peng Yongdong holds 4.8% of the shares, which is 1.5% higher than that of the US stock market. U.S. stocks were up 1.4 percent, and Propitious Global, which is ultimately controlled by Zuo Hui Family Trust, held 23.3 percent, 1.5 percent lower than U.S. stocks.
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