According to Cailian News on September 11th, Zhu Chaoyang, Chairman of Guangxi Liuyao Group (603368.SH), introduced the progress of the company's AI scene application business that investors are concerned about at the company's semi-annual performance briefing. The AI pharmacist assistant created by the company, named 'A Gui Pharmacist', is currently undergoing online testing and is expected to launch intelligent AI health services later this year.

According to the semi-annual report, the company signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Huawei Cloud and Shanghai Runda Medical Technology (603108.SH) at the end of 2023. In 2024, the company established the Intelligent Health Development Center to explore the application of big data, artificial intelligence, and other technologies to assist hospitals in clinical test report analysis and medical record generation. In the retail sector, Guangxi Liuyao Group has initiated part of the 'Guizhong Pharmacy Smart Upgrade Plan', and the AI pharmacist assistant mentioned by Zhu Chaoyang is part of this plan.

Today, Shanghai Runda Medical Technology announced on their official WeChat account that at the 'Big Model Empowering Medical and Health Industry Innovation Conference' held on the 10th, the company and Guangxi Liuyao Group jointly launched the 'Guizhong Pharmacy Smart Upgrade Plan', which will provide personalized health management services to consumers through the introduction of big model technology.

It is worth noting that high accounts receivable is a major challenge facing Guangxi Liuyao Group. According to the semi-annual report, as of June 30th this year, the company's accounts receivable reached 11.19 billion yuan, maintaining a scale of over 10 billion for five consecutive quarters.

"The high accounts receivable of the company is determined by the business structure with hospital sales as the main focus." Zeng Xiangxing, CFO of the company, told Cailian News that due to the company's main customers being medical institutions, the collection cycle is longer, resulting in high accounts receivable. Although the payment time from hospital customers is longer, these customers have good credit status and low bad debt risk. Currently, the company is adjusting its operation strategy to balance sales and collections, and has strengthened accounts receivable management and collection efforts.

Guangxi Liuyao Group also stated that the policy of online settlement for Guangxi's centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical consumables is currently being implemented. In the long run, the execution of this policy is beneficial for improving the high scale of accounts receivable of the company.

It is reported that starting from August 1st this year, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has fully implemented online settlement for centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical consumables, ensuring 'fast procurement and fast settlement'.

In addition, the reporter from Cailian News noticed that in the first half of the year, Guangxi Liuyao Group's main business of pharmaceutical wholesale business segment had a slight decline in revenue. The segment achieved revenue of 8.438 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.04%, and the revenue accounted for 79.64%; achieving a net profit attributable to the parent of 0.295 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.31%.

Regarding this, Zhu Chaoyang told Cailian News that there are two main reasons for the decline in revenue in the company's wholesale segment: firstly, the company strengthened operational risk in the first half of the year and appropriately controlled sales with higher risk and longer credit terms, thereby optimizing the business structure of the company's wholesale end; secondly, centralized procurement landed, the implementation of payment by diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) in medical insurance expanded, industry compliance and regulation became stricter, which had a certain impact on the volume and structure of drug use in hospital end, and the market size was under pressure.

In addition, regarding pharmaceutical new retail, Zhu Chaoyang said that the company can play its advantages in integrating wholesale and retail in the Guangxi market, so the wholesale and retail business is still mainly focused on the Guangxi market. Based on this, the company will comprehensively consider factors such as competitive environment, market space, merger and acquisition costs, and sustainable profitability, and expand its business to other provinces in a timely manner.