On the evening of December 10, Ziguang Guowei announced that a consortium composed of Beijing Zhilu Asset Management and Beijing Jianguang Asset Management has become a strategic investor in the de facto merger and reorganization of seven companies including Ziguang Group .
This means that the year-long "turmoil" of Ziguang's bankruptcy and reorganization has come to an end.
On October 18 this year, under the auspices of the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, the first creditors’ meeting (hereinafter referred to as the “First Debt Meeting”) of the substantive merger and reorganization case of seven companies including Ziguang Group was held on the same day and voted on two items. Procedural motion, disclosing that a total of seven intended investors have signed up to participate in strategic investment. According to the meeting minutes of the day, the current debt scale of Ziguang Group reaches 108.181 billion yuan.
Zhilu Jianguang Consortium took over
Semiconductor "M&A maniac" Ziguang Group's bankruptcy and reorganization has finally come to an end.
This evening, Ziguang Guowei's announcement showed that it received a notification letter from the manager of Ziguang Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Unisociety Group"). The notification letter stated that "The manager of Ziguang Group passed the national review on July 20, 2021. The Corporate Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network issued the "Announcement of the Manager of Ziguang Group Co., Ltd. on the Recruitment of Strategic Investors". Under the supervision and guidance of the court, the recruitment of strategic investors will be carried out extensively in accordance with the principles of openness, fairness and justice. The selection mechanism has carried out multiple rounds of selection of reorganization investment plans, and has determined that a consortium composed of Beijing Zhilu Asset Management Co., Ltd. and Beijing Jianguang Asset Management Co., Ltd. as the leading parties will be the strategic investors for the substantive merger and reorganization of seven companies including Ziguang Group. , in accordance with the law, promote the signing of the reorganization investment agreement and the formulation of the draft reorganization plan in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. The draft reorganization plan must be submitted to the creditors’ meeting for voting and approval, and can only take effect after being approved by the people’s court.”
2021 On July 16, 2016, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled to accept the reorganization case of Unisoc Group, and on the same day designated the liquidation team of Unisoc Group Co., Ltd. as the administrator of Unisoc Group, specifically responsible for carrying out various reorganization work.
On August 27, 2021, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court ruled against Unisoc Group and its subsidiaries Beijing Unisoc Communication Technology Group Co., Ltd., Beijing Unisoc Capital Management Co., Ltd., Tibet Unisoc Daqi Investment Co., Ltd., and Tibet Unisoc Zhuoyuan Equity Investment Co., Ltd. , Tibet Ziguang Communication Investment Co., Ltd., and Tibet Ziguang Chunhua Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter collectively referred to as the "Universal Group and other seven enterprises") de facto merger and reorganization, and designated the manager of Ziguang Group to serve as the de facto merger and reorganization of the seven enterprises including Ziguang Group administrator.
From a time perspective, Ziguang ’s debt crisis originated a year ago.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Ziguang Group was exposed to a serious debt default. In October 2020, Ziguang Group decided not to exercise the redemption right of Ziguang Group Co., Ltd.'s sixth non-public directional debt financing instrument (i.e. "15 Ziguang PPN006") in 2015, and reset the " 15 Coupon interest rate of Ziguang PPN006" from the 6th to the 10th interest accrual year; on November 10, Ziguang Group was disclosed that it was unable to repay a RMB 1 billion loan, and confirmed on the 16th of the same month that it could not redeem it The 1.3 billion yuan RMB bond constitutes a substantial debt default; since December 10, Ziguang Group has announced that it is unable to repay the principal and interest of the US$450 million bond, and its subsidiary Ziguang Xinsheng also stated that the default may cause it to issue Cross-defaults on U.S. dollar bonds occurred.
Rating agency China Chengxin International said that although Ziguang Group has continued to maintain a diversified business structure since 2020, its main business industry position has continued to lead, and the development of its chip business has received strong external support, the capital expenditure of projects currently under construction by Ziguang Group The pressure is high, and the debt scale is at a high level due to early external mergers and acquisitions.
