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“无人零售第一股”上市首日涨超40%,蚂蚁集团持股16.20%,奈雪、商汤为基石

“The first unmanned retail stock” rose more than 40% on the first day of listing. Ant Group held 16.20% of shares, with Nai Xue and Shang Tang as cornerstones

Securities Times ·  Nov 4, 2023 15:16

Source: Securities Times

Author: Zhong Tian

The Hong Kong IPO market is showing signs of recovery: it is known as the “first unmanned retail stock” of Hong Kong stocks$UBOX ONLINE (02429.HK)$It was officially listed yesterday. Since its opening, its stock price has advanced by leaps and bounds. It closed with a sharp rise of 40.87%, with a total market value of HK$11.37 billion.

Youbao Online's IPO brought in 4 cornerstone investors, of which Nai Xue subscribed for HK$61.91 million and Shangtang subscribed for HK$27.22 million. Previously, Youbao Online had already won the favor of institutions such as Ant Group and Chunhua Capital in the first-tier market. After this IPO, Ant Group held 16.20% of Youbao's shares, making it the largest external investor.

Youbao logs on to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange online

Since the fourth quarter, IPOs listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange have generally improved since their listing. Youbao Online, a service provider specialized in smart retail terminals that went public yesterday, is no exception. Youbao Online opened at HK$12.5, up 20.77% from the issue price of HK$10.35. Since then, it has continued to rise, surging 40.87% to HK$14.58, with a total turnover of HK$62.86 million.

In this IPO, the online sale price of Youbao is HK$1,035 per share, and the global sale of 22.5765 million H shares is expected to raise a total of HK$234 million (no over-allotment rights). After deducting underwriting commissions and listing expenses, the net capital raised is approximately HK$154.9 million.

According to reports, the Hong Kong public sale section of Youbao Online was greatly oversubscribed, and a total of 5,308 subscriptions were recorded. The total number of subscribed shares is equivalent to about 11.29 times the total number of shares initially available for purchase in Hong Kong; the international sale portion was slightly oversubscribed, which is equivalent to about 1.41 times the number of shares available for international placement.

About 80% of Youbao Online's IPO proceeds will be used to expand the coverage and penetration rate of the network of points. It is planned to increase the number of points in different consumption scenarios such as schools, factories, restaurants, offices, public places and other high-quality places in mainland China's first-tier, first-tier, second-tier and third-tier cities; about 5% will be used to further develop operational capacity and enhance warehouse management capabilities through the construction and upgrading of warehousing and/or logistics systems across mainland China; about 7% will be used to further develop R&D capabilities and enhance operating systems and vending machine technology; about 8% will be used for operations capital and other general corporate purposes.

As an unmanned retail operator in mainland China, Youbao Online's main business is to sell daily FMCG products such as beverages and food through both online and offline channels using smart vending machines, and is complemented by value-added services such as vending machine sales, leasing, and vending machine advertising and display.

According to Frost & Sullivan, in terms of total product volume in 2022, Youbao Online's market share is 7.6%. Data from Frost & Sullivan also showed that from 2019 to 2022, the company ranked first in the unmanned retail industry in mainland China in terms of total traded products and network size. As of June 30, 2023, the Youbao Online network has 61,888 vending machine Youbao points, covering 157 cities and 28 provincial administrative districts in mainland China. Of these, 87.3% are concentrated in first-tier, new-tier and second-tier cities. As of the same day, the cumulative number of transactions on Youbao Online reached 5.4 billion, and the cumulative number of identifiable transaction users reached 354.5 million.

The path to the listing of Youbao Online has had its ups and downs. The company was listed on the new third board in February 2016, selected as an innovation-level enterprise in the second half of 2016, and then delisted in March 2019. After leaving the new third board, the company submitted prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange three times. On May 27, 2022, December 16, 2022, and August 21, 2023, respectively, the third sprint to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange successfully realized its dream.

Favored by capital

It is worth mentioning that in this IPO, Youbao Online introduced 4 cornerstone investors, including$NAYUKI (02150.HK)$,$SENSETIME-W (00020.HK)$Its subsidiaries, SensePower, Melaka Network, and Wei Jinbing (Director of DigCom), have a total subscription amount of approximately HK$116 million, accounting for about 49.5% of the basic distribution scale.

Among them, Nai Xue's tea subscribed for about HK$61.91 million (including transaction commission fees, etc.), Shang Tang subscribed for about HK$27.22 million through SensePower, Wei Jinbing subscribed for about HK$15.63 million, and Melaka Internet Technology subscribed for HK$10.78 million of shares (including transaction commission fees).

