2021年3月登陆科创板时，奥泰生物通过新股发行募得资金总额18.05亿元，扣除发行费用后的募资净额为16.43亿元，其中超募资金达12.45亿元。①Due to the impact of the international situation, economic policies, and overall market fluctuations, the fundraising project for expanding overseas markets of Aotai Biotechnology will be delayed for completion. ②Overseas revenue has always been the core source of Aotai Biotechnology's income, with its overall revenue share reaching 99.83% at one point; the sharp decline in overseas revenue has also led to a noticeable decrease in the company's total income.
The Star Daily reported on December 26 (Reporter Zheng Bingxun) that considering the macro influences of the international situation, economic policies, and overall market fluctuations, POCT (Point-of-Care Testing) company Aotai Biotechnology (688606.SH) announced that the fundraising project "Marketing Network Center Construction Project" will be postponed for one year and completed by December 2025.
According to the arrangement at the time of the IPO, the Marketing Network Center Construction Project is one of the four pledged investment projects of Aotai Biotechnology, which originally planned an investment of 40.8768 million yuan. As of November 30, 2024, only 14.7317 million yuan has been invested, with an investment progress of 36.04%. In contrast, the investment progress of the other three pledged investment projects has exceeded 90% during the same period.
When Aotai Biotechnology landed on the Star in March 2021, it raised a total of 1.805 billion yuan through the issuance of new shares, with a net fundraising amount of 1.643 billion yuan after deducting issuance costs, among which over-raised funds reached 1.245 billion yuan.
As an in vitro diagnostics company, Aotai Biotechnology's main products are in vitro rapid diagnostic reagents. The timing of its IPO coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the sudden massive demand for testing created development opportunities for Aotai Biotechnology.
To meet market demand, Aotai Biotechnology used over-raised funds to construct projects related to the production of in vitro diagnostic reagents, with capacities of "0.2 billion tests" and "0.4 billion tests", respectively, in 2021 and 2022. As of November 30, 2024, the investment progress of these two over-raised projects reached 89.49% and 63.98%, both exceeding the progress of the Marketing Network Center Construction Project.
According to the IPO documents, Aotai Biotechnology initially planned the Marketing Network Center Construction Project mainly to accelerate the development of overseas Business by establishing two overseas Marketing Services centers in the USA and Germany, enhancing competitive advantages in the overseas market. At that time, Aotai Biotechnology primarily adopted the ODM sales model, thus aiming to enhance the influence of its self-owned brand products by establishing overseas Marketing Services centers.
Over the years, overseas revenue has always been the core source of Aotai Biotechnology's income, accounting for 79.19%, 92.32%, and 94.78% of total revenue in 2022, 2023, and the first half of 2024, respectively. Even at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, overseas revenue once accounted for 99.83% of Aotai Biotechnology's total revenue.
From 2020 to 2022, Aotai Biology experienced explosive growth in overseas revenue, reaching 1.134 billion yuan, 1.854 billion yuan, and 2.682 billion yuan respectively, which drove the rapid growth of Aotai Biology's overall performance. Total revenue increased by 370.53% year-on-year to 1.136 billion yuan in 2020, and the Net income attributable to the parent company was 0.679 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 766.15%. By 2022, Aotai Biology's revenue and Net income further increased to 3.389 billion yuan and 1.184 billion yuan respectively.
However, as the COVID-19 pandemic subsided Global, the World Health Organization officially announced in May 2023 that COVID-19 no longer constitutes an international public health emergency, leading to a significant decline in the demand for COVID-19 testing products, and Aotai Biology also faced a revenue crash.
In 2023, Aotai Biology's overseas revenue was 0.695 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 74.11%, resulting in a total revenue year-on-year decrease of 77.73% to 0.755 billion yuan, and Net income decreased by 84.76% year-on-year to 0.181 billion yuan.
In fact, Aotai Biology has stated that the company is reliant on exports, and any changes in trade policies in export regions will pose risks to the company's export Business. However, Aotai Biology also mentioned that in the sub-sectors of POCT drug testing and infectious disease testing, it can compete with international giants. The competitive advantage in participating in the international market will help future domestic market expansion.
In recent years, the proportion of Aotai Biology's revenue from domestic sources has gradually increased, rising from 1.31% in 2019 before the pandemic to 7.65% in 2023.