Face is greater than lining.
Article | Chinese Business Strategy Pan Xieyue
Under the spotlight, when Lan Shili told the audience about the listing of Wuhan No.2 Factory, I wonder whether he would recall the afternoon when he signed the financing agreement and bought the civil aviation aircraft 18 years ago.
[Listing, listing]
Recently, "the first stream of soda in China" was born.
On October 19, Wuhan No.2 Steam and Water Plant announced that the company had landed in the Hong Kong capital market through mergers and acquisitions. The acquirer was Raffles Interior, a Hong Kong listed company. After the transaction was completed, the other party would hold 51% of the equity of Wuhan No.2 Steam and Water Plant.
At the listing ceremony, Lan Shili, the former richest man in Hubei and now the real controller of Wuhan No.2 Factory, invited his old friends to share their joy. Guo Fansheng from HC360, Li Guoqing from Dangdang, Wu Kegang from Yunnan Wine Industry and others all came to the scene to cheer.
The soda of Wuhan No.2 Factory, which is listed on the curve, has become the "first share of soda in China", and some people even call it: Chinese version of "Coca Cola" and "Pepsi Cola"; At the same time, this brand embracing capital is also a century old brand.
As early as 1921, Corsain, an Englishman who often lives in Wuhan, established the Heli Steam Water Plant in Hankou to produce 14 kinds of soft drinks, with a daily output of up to 24000 bottles.
After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, Cosain returned to England in 1938, and Hankou businessman Liu Yaotang took over Heli; After that, Holly successfully trial produced "Vita Cola", which sold well in central China.
▲ Former site of Heli Ice Plant
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Heli Soda Plant was nationalized and renamed as the second state-owned Wuhan Beverage Plant. By the 1980s, it had become one of the "eight major soda plants", and was in parallel with Tianjin Shanhaiguan, Beijing Beibingyang, Shenyang Bawangsi, etc.
In the era of scarcity of materials, Wuhan No. 2 Beverage Factory, which produced soft drinks, and Wuhan No. 1 Beverage Factory, which produced ice cream, became refreshing in the memory of Wuhan people.
But the good times didn't last long. In 1990, the Second Wuhan Beverage Factory was merged by Coca Cola and declared bankruptcy 10 years later.
After entering the new era, retro carving of time-honored brands has gradually become a trend. In 2020, Wuhan No.2 Factory Beverage Co., Ltd. was established, its predecessor is Wuhan Hanpai No.2 Factory Food Co., Ltd; By May 2022, Lan Shili will acquire it and start the way of soda water listing.
After taking over the second factory in Wuhan, Lan Shili constantly disturbed the soda market. In April 2023, Wuhan No.2 Plant will launch soda products worth 3.8 yuan; In May, it was sold in JD at the price of "9.9 yuan and 3 bottles"; In October, a pop can of 1.99 yuan was launched, and the launch was announced that month.
In a short period of more than one year, Wuhan No.2 Factory has completed backdoor listing in the hands of Lan Shili, It seems that ginger is still old and spicy; Before Wuhan No.2 Plant, he actually owned a listed company.
In June 2022, Lan Shili launched a microblog saying that he would invest 10000 unmanned convenience stores in Wuhan, and the cause of which is the Wuhan Show Life he actually controls.
Three months after the heroic words, Tiancai Holdings, a Hong Kong listed company, announced that it would purchase 51% of the equity of Wuhan Xiu Life at a price of HK $194 million; In November 2022, the deal was finally settled, and Wuhan Show Life landed in Hong Kong shares.
Moreover, on October 25, Lan Shili held a press conference and announced that he would soon own a third listed company.
It is reported that the new project is called "Zhaijiahuan Convenience Store", which is a "aggregating super convenience store", integrating more than a dozen businesses around life into one store.
At present, "Zhaijiahuan Convenience Store" has opened two stores in Shenzhen, and plans to open 100 stores in Shenzhen this year.
It can be seen from this that as an entrepreneur earlier than the "92 faction", Lan Shili, who has been in prison for four times, seems to be trying to find the lost time; Only two years after his release from prison, he had the achievements of two listed companies, which also earned him widespread praise.
