Sturgeon
This is a peculiar Chinese agricultural company whose products are called "black gold" by Westerners. This is Hangzhou Qiandaohu Sturgeon Technology Co., Ltd., which has a 35% market share in the global caviar industry.
Sturgeon Technology was founded in 2003, and its initial shareholders include Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Hangzhou Qiandao Lake Development Co., Ltd., Wang Bin, Thomas Gulias, etc. In 2006, Sturgeon Technology exported caviar to European and American countries for the first time.
caviar
sturgeon species cultivated by Sturgeon Technology include hybrid sturgeon, Russian sturgeon, Siberian sturgeon, Acipenser schrenckii, and Dachstein sturgeon. Among them, hybrid sturgeon, Acipenser schrenckii, and Dachstein sturgeon are unique species in China.
sturgeon is a sub-cold water cartilaginous fish. Most of the world’s wild sturgeon growing waters and artificial sturgeon breeding bases are located in high latitudes, but in low latitude areas with cold water resources, as long as the temperature is appropriate (the key is to solve High temperature in summer) is also suitable for sturgeon growth. The aquaculture model of
Sturgeon Technology is a combination of "ecological cage culture" and "land flowing water culture". Its ecological cage breeding base is located in Qiandao Lake, Chun'an, Zhejiang Province. It mainly breeds sturgeons of 1-6 years old. The land flowing water breeding base is located along the Wuxi River in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province and mainly breeds sturgeons after 6 years of age.
01
In 2012, Sturgeon Technology failed to apply for listing on the GEM for the first time because of "significant dependence on related parties."
Zixing Liangmei is a shareholder of Sturgeon Technology (4.99% of the shares) and an important customer of Sturgeon Technology. From 2010 to 2011, Sturgeon Technology purchased 7-8-year-old female Siberian sturgeon, hybrid sturgeon, and sturgeon from Zixing Liangmei at a purchase price of 36.601 million yuan.
However, in 2010 and 2011, after deducting the related transactions with Zixing Liangmei, the changes in the main business income and net profit of Sturgeon Technology exceeded 10%. Moreover, Zixing Liangmei is the only "new shareholder of the company one year before the application for issuance" disclosed in the prospectus, and is suspected of making a surprise shareholding.
Sturgeon Technology’s explanation is very interesting. It is said that the sturgeon sold by Zixing Liangmei to Sturgeon Technology has been farmed as early as 2002 and 2003. Because of the SARS incident, it could not be sold and was passively held until 2010 (this The impact is long enough). At this time, the batch of sturgeon had matured (can't wait to go to the killing platform), but Zixing Liangmei did not have the core technology of processing caviar, so he sold the fish to Sturgeon Technology. Sturgeon Technology believes that compared with the company's purchase price of sturgeon in the same period, 36.601 million yuan is fair.
Qiandao Lake Breeding Base
In 2014, Sturgeon Technology submitted its prospectus for the second time and applied for listing on the GEM again, but it failed again. To a large extent, it was related to the development of Liangmei.
Originally, in 2012, Sturgeon Technology purchased a batch of farmed young sturgeon from Zixing Liangmei, but the contract was not fulfilled due to quality differences. The two parties finally went to court, and Zixing Liangmei lost the lawsuit. Not only was it sentenced to terminate the acquisition contract, but also the 470,000 yuan deposit paid by Sturgeon Technology was returned.
Zixing Liangmei, who lost the lawsuit, is not an easy player. Not only did she file for a retrial to the Zhejiang Higher Court, she also submitted evidence in court, saying that Sturgeon Technology had helped it falsify to deal with regulatory agencies when it applied for an IPO in 2012. In order for
to be listed, Xunlong Technology must list this sale contract dispute in the prospectus "Major Litigation or Arbitration of the Company". The news that shareholders self-reported fraud scandals has also spread widely.
In 2016, Sturgeon Technology submitted its prospectus for the third time and still applied for listing on the GEM. This time, finally there is no influence from the capital and Liangmei. Since 2013, Sturgeon Technology has never had any connected transactions with Zixing Liangmei.
However, in January 2018, the third listing application was rejected again. That week, there were 5 companies that went to the conference. Except for one that canceled the review, only one of the 4 companies that went to the conference failed to go public.
02
Remember that foreign sponsor named Thomas Gulias? In 2006, he transferred all his shares to another foreigner, William Mhouston. Subsequently, Mr. Mhouston increased the registered capital by RMB 3.069 million and became the largest shareholder of Sturgeon Technology.
Mr. Mhouston several times laterCapital, a total of tens of millions of yuan has been invested in