Every reporter: Ke Yang Every editor: Yang Xia
"Juice King" Huiyuan is waiting for his own "rescue".
Recently, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled and approved the restructuring plan of Beijing Huiyuan Food and Beverage Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Beijing Huiyuan ). Shanghai Wensheng Asset Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Wensheng Asset) plans to invest 1.6 billion in capital as a restructuring investor and become the controlling shareholder of Beijing Huiyuan.
This reorganization has allowed the " Huiyuan Juice " trademark brand to be fully retained, but this is just the beginning. It is still unknown whether the future reorganization will be smooth and whether "Huiyuan Juice" can return to the throne of "Juice King".
A person close to Beijing Huiyuan told the reporter of " Daily Economic News " that there are currently no changes in the management of Beijing Huiyuan. As for whether Wensheng Asset will further intervene in Beijing Huiyuan's operations in the future, he said: "It is still unknown. Who it (Wensheng Asset) will send or whether it will send anyone is still undecided."
Reorganization Plan It took nearly a year for the dust to settle
, and Beijing Huiyuan’s restructuring plan has finally been finalized.
On June 24, 2022, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court issued the (2021) Beijing 01 Po 129-4 Civil Ruling, ruling to approve Beijing Huiyuan’s reorganization plan. As a restructuring investor, Wensheng Asset plans to invest 1.6 billion and become the controlling shareholder.
Regarding the above-mentioned reorganization plan, Beijing Huiyuan mentioned in an article pushed by the public account: "Most of the creditors firmly voted in favor of the company. Even though, Agricultural Bank of China , which we have always trusted, voted against , but we understand." A person close to Beijing Huiyuan said in a telephone interview with a reporter from "Daily Economic News" that Agricultural Bank of China has a relatively large share, and Beijing Huiyuan also expressed its disapproval of Agricultural Bank of China. I feel very surprised.
Image source: National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network/Huiyuan Public Account Screenshot
Beijing Huiyuan is one of the core assets of China Huiyuan Juice Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huiyuan Group). Wensheng Asset also mentioned on its official website that “(Beijing) Huiyuan is the core enterprise of the ‘Huiyuan System’” and “the reorganized (Beijing) Huiyuan will hold the core trademark brand and production assets of ‘Huiyuan Juice’”.
Beijing Huiyuan’s past can be traced back to 1994. In October of that year, Zhu Xinli led a team of more than 30 people to Shunyi, Beijing, and founded Beijing Huiyuan Food and Beverage Co., Ltd., officially beginning to enter the domestic beverage market. It can be said that this company is the starting point for Zhu Xinli to lead Huiyuan Juice to attack the national market.
Beijing Huiyuan's reorganization work has been advancing for a year, and it has finally completed a milestone step.
html On June 29, Zhou Bing, general manager of Sichuan Haocheng Enterprise Liquidation Firm Co., Ltd., said in a telephone interview with a reporter from the "Daily Economic News" that the approval of the company's reorganization plan by the People's Court is a very critical step in the entire reorganization process. node, which means that the reorganization plan has legal effect. At the same time, the early reorganization program was suspended, and the company entered the implementation process of the reorganization plan.However, the approval of the reorganization plan is not the end. During the future reorganization process, the company may face other problems.
Zhou Bing reminded that in the subsequent implementation process, there may be two situations. The first is due to various reasons, the debtor does not implement the draft reorganization plan, especially the debt repayment plan; the second is due to various reasons Reasons or uncertainties prevent the reorganization plan from being implemented. Once these two situations occur, interested parties, creditors, employees, administrators, etc. can apply to the People's Court for transfer to bankruptcy liquidation procedures.
htmlHow to solve the 48 billion debt problem?Huiyuan's huge debt overhang is the most concerning issue during Huiyuan's restructuring process.
Regarding the origin of Huiyuan’s debt, Wensheng Asset wrote on its official website that in 2009, the Ministry of Commerce terminated The Coca-Cola Company ’s US$2.4 billion holding of Huiyuan Group due to antitrust. The "Huiyuan System" has invested huge amounts of money in the construction of the entire industry chain layout for the above-mentioned transactions, laying down hidden debt risks for subsequent operations.As the core enterprise of the "Huiyuan System", Beijing Huiyuan assumes many financing functions during its operation and provides huge guarantees for related party financing. Under the downward pressure on the international and domestic economy, coupled with the impact of multiple rounds of epidemics, related parties defaulted on their debts, Beijing Huiyuan experienced liquidity risks , and debt risks broke out in an all-round way. An article published on the official website of
Wensheng Assets mentioned that Beijing Huiyuan’s current total liabilities are about 8 billion yuan, and the ordinary debt repayment rate under bankruptcy and liquidation is only 6.1% under optimistic conditions. Liquidating existing assets to repay debts will make creditors Rights and interests were significantly damaged.
Based on this, the plan given by Wensheng Assets is that according to the type of claims, creditors will be paid in different ways: employee claims and tax claims will be paid off in full in cash; claims with property guarantees will be paid in full in the form of debt retention. Small ordinary claims below 1 million yuan will be paid off in one lump sum, and ordinary claims over 1 million yuan will be paid off in full through debt-for-equity swaps. Through the above repayment methods, Huiyuan's debt repayment rate is expected to increase from 6.1% under simulated liquidation to full repayment.