For example, Li Guoqing, an old friend, quipped, "If Dangdang were in his (Lan Shili) hands, there would be no business in Jingdong."
[Face is bigger than lining]
Only two years after being released from prison, two listed companies were involved. Lan Shili seems to have made a comeback; And his operation has also greatly increased the share price of listed companies.
For example, before the acquisition of Wuhan Xiusheng, the share price of Tiancai Holding was at a low level for a long time, with the lowest price of 0.12 yuan; However, after the news of M&A came, its share price rose rapidly, reaching a maximum of 1.62 yuan, 13.5 times the difference between the two.
On the other hand, Raffles Interior, a listed company, is a Singapore decoration service provider. Its stock price was less than HK $0.05 at the lowest point. However, since the news came that it was preparing to acquire Wuhan No.2 Factory, its stock price has jumped several times, reaching HK $0.71 at the highest point, 14 times more than the lowest point.
The operation of backdoor listing doubled the company's share price, but the two listed companies were not rich enough.
Wuhan Xiuliqing light asset operation is operated by the vending machine supplier, who rents the machine and collects the deposit, which will be returned after 5 years; However, the goods sold by the vending machine should be specified by the supplier.
At the same time, in order to achieve listing as soon as possible, when Tiancai Holdings acquired, Wuhan Xiusheng also assured it that in 2023 and 2024, the company's after tax net profit would not be less than 70 million yuan or 100 million yuan.
However, in the whole year of 2022 and the first half of 2023, the unmanned sales business of Tiancai Holdings achieved revenue of 241000 yuan and 407700 yuan respectively, which is far from the agreement in terms of performance trend.
The situation of steam and water in Wuhan No.2 Plant is similar.
Before the backdoor listing, Wuhan No.2 Factory also made a performance guarantee, agreeing that the net profit after tax should not be less than 5 million yuan per year; If it fails to meet this standard, it needs to compensate Raffles Interior twice the difference. If it fails to make profits within the warranty period, it needs to compensate Raffles Interior HK $25.5 million.
Relevant announcements show that in 2021 and 2022, Wuhan No.2 Plant will achieve revenue of 829000 yuan and 866000 yuan respectively, and its net profit will be in a loss state; In the first half of 2023, Wuhan No.2 Plant will realize a revenue of 23.101 million yuan and a net profit after tax of 2.081 million yuan. If nothing unexpected happens, it should not be a problem to realize a profit of 5 million yuan in the whole year.
However, even if the profit is only 5 million yuan, it is still too thin for a listed company, and it is far from many people's perception and expectation that Lan Shili has returned as the king.
It is also noteworthy that, The second factory in Wuhan, under the halo of "China's first stream of soda", also has hidden worries about its IP.
As early as 2015, Jin Yawen, a girl from Wuhan, led the team to prepare to reproduce the second factory's soda.
By the end of 2017, the "Hankou No.2 Factory" brand was born, which immediately reminded consumers of its sales of 90 million yuan in 2018 and 300 million yuan in 2019.
The success of "Hankou No.2 Factory" has attracted the attention of capital. Wuhan Hengrunshi Operation Management Company behind it has accumulated investment from many institutions, such as intimate food, Hillhouse, Country Garden Venture Capital, and several rounds of financing have exceeded 100 million yuan.
With the help of numerous capital, "Hankou No.2 Factory" went out of Wuhan in 2018, and launched low alcohol liquor, bubble water and other products in addition to soda products. The product price is positioned at the middle and high end.
The success of "Hankou No. 2 Factory" made Lan Shili's "Wuhan No. 2 Factory" feel crisis, and even played a marginal role. Although Lan Shili publicized that the product came from "Wuhan No. 2 Factory" in the video, the label at the end of the text was mostly marked as "No. 2 Factory soda".
However, no one has successfully registered the trademark of "Wuhan No.2 Factory" or "Hankou No.2 Factory" and "No.2 Factory Steam and Water". The IP game on "No.2 Factory Steam and Water" is also ongoing.