In fact, since its establishment, Youbao Online has been favored by capital and has won the support of many well-known institutions. The company is an important partner in Alibaba's new retail ecosystem.

Wang Bin, the founder of Youbao Online, has always been active in the Internet community. NetXing Technology, which he founded, was one of the first SP business companies in China. Three years later, it sold to Sina for 125 million US dollars. Wang Bin served as Sina's senior vice president and general manager of the wireless division from 2004 to 2010, and was fully responsible for the operation and management of Sina's wireless business. Furthermore, Taomi, which it invested in and founded, was listed on the NYSE in 2011.

In 2011, Wang Bin founded Youbao Online. Wang Bin invested 5 million yuan himself, then won the first round of financing of 100 million yuan by Shen Guojun, founder of Yintai Group. In 2011/12, Youbao Online completed Series A financing of tens of millions of US dollars from Fenghe Investment and Hanenergy Venture Capital. Since then, it has been favored by first-tier investment institutions such as Yunfeng Fund, Huazhu Hotel Group, Northern Lights Venture Capital, and Carlyle Asia Fund. After being listed on the new third board, Youbao Online implemented fixed increases several times, introducing star institutions such as Huaxia Haina Investment, CITIC Construction Capital, CICC Capital, and Ant Group. After being delisted in March 2019, Youbao Online also completed a round of strategic financing of 1.6 billion yuan, led by Ant Group and followed by Chunhua Capital.

According to the prospectus, in the shareholder structure of Youbao Online after listing, concerted actors Wang Bin and Chen Kunrong held about 17.38% and 3.97% of the shares respectively, for a total of 21.35% of the shares. Ant Group holds 16.20% of the shares; Chunhua Capital holds 5.40% of the shares through Chunhua Rongshun; Komqingcheng Changyou holds 2.07%; Guoxin Energy Fund holds 0.85%; and 293 other shareholders, including CICC Qiyuan and the company's employee incentive platform, Shenzhen Youhui, hold a total of about 36% of the shares.

Net loss in three and a half years reached 1.8 billion yuan

However, while the vending machine industry is developing rapidly, it is inevitable to face some challenges. As far as Youbao Online is concerned, it has been in a state of loss for the past three years or so.

From 2020 to 2022 and the first half of 2023, Youbao Online's revenue was approximately $1,902 billion, $2,676 million, $2,519 billion and $1,253 million respectively; profit for the period was -1,184 million yuan, -188 million yuan, -283 million yuan and -147 million yuan, respectively. According to calculations, the cumulative loss of Youbao Online for three and a half years was about 1,802 billion yuan. In the same period, the adjusted net profit of Youbao Online was -973 million yuan, -170 million yuan, -261 million yuan and -91.281 million yuan, respectively. It can be seen from this that Youbao Online's adjusted net profit for the past three and a half years has been a total loss of about 1,495 billion yuan.

In the same period, the net cash income from Youbao Online's operating activities was $319.948 million, $179 million, $154 million and $186 million, respectively.

According to the prospectus, Youbao Online's main business is a smart retail business where vending machines sell products. From 2020 to 2022 and the first half of 2023, the business's revenue was $1,337 million, $1,915 million, $1,975 million, and $987 million respectively, accounting for 70.3%, 71.6%, 78.4% and 78.8% of total revenue, respectively, increasing year by year. According to Youbao Online, in order to promote overall revenue growth and achieve long-term large-scale profitability, it plans to increase the number of points in different consumption scenarios such as schools, factories, office spaces, public places, and other types of high-quality places in China's first-tier, first-tier, second-tier and third-tier cities; it plans to use China's first-tier and second-tier cities as its strategic focus and use the partnership model to open about 18,000 new locations within two years of global sales.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the penetration of the unmanned retail market in mainland China is extremely low. In 2022, the average number of vending machines owned by mainland China per 1,000 people was only 0.8. As of December 31, 2022, vending machines in China covered only 8.8% of potential domestic placeable sites. The penetration rate of offline venues covered by the relevant vending machines is expected to increase to 15.6% by 2027. It predicts that the size of the vending machine retail market in mainland China will increase from RMB 28.9 billion in 2022 to RMB 73.9 billion in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 20.7%.

It can be seen from this that the vending machine offline retail scene has broad prospects for development. Youbao Online stated that it believes the Point Network Expansion Plan has strong industry potential and consumer demand support. By increasing the point density of the point network, it is expected that it will be possible to better manage the purchase and operation of points, save and manage logistics and operating costs more efficiently, and benefit from economies of scale.

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