Relevant creditors applied to the court for bankruptcy reorganization of the group on the grounds that Tsinghua Unigroup was unable to pay off its due debts, its assets were insufficient to pay off all debts, and it clearly lacked solvency, reorganization value and reorganization feasibility.
Inability to repay debts when due, lack of solvency, bankruptcy and reorganization... these words may not be unfamiliar in corporate competitions, but when applied to Tsinghua Unigroup, they seem extremely inconsistent.
Tsinghua Unigroup is known as China's most powerful university enterprise. It relies on Tsinghua University 's strong scientific research strength and human and financial resources to develop the chip giant, with assets of nearly 300 billion yuan. How could such a well-known and powerful school enterprise become insolvent and face bankruptcy and reorganization?
started with technology, and the strongest school-run enterprise emerged
In 1992, Deng Xiaoping's southern tour set off a big wave of going overseas. Many famous companies, such as Lenovo , Haier , Jianlibao and other brands, were created and developed during this period. . One year later, in 1993, Tsinghua Unigroup was born on the wave of reform and opening up.
The birth of Tsinghua Unigroup can be said to have everything ready, and the east wind is blowing.
Compared with , Huawei, , which started out as a unit, and Haier, which started out as a refrigerator factory on the verge of bankruptcy, Tsinghua Unigroup has unique conditions for its establishment. It has become a "child of other people" and won at the starting line right from the start.
has a background in Tsinghua University, so there is no shortage of financial talent. Zhang Benzheng, then deputy director of the Research Department of Tsinghua University, served as CEO.
With the support of many conditions, Tsinghua Unigroup has lived up to expectations and launched many innovative products, which have withstood the test of the market and won the favor of consumers.
Ziguang scanner, Ziguang input method, Ziguang USB disk, Ziguang MP4, and later assembled computers were all hot products at the time. Tsinghua Unigroup became an out-and-out "big deal" in technological products at that time. .
In the late 1990s, the Ziguang scanner independently developed by Tsinghua Unigroup broke the situation where imported scanners dominated the Chinese market, and ranked first in sales in the country within one year of its launch.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, Tsinghua Unigroup was the only company in the country that independently developed and produced scanners, and its sales volume once exceeded Microtek, a well-known Taiwanese manufacturer. Data reported by the media that year showed that in the third quarter of 1999, Tsinghua Unigroup's scanner sales reached 31,000 units, with a market share of more than 30%.
Not only that, Tsinghua Unigroup relied on its own advantages to open the door to foreign countries and once occupied a place in foreign markets. After
, with the development of the Internet and the popularity of computers. People's demand for computer input is getting higher and higher, but the original intelligent ABC input method can only type according to pinyin, and the input procedure is cumbersome and inefficient . At the same time, there were also Wubi, Zhengma, Wangma and other input methods mixed in at that time.
At this time, the emergence of Tsinghua Unigroup’s Pinyin input method broke this deadlock.
In 1999, Tsinghua Unigroup launched the Ziguang Pinyin input method based on the Koala input method, ushering in a new era of input methods. Different from the traditional ABC input method, Ziguang input method has many new functions: intelligent association, automatic adjustment of word order, automatic error correction, user personalization, etc. These functions are still used by mainstream input methods.
In 1997, Tsinghua Unigroup’s turnover exceeded 1 billion, which was an astronomical figure in China at that time. With its strength, Tsinghua Unigroup also became a model for school-run enterprises at that time. In 1999, Ziguang Co., Ltd. was listed on the market, which was a great success.
The wheel of the era is rolling forward, and market competition is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat.
Although Tsinghua Unigroup was born at the top, it did not launch more powerful products after the launch of these products. Faced with the constantly updated market and the entry of more and more competitors, Tsinghua Unigroup became somewhat weak in its subsequent development.
Sogou launched the first input method for the Internet in 2006. It added the search engine to the input method and created a "movable font library". Later, companies based on Internet companies such as Baidu, , Tencent , etc. continued to enter the input method market, and the Ziguang input method became increasingly dim.
At the same time, the introduction of Kingston and the launch of Netac flash memory disk are also constantly "eating" Tsinghua Unigroup's market share.
