“Wherever a woman passes by, there must be Belle” - this is the slogan “King of Shoes” Belle International once shouted.

At 16:00 on July 27, 2017, Belle International, the largest footwear company in China, announced its delisting from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and was officially privatized for HK$53.1 billion, setting the record for the largest privatization transaction in the history of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Today, after being away from the capital market for 7 years, Belle Fashion, the “king of shoes for the generation” of Gao Lin Capital, is entering Hong Kong stocks again.

According to the prospectus, Belle Fashion was founded in Hong Kong in 1981 and first engaged in the footwear trade business. In 1992, Belle Fashion expanded its fashion footwear business to mainland China.

According to Frost & Sullivan, in terms of retail sales in 2022, Belle Fashion is a fashion trend company and the largest fashion footwear company. It has 19 core private brands and cooperative brands with a diverse layout, covering categories such as footwear, apparel, and accessories for women, men, and children.

In terms of performance, for the year ending February 28, 2023, Belle Fashion's revenue was 19.2 billion yuan, down 18% from 23.5 billion yuan in the same period last year; profit for the period was 1,257 billion yuan, down 54% from 2,735 billion yuan in the same period last year.

According to the prospectus, one purpose of Belle's current IPO raising capital is to repay the company's bank loans.

By the end of February 2022, Belle Fashion's total debt had exceeded 10 billion yuan. As of the end of January 2024, Belle Fashion had bank loans of about 4.797 billion yuan. This included long-term bank loans of $2,291 million, short-term bank RMB loans of $1.91 billion, and short-term bank loans of HKD 598 million. In the same period, cash on hand was 2,256 billion yuan, and there is still a shortfall of 252 million yuan in short-term debt repayment.

During the reporting period, interest expenses on bank loans from Belle Fashion Payment reached RMB 29.1 million, RMB 98.7 million and RMB 121 million respectively, for a total of $248 million.

Judging from the balance and liability situation, Belle Fashion's debt pressure is also heavy. During the reporting period, the company's balance ratio reached 77.45%, 84.64% and 83.87%, respectively, and remained at a high level.

In the seven years since it was privatized, Zhang Lei carried out a “major operation” for Belle Fashion's business. Generally speaking, it can be divided into two major aspects: large-scale optimization of offline stores and comprehensive digital transformation.

In terms of optimizing offline stores, as of fiscal year 2017, the company had 20,800 stores, including 13,300 shoe stores; by the end of November 2023, Belle had only 8,361 direct-run stores, which is equivalent to cutting down more than 10,000 stores.

Belle Fashion is also empowered through a full digital link, and is also investing significant resources in online business to develop business on e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD, and Vipshop.

At the same time, Belle has also received frequent complaints from consumers. According to the Black Cat Complaints Platform, Belle has accumulated 1,573 complaints and completed 1,054 cases, mostly involving issues such as product quality and after-sales service.

Some consumers complained that when they bought a pair of Belle shoes on an online platform, they had just worn them for a day and found that the sole was unpainted. Other consumers claimed that the shoes they bought at Belle's flagship store had problems with glue spilling for more than three months. Some consumers also complained, “The shoes I bought at the Douyin flagship store in August 2023 were broken when I took them out and put them on this year.”

As of the end of November 2023, Belle Fashion had inventory of 4.37 billion yuan, a significant increase of 21.39% over the initial period of 3.6 billion yuan. In the same period, the company's inventory turnover period was 195.7 days, which was 23.9 days longer than the 171.8 days at the beginning of the period.