On June 15, Ningbo Rongbai New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. ( securities abbreviation: Rongbai Technology , stock code: 688005) issued the latest announcement, once again showing the unclear accounts receivable problem between it and Bick Power (Shenzhen Bick Power Battery Co., Ltd. and its subsidiary Zhengzhou Bick Battery Co., Ltd.) to the world. What made him even more speechless was that the other two companies made it worse, causing further increase in overdue accounts receivable of Rongbai Technology , which finally attracted the regulatory authorities to "inquire".
deep into the "sludge" of Bick Power
As a multinational group company engaged in the professional research and development and operation of lithium battery positive electrode materials, Rongbai Technology 's products include NCM523, NCM622, NCM811, NCA and other series of ternary positive electrode materials and their precursors, which are mainly used in new energy vehicle power batteries, energy storage equipment and electronic products.
(Picture source from Photo Network)
According to the announcement of Rongbai Technology on June 15, in November last year, the company signed a receivable payment agreement with Bick Power, and agreed that by the date of this announcement, the other party would repay the company in eight installments of a total of 209 million yuan, but the company only received its wire transfer of 761,300,000 yuan, bank acceptance bills 11.1321 million yuan, and 3.5 million yuan of Rongxin vouchers, and reduced accounts receivable by equal payments. It seems that Rongbai Technology was "spoken" by Bick Power again.
Previously, the repayment agreement stipulated that by December 15, 2019, Bick Power should pay 70.2075 million yuan of the first and second phases to Rongbai Technology , but in fact it was only 11.5 million yuan; it stipulated that by February 15, 2020, Bick Power should pay the company a total of 140 million yuan of the fourth phase, but in fact it only had 8.15 million yuan of bank acceptance bills and 3.5 million yuan of Rongxin certificates. It can be seen that Rongbai Technology encountered a "family broke the appointment". Since the company's performance has taken a sharp turn for the worse since its listing, in sharp contrast with the pre-listing.
日本語统在线 Before landing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in July 2019, Rongbai Technology was a "outstanding student". According to its prospectus, from 2016 to 2018, revenue was RMB 885 million, RMB 1.879 billion and RMB 3.041 billion respectively; net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 6.877 million, RMB 31.1278 million and RMB 213 million respectively. But after listing, the good times will no longer be there. The company's bad debt ratio is getting higher and higher, and the initiator is Bickey Power. Specifically, as of November 15, 2019, the balance of Rongbai Technology's accounts receivable and notes receivable by Bichuang reached 213.2419 million yuan. The company plans to set aside bad debt provisions at a 35% ratio to reduce the net profit of 48.2660 million yuan that year. As of January 15, 2020, the company had made bad debt provisions of 200.6361 million yuan in accounts receivable, 6.1 million yuan in bank acceptance bills, and 3.5 million yuan in Rongxin vouchers, and made bad debt provisions at a ratio of 40%, reducing the net profit in 2019 by 57.4406 million yuan.
April 29, Rongbai Technology 's 2019 annual report was released. With revenue of 4.189 billion yuan, an increase of 37.76% year-on-year, the net profit attributable to shareholders was 87.417 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 58.94%. Regarding the report card that was handed over such a bad report card in the first year of listing, Rongbai Technology said that the main reason was to make up a large amount of bad debt provisions for Bick Power's accounts receivable.
According to the announcement on June 15, the "nightmare" caused by Rongbai Technology is still continuing. Not only is the actual repayment amount far from the 209 million yuan agreed in the agreement, but the 3.5 million yuan Rongxin voucher expired on April 30 and May 26 respectively. The issuer expired but did not pay. The company had to convert the corresponding amount into accounts receivable for Bick Power, and the 2019 annual report will make a bad debt provision of 116 million yuan in 80% of the Bick Power account receivable and the 3.5 million yuan Rongxin voucher.
In fact, in order to escape from the "quagmire" of Bick Power, Rongbai Technology has been thinking about it, but it is also "sincere" for this reason. On February 17, due to the disclosure that the subsidiary Rongbai Trading paid 56 million yuan in purchases and offsetting the same amount of accounts receivable with the company Bick Power, the Shanghai Stock Exchange quickly sent a letter asking the company to explain the content of the agreement to purchase 56 million yuan of products and the reasons why Bick Power failed to sell the batch of products on its own and then returned the company's arrears after it formed cash flow. Until May 12, the Shanghai Stock Exchange was still suspicious and asked about the difference between the sales price and market price of the company's products, the amount and rationality of the provision for inventory impairment.
In addition to the unscrupulous strategy of "using materials to pay off debt", in order to ensure the collection of funds, Rongbai Technology also took up legal weapons. On November 20, 2019, its wholly-owned subsidiary Hubei Rongbai filed a lawsuit against Shenzhen Bick Power Battery Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Bick Power Co., Ltd., respectively, for the reason that the two defendants owed the remaining payment of goods of 14.55 million yuan and 182 million yuan respectively. At present, both cases are in the first instance procedure, and Rongbai Technology has also filed a lawsuit of 194 million yuan in preservation with the court and has been supported by the ruling. However, since the company may not be the first priority preserver, there is a risk that the value of the property preservation cannot cover the amount of the lawsuit.