Although the name is similar to "Hankou No.2 Factory", "Wuhan No.2 Factory" is quite different in pricing style.
In terms of product pricing, Lanshili adheres to the strategy of low price and opens the market with price.
He not only sold "9.9 yuan, 3 bottles" of soda at a high profile in Jingdong; We also recently launched pop can, which costs 1.99 yuan a can, bringing the pop to the era of duality.
In terms of sales channels, Wuhan No.2 Plant mainly focuses on online sales of steam and water, which has been sold on 10 online platforms. Lan Shili said that: the online sales of steam and water of Wuhan No.2 Plant account for about 63%.
Low price soda products have compressed the profit space of Wuhan No.2 Factory, and it seems that the best choice is to embrace capital quickly.
Lan Shili once said that when he was in prison, he began to plan to enter the soda market, and the experience of Dongpeng Teyin told him to enter the capital market as soon as possible.
After being released from prison at the end of 2021, Lan Shili put his idea into practice and successfully launched the soda water of Wuhan No.2 Factory; However, many time-honored brands of the same era are not so lucky.
In 2020, Beijing Yiqing, behind the Arctic Ocean, had hoped to inject assets such as the Arctic Ocean and Red Star Erguotou into the listed company Dahao Technology through mergers and acquisitions to achieve curve listing; However, in March 2023, Dahao Technology released an announcement to terminate this asset restructuring.
On the other hand, in 2021, Bingfeng soda from Shaanxi also submitted IPO materials to the CSRC, but after queuing for nearly a year, the application materials were finally withdrawn, ending the listing process.
In this way, The successful listing of Wuhan No. 2 Factory's soft drinks is more or less like taking the edge.
From the perspective of market value scale, the two listed companies owned by Lan Shili also have more face than their insides: even though backdoor listing has made the share prices of both companies rise more than 10 times, so far the market value of Raffles Interior is only about 500 million Hong Kong dollars, and the market value of Tiancai Holdings is less than 1 billion Hong Kong dollars. The two listed companies are widely known to the outside world, The combined market value is only about HK $1.5 billion.
[Familiar flavor and formula]
Lan Shili, who owns two listed companies, seems to have always been a focal point. After all, "Hubei's richest man", "China's first civil aviation man" and "red wanted man", these unmatched labels, once appeared on him.
The starting point of Lan Shili's legendary life originated from Wuhan in the 1960s. Born in a family of ordinary workers, he entered Wuhan University in the 1980s and became a civil servant after graduation.
In 1991, the spring breeze of market economy reform was about to blow all over China. Lan Shili, who had a keen sense of smell, decided to resign from the office and go into business.
With a small amount of savings, Lan Shili set up Dongxing Electronics Co., Ltd., and earned the first bucket of gold by it; The next year, he opened the most luxurious restaurant in Wuhan, "Donggong", and began to enter the real estate industry.
In 1993, Lan Shili established Dongxing Tourism Company, which officially entered the tourism industry. In the following years, he wantonly merged travel agencies around the country, becoming a dark horse in the industry.
In 2004, Wang Zhenghua of Chunqiu Travel Agency established the first private low-cost airline in China: Chunqiu Airlines, which seems to have inspired Lan Shili; The next year, he set up East Star Airlines in Wuhan and started the operation of "ants lift elephants".
In the year when East Star Airlines was founded, Lan Shili leased and ordered 20 A320 passenger planes from European Airbus. According to the price at that time, the total price of these planes reached 12 billion yuan; At that time, the total assets of East Star Airlines were only 3 billion yuan.
With its extraordinary financing ability, Lan Shili's aviation business is going smoothly; At the same time, his life also gradually moved towards the highlight, In 2005, Lan Shili became the richest person in Hubei on the Forbes Rich List and ranked 70th on the China Rich List.
On the other hand, by the end of 2008, East Star Airlines had opened routes from Wuhan to Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chongqing and other places, and involved Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and international routes.
The business has reached such a level that Lan Shili's aviation dream looks like a smooth future, but the previous excessive expansion of capital has sowed bitter fruit for him.
Also in 2008, when the global financial crisis broke out, Lan Shili's capital chain was suddenly tightened. In order to keep the aviation industry, he even began to sell real estate and other businesses.