Capital rises and falls, and behind the scenes there are always minefields
In fact, while the market share of Tsinghua Unigroup's products is constantly being squeezed, corporate management has not given up on competition, but has focused on the capital market where money can come in faster.
In 1998, Tsinghua Unigroup invested more than 200 million in a small pharmaceutical factory in Beijing and renamed it Beijing Tsinghua Unigroup Pharmaceutical Factory . For a technology company to suddenly switch to pharmaceuticals, it seems a little bit nonsensical.
Moreover, this pharmaceutical factory did not bring revenue to Tsinghua Unigroup. Instead, it had empty factory equipment and no products that could be produced, which ultimately caused huge losses.
In 2000, Tsinghua Unigroup acquired Hunan Guhan Group.
According to media reports, this company not only had long-term operating difficulties, but also concealed non-performing assets for a long time. The bad debts alone cost Tsinghua Unigroup more than 87 million yuan. In order to survive, he continued to draw blood from Tsinghua Unigroup and relied on guaranteed loans from Tsinghua Unigroup. Sometimes the loans totaled close to 200 million.
In 2001, Tsinghua Unigroup established Shanxi Tsinghua Unigroup Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. , with Tsinghua Unigroup as loan guarantee. Not wanting to catch up with the bear market, the company lost money again and again, and Tsinghua Unigroup finally had to sell stocks of other companies to fulfill its guarantee responsibilities.
The capital accumulated by Tsinghua Unigroup in the early stage was slowly lost due to investment failures one after another, and became an empty shell. In order to survive, it had to rely on selling health care products.
At this time, a Tsinghua alumnus named Zhao Weiguo appeared. From then on, for a long time in the future, his fate was entangled with Tsinghua Unisplendour.
Zhao Weiguo and his “chip dream”
Zhao Weiguo is also considered a capable person.
went from rural Xinjiang to Tsinghua University and became what people call a "counterattacker." After graduating from Tsinghua University, he began his capital journey. He served as a legal representative of 71 companies and a senior executive of 116 companies. When he was young, he went to Xinjiang to invest in real estate and natural gas.
"Take 1 million yuan to Xinjiang, and when you come back, you have earned 4.5 billion, a profit of 4,500 times." All this made Zhao Weiguo make a lot of money.
In fact, Zhao Weiguo has always cherished a chip dream in his heart.
According to Zhao Weiguo himself, the first time he saw a chip was when he was a student at Tsinghua University. Small chip, huge function, chip is important, it is the soul of electronic products, but it cannot be manufactured domestically. Looking at the English letters on the chip, a seed was buried in Zhao Weiguo's heart: We also want to create such a chip .
After that, Zhao Weiguo also served as the general manager of the semiconductor company Tongfang Microelectronics, and became more familiar with the semiconductor industry.
In 2009, Zhao Weiguo brought capital into the group and became the chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup.
Then, what he will face is a complete "mess". Can Tsinghua Unigroup really see the light of day with the arrival of
’s “capital tycoon”?
In fact, after Zhao Weiguo joined Tsinghua Unigroup, he did not stop the previous "buy, buy, buy" strategy, but became more unscrupulous. Outsiders believe that this approach left Tsinghua Unigroup's future development Many hidden dangers.
what to buy? Zhao Weiguo set his sights on the chip that he had been thinking about.
Zhao Weiguo's "chip plot" was most vividly reflected after he took over Tsinghua Unigroup.
Under the guidance of the "from chip to cloud" strategy, Tsinghua Unigroup has expanded into the chip field and cloud computing field. Although Tsinghua Unigroup is a technology company, it has no foundation for chip research and development before. Chip research cannot be rushed and requires long-term technology research and development.Under such circumstances, how to quickly realize the transformation of Tsinghua Unigroup? Zhao Weiguo's idea is simple and crude but effective: directly use the results of others.
In 2013, Tsinghua Unigroup loaned US$900 million to acquire mobile phone chip company " Spreadtrum " for US$1.78 billion.
In 2014, another US$910 million was spent to acquire RDA Microelectronics, which was integrated with the previous Spreadtrum into " UNISOC ".
In 2015, Tsinghua Unigroup spent another $2.5 billion to acquire 51% of the equity of " and H3C ", and also obtained a controlling stake in Hongmao Microelectronics.