The two companies "make insults"
Although Bick Power has been "stand out" again, from the moment, it seems that Rongbai Technology still has hope for it.
"At present, BIC Power has not experienced major adverse situations such as suspension of production and business, insolvency, bankruptcy liquidation, etc. It focuses on developing businesses such as electric bicycles, balance bikes, power tools, energy storage, etc. with relatively good returns, and has obtained orders of a certain scale and is actively raising funds to ensure delivery." On May 20, Rongbai Technology responded to the Shanghai Stock Exchange's annual report inquiry letter that the company maintained cooperation with BIC Power's business under the premise of strictly controlling the risk exposure of accounts receivable, and it is expected that there is a possibility of gradually recovering part of the payment.
Although this is the case, it should be noted that this side has not yet escaped from the "scarlet sea" of Bick Power, and the two new entrants there have been trouble. According to the Rongbai Technology 's 2019 annual report, last year, accounts receivable for Ningbo Fenghua Delang Energy Power Battery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ningbo Delang Energy") were added 52.931 million yuan and accounts receivable for Jiangxi Far East Battery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Far East Battery") were 33.915 million yuan. For this purpose, the company set aside a total of 169 million yuan in bad debt provisions, an increase of 168 million yuan from the beginning of the period. This incident caused the Shanghai Stock Exchange to "move" and asked the company to explain whether the above accounts receivable were overdue or the risk that it could not be recovered in full.
In fact, as of the end of 2019, the accounts receivable of Rongbai Technology to the two new disruptors consist of less than 1 year and 1 to 2 years of account age , and adopts the "monthly closing 60 days" credit period policy, both of which have been overdue. In order to ensure the collection of funds, the company has spent a lot of effort, but unfortunately the result is not satisfactory.
public information shows that Ningbo DeLeng is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai DeLeng Power Battery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai DeLeng"). In 2018 and 2019, Shanghai Delangeng's net profit lost 120 million yuan and 75.95 million yuan respectively. In this case, how good will Ningbo Delang be?
back to July 2019, Rongbai Trading, a subsidiary of Rongbai Technology, signed a " pledge contract " with Ningbo Delangeng. The latter provided pledge guarantee for the company's debts with its holding of 52.0818 million yuan in lithium-ion battery inventory. In September, it sold the above-mentioned pledged lithium batteries to its parent company Shanghai Delangeng, and was resold to Zhejiang Yika Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhejiang Yika"). After Rongbai Trade signed a four-party agreement with the three parties, Zhejiang Yika will directly pay the payment for the goods. However, the other party broke the agreement and Rongbai Trade sued the court, demanding that the appealing three parties pay the default payment of RMB 16.965 million and the liquidated damages for overdue payment. The case is still under trial. Considering the current operating status of Ningbo Delangeng, the pledged lithium batteries and sales of the company, the possibility of recovering payments through litigation, and the realizable value of the remaining pledged batteries, Rongbai Technology believes that this receivable has the risk that this account receivable cannot be fully recovered, and finally set aside a single bad debt reserve at a ratio of 50%.
As for Far East Battery, Hubei Rongbai filed a lawsuit against him in January 2020 on the grounds of payment collection. On April 21, the two parties reached a mediation agreement that Far East Battery should be returned to Hubei Rongbai 33.5652 million yuan, 5 million yuan will be paid before April 30, and 3 million yuan will be paid every month from the remaining May to the full payment.Considering that Far East Battery is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Smart Energy ( stock code: 600869.SH), the latter's net profit attributable to shareholders in 2019 was 44.9 million yuan, a year-on-year 69.71%. Far East Battery, as a subsidiary, was not immune to it. The net profit was a loss of 341 million yuan last year. Combined with the uncertainty of the subsequent implementation of the mediation agreement, Rongbai Technology believes that Far East Battery accounts receivable also have the risk that it cannot be fully recovered, and finally made a single bad debt reserve at a ratio of 30%.
In this way, the current dilemma of Rongbai Technology will continue. As the company admitted, its product users are mainly large-scale power battery manufacturers at home and abroad, with a large transaction amount. Due to the long payment cycle of the new energy vehicle industry chain, payment exceeds the credit period, resulting in a higher balance of accounts receivable at the end of the period. If it cannot be fully or partially recovered, it will have a significant adverse impact on the company's performance. In addition, since January this year, due to the impact of the epidemic, the uncertainty of the company's downstream customer operations and solvency has increased. Although bad debt reserves have been made according to the account receivable of customers according to the account age or individual items, if there are major adverse changes in customer operations in the future, the company will increase the amount of bad debt reserves accordingly, which will have a significant adverse impact on the current operating performance.