However, for East Star Airlines, which is over leveraged, these sold assets can only be a drop in the bucket and cannot save its destiny.
When the time came to 2009, the rapid development of East Star Airlines was pressed the emergency stop button; After the bankruptcy of East Star Airlines, Lan Shili was sentenced to four years' imprisonment in 2010 for evading the overdue taxes.
In 2013, Lan Shili announced his return to the aviation industry after he was released from prison in advance. He went to Thailand alone, bought Siam Airlines, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, and launched the "Hong Kong Thailand Tour on the 7th of 1999", which immediately attracted many tourists.
After tasting the sweetness again, Lan Shili has greater ambition. He plans to buy Thailand's second largest airline: Thailand Eastern Airlines.
He brought in Li Meng, Li Yong and Li Gang, three brothers from the listed company McNeil, and reached an agreement with them: the two sides each contributed 300 million yuan to buy Thailand Eastern Airlines.
However, the honeymoon period of joint efforts did not last long. Lan Shili and the three brothers of Li Shi had differences because of management, equity and other issues. Later, Li Meng reported the case to the Guangdong public security organ for "Lan Shili fraud".
After the police filed the case for investigation, Lan Shili was detained first, and then changed to residential surveillance; During this period, Lan Shili used a fake identity to escape from Hong Kong to Singapore via Vietnam and Cambodia.
He later recalled the reasons for his escape - "On the one hand, he was worried about his own safety, and on the other hand, he was distrusted by his family and friends."
In 2017, Lan Shili became a "red wanted criminal". Three years later, he was arrested in Singapore and sent back to China for custody. By the end of 2021, Lan Shili was acquitted and freed again.
After being released from prison, Lanshili almost did not stop, and immediately put into commercial activities. Two listed companies were established in two years, and another company was moving towards listing.
However, judging from Lan Shili's actions after he was released from prison, although he Compared with the past, it has become much more pragmatic and gentle, but its way of operating the company is still familiar with the taste and formula.
After the establishment of East Star Airlines, Lan Shili first attracted attention with 99 yuan tickets, and contacted financial institutions such as Royal Bank of Scotland to finance and expand its civil aviation empire; After the aviation industry becomes bigger, we will invite top investment banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Merrill Lynch to discuss the listing plan of East Star Airlines.
Now, Lan Shili seems to be following the same path for the listed Wuhan No.2 Factory: attract users with a low price of 1.99 yuan, expand the market influence of products through online e-commerce platforms and offline dealer networks, and then go public through mergers and acquisitions.
Gu Chujun, who served many years in prison and was partially acquitted, has been crying out for his grievances, applying for national compensation, and even initiating a counterclaim.
After Lan Shili was acquitted and freed, he told the media that he Instead of spending so much time to apply for a small amount of compensation as Gu Chujun did, he will use limited time to continue his business and do more meaningful things.
However, perhaps fighting for honor, he finally chose to not only start his career, but also apply for and compensate, and has received compensation of more than 590000 yuan from the Guangzhou People's Procuratorate.
Now, in addition to "doing at least three projects at the same time" and continuing a new listed company, Lan Shili is also working hard to "revenge the gentleman" - counterclaim the false accusation and frame up of the three brothers of Maguire and Lee.
In two years, even if the strength of the listed company is limited, it is a miracle for Lan Shili, and it is also a shameless and arrogant company. However, in today's fierce competition, if he wants to return to the peak and even surpass the past, he may need new breakthroughs:
Transcendence of the past and breakthrough of oneself.
Reference
[1] Whose Second Factory's Soda Drink Is the "Fighting Steam" in Wuhan? Zebra consumption
[2] Prison, Exemption, Listing, Hubei's Former Richest Man and His "China's First Soda Share" Touzhong.com
[3] Lan Shili Stirs the Drink Jianghu 21st Century Economic Report
[4] "The First Share of Domestic Soda Comes", Lan Shili Delivers Its Promise, Time Financial APP
[5] Cooking without rice - Lan Shili and East Star Airlines NHA Airlines
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