Not only that, Tsinghua Unigroup has also extended its M&A strategy abroad, acquiring French semiconductor company Lilianxin and German semiconductor giant Qimonda .
Over the past ten years, Tsinghua Unigroup has launched more than 60 mergers and acquisitions, taking "buy, buy, buy" to the extreme, and its assets have increased from 6.6 billion yuan to more than 200 billion yuan. So, is Tsinghua Unigroup really “alive”?
is heavily in debt. Is there any chance for a strong company in the past to turn around?
It is worth noting that behind Tsinghua Unigroup’s crazy mergers and acquisitions, it relies on increasing liabilities. Although Tsinghua Unigroup is worth more than 200 billion yuan, its liabilities have also reached more than 200 billion yuan. The assets and liabilities can almost offset each other.
This has also led to tight liquidity of enterprises, unstable capital chains, and may even break, and the uncertainty of bond repayment is also increasing.
The most important thing in the capital market is a return, that is, profit. The same goes for investing.
Although continuous mergers and acquisitions have allowed Tsinghua Unigroup's chip industry to launch some products, the chip industry still requires long-term investment and a long return cycle. This made it difficult for Tsinghua Unigroup to cope with such a huge loan in a short period of time, and creditors could not wait any longer, so the content of the announcement at the beginning was made.
According to the news released by Tsinghua Unigroup, the group has entered the judicial reorganization process on July 15, saying that "the introduction of powerful strategic investors is the key to the success of Tsinghua Unigroup's judicial reorganization in the future."
According to the information in the 2021 year-end report of Ziguang Co., Ltd., although Tsinghua Unigroup’s operating income increased by 20.11% year-on-year, and its net profit also increased by 8.08% year-on-year, non-net profit after deducting non-net profits fell by 4.90% year-on-year, and operating cash flow per share fell by 536.07%, indicating that the company There are still unhealthy developments and certain financial difficulties.
Tsinghua Unigroup's bumpy journey from making a fortune through technology to surviving through mergers and acquisitions shows that technology is the primary productive force. As a technology-based enterprise,
can only achieve sustainable development step by step by truly improving its technical level, engaging in technology, and engaging in research and development. Although chips are also high-tech products, their development through crazy mergers and acquisitions is ultimately just to meet temporary needs, but they are always planting mines, and finally fall into the predicament of insolvency.
(This article was originally created by the Thirteenth Uncle Finance team and authored by Baishui. Everyone is welcome to click to follow and leave a message for interactive communication)
Reference:
- Golden Wrong Knife: Burned out 100 billion and was forced to go bankrupt! A national enterprise that was once more ruthless than Huawei is about to be hollowed out?
- Global Times: What happened to the 300 billion chip giant Tsinghua Unigroup after it filed for bankruptcy and reorganization?
- Tsinghua Unisplendour officially declared bankruptcy, why did the chip giant with 300 billion assets suddenly become popular?
- Shuai Zhen Finance: Tsinghua Unisplendour officially announced bankruptcy, why did the chip giant with 300 billion assets suddenly become popular?
- BT Finance (Qingshan Bailu): Tsinghua, which was once comparable to Huawei Why is Ziguang on the verge of bankruptcy?
- Hexun.com: Tsinghua Unigroup went bankrupt and reorganized with a debt of 200 billion! Chairman Zhao Weiguo once made a bold statement about buying TSMC
- Sina Finance: Tsinghua Unigroup’s 200 billion debt, the ambition, luck and destiny behind it
- Changan Digital King: Heavy! Tsinghua Unigroup will undergo bankruptcy reorganization! ! !
- Ye Tan: Will Tsinghua Unigroup, a giant high-tech enterprise with the halo of Tsinghua University, go bankrupt?
10. Yunzhang Finance: Set Sail: When the Wind Rises originated from the "glory years" of the Internet in the 1990s
11. Technology Internet Critics: Completely subvert the perception! The 30-year history of China’s Internet development revealed a surprising truth!
12. Yifei.com: Tsinghua Unigroup’s past and present life
13. Securities Star: One picture to understand Unigroup’s 2021 interim report
14. AI Finance and Economics: 300 billion Ziguang is in bankruptcy crisis, the chairman has a chip dream and wants to acquire companies, Where to go now