According to data, as of June 2020, Ziguang Group’s total liabilities reached 202.9 billion yuan, an increase of approximately 44 times compared with the end of 2012. Among them, more than half are current liabilities, with short-term borrowings and non-current liabilities due within one year totaling 79.428 billion yuan. The financing structure is mismatched, which ultimately puts pressure on Unisoc's cash flow today.
Semiconductor M&A giant
In the semiconductor capital market, Tsinghua Unigroup is one of the few “crazy” investors. The continuous transactions of Spreadtrum , Ruidico , H3C, and Silicon Products have attracted much attention in the industry.
Ziguang Group Co., Ltd. was established on April 12, 1993. Its legal representative is Zhao Weiguo, with a registered capital of 670 million yuan. Its business scope includes integrated circuits and mobile communication systems base station equipment, switching equipment and digital integrated systems. Technology development, technology transfer, technical consulting, and technical services for equipment, wireless mobile communication integrated circuits, baseband, radio frequency, multimedia chips and related digital chips; integrated circuit design; real estate development; project investment; investment management, etc. The company is a 51%-controlled subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tsinghua University .
Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Ziguang Group, said in a media interview in 2015 that the company planned to invest 300 billion yuan in the next five years to build the world's third largest chip manufacturer. From the perspective of the outside world, the ultimate goal behind Ziguang Maimaimai is to enable China to have a complete semiconductor industry layout, integrate memory design and production technology, and become an internationally competitive company with products, factories and take root in China.
Ziguang Group and Zhao Weiguo frequently make high-profile moves. According to incomplete statistics, in just 6 years from 2013 to 2019, Ziguang Group spent huge sums of money to acquire more than 20 companies, mostly different types of chip companies. Among them, including the privatization of two domestic chip manufacturers Spreadtrum and RDA from US stock in 2013, the acquisition of 251% equity of and H3C in 2015, and the acquisition in 2018 of more than 17 billion yuan. French chip connector manufacturer Lilianxin. However, some industrial investors do not approve of Zhao Weiguo's style of play and believe that he does not understand the laws of semiconductors and industry.
From the industry's perspective, in the semiconductor industry, the ratio of investment and return is unstable, and what is even more unstable is time. Tsinghua Unigroup’s long-term heavy investment, slow return of funds, and sluggish cash flow have resulted in the group’s continued increase in debt. The deficit continued to grow, eventually leading to a full-blown debt crisis.
It is understood that the combined market value of listed companies related to Ziguang Group is close to 200 billion yuan. Currently, Ziguang owns three listed companies: Ziguang Guowei (002049), Ziguang Co., Ltd. (000938), and Xueda Education (000526). Ziguang Zhanrui, which plans to IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, is also owned by Ziguang Group. . In addition, Ziguang Group also indirectly holds part of the equity of Yangtze Memory . The requirements for takers are very high.
Industry insiders pointed out that from the perspective of the receiver, this investment in Ziguang is another major investment project of the Zhilu Construction and Broadcasting Consortium after acquiring the ASE mainland packaging and testing factory.
In the acquisitions in recent years, Zhilu Capital Jianguang Assets has transformed from an investment king to an industrial aircraft carrier after several years of layout, with a total investment of more than 100 billion, and has combined a number of high-quality international semiconductor capital with local companies to promote The rise of local core technology industries. "But it is not easy to integrate the semiconductor business with each other. The long-term effect of the restructuring still needs time to be judged."
As of the close of trading on December 10, Ziguang Guowei's market value was 133.8 billion yuan (Unigroup Group indirectly holds 32.39% of the equity), The market value of Unisplendour Group is 73.1 billion yuan (Tsinghua Unigroup indirectly holds 46.45% of the shares). When Ziguang Zhanrui completed a new round of financing this year, its valuation exceeded 60 billion yuan. If it is successfully listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, its market value may exceed 200 billion. Ziguang Group currently indirectly controls 35.2266% of its equity.