Wensheng Assets invested 1.6 billion in funds as a reorganization investor, part of which was used to pay Huiyuan’s bankruptcy expenses and repay small claims, and more than 90% of the funds was used to upgrade and strengthen Huiyuan’s production and operations.
Image source: Wensheng Asset official website
Regarding the debt repayment plan given in this reorganization plan, Zhou Bing said that there are many debts in the debt repayment plan that are deferred, and large amounts of debt are all placed on the future. During the operation process, profits can be used to compensate creditors until the recognized creditor's rights are paid off in full.
Zhou Bing believes that there is no problem with such an arrangement in the reorganization plan, but it will take time to test whether it can be fulfilled and whether it can be fully achieved. "How the recovery will be in the future; whether there will be some follow-up investment; whether we can operate in strict accordance with the reorganization plan and make profits to fully pay off the creditors' rights that have not been obtained, these cannot be judged hastily."
Heavy Plan Go public and win first place again?
In the more than ten years since "Huiyuan Juice" has been mired in debt, the juice market has been changing and competition has become increasingly fierce.
The former "Juice King" also gradually lost his first position amid the turmoil. In the 2016 annual report, Huiyuan Group’s last annual report before delisting, it was mentioned that Nielsen market research data showed that in terms of sales volume, the share of “Huiyuan Juice” in the Chinese market for 100% juice and medium-concentration fruit and vegetable juices in 2016 They were 53.4% and 38.3% respectively, ranking first in market share for ten consecutive years.
According to data released by the China Business Industry Research Institute in January 2022, currently, the top three companies in terms of market share in my country's fruit juice beverage industry are Coca-Cola (China), Flavor Whole Foods , and Huiyuan Juice, with respective proportions of
14.6%, 11.6%, 11.0%. Huiyuan Juice has dropped to third place.
At the industry level, Zhu Yue introduced that data from CIC Consulting shows that in the soft drink category, the sales of juice are second only to bottled water and packaged tea. The overall retail sales have declined in the past five years. In 2017 The average annual compound growth rate from 2021 to 2021 is approximately -3%.
From the perspective of the juice segment, the sales of 100% pure juice category has an average annual compound growth rate of approximately 5% from 2017 to 2021, making it the fastest growing category among the juice segment. On the contrary, the juice drink category with a juice content of less than 25% has shown a clear downward trend in recent years.
"Huiyuan Juice" focuses on 100% fruit juice and is the fastest growing category among the juice subcategories. However, the current sales of "Huiyuan Juice" are still far behind industry leading companies such as Coca-Cola, Master Kong, Nongfu Spring and other brands. The gap makes it difficult to break the leading position of these companies in the short term.
Huiyuan Juice Image source: Visual China
Against this background, with the advancement of the reorganization plan, can "Huiyuan Juice" return to the top spot?
China Food Industry Analyst Zhu Danpeng believes that the approval of Beijing Huiyuan’s restructuring plan will be a boost for the entire “Huiyuan Juice”. After two years of hard work, the entire “Huiyuan Juice” upstream and downstream, including the team and customers, The centripetal force for "Huiyuan Juice" has declined. With the passage of this plan, it plays a vital role in boosting the market, boosting channels, boosting the team, and boosting customer confidence. Han Liang, a food and beverage analyst at
, also believes that "Huiyuan Juice" is currently the strongest in terms of the layout of the juice industry chain including planting, production and sales. In addition, product quality and brand awareness are the advantages of "Huiyuan Juice". In terms of disadvantages, the team has suffered a lot in recent years and needs time to regroup; dealers and sales channels also need to be further optimized and regrouped. Zhu Yue, a partner of
CIC Consulting, said that from a favorable point of view, "Huiyuan Juice" has a whole industry chain layout and a nationwide sales network that is rare in the industry; but from a disadvantageous point of view, "Huiyuan Juice" has products The problem with the single matrix is that, except for its flagship boxed 100% juice, it has not produced any hot new products for many years, and it lacks products that cater to the consumption habits of young people. In addition, affected by bankruptcies and reorganizations in the past few years, channel dealers have suffered serious losses, and re-establishing the channel layout requires investment of time and capital.
Affected by a series of turmoil caused by debt, Huiyuan Group's listing status was canceled from 9 a.m. on January 18, 2021. The "Juice King" who once set a record for the largest IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange bid farewell to the capital market. The founder Zhu Xinli resigned from his positions as chairman of the board of directors, executive director, authorized representative, chairman of the strategy and development committee as early as 2020, and left the company.
In this reorganization plan, Wensheng Asset also mentioned that it will design the best securitization plan for Huiyuan and strive to achieve the listing of A shares within three to five years. Is the listing plan of
expected? Analysts seem willing to give optimistic expectations. Zhu Danpeng believes that "Huiyuan Juice" has both brand effect and scale effect, and its market share is relatively high. With the intervention of capital in the future, after the reorganization plan is successfully implemented, there will be a great chance of being listed on the A-share market in the future. . Han Liang also said, "I am personally optimistic that 'Huiyuan Juice' has this strength, and with the entry of new capital, it should be possible to realize it."
(Cover photo source: Photographed by Daily Economic News Tan Yuhan)
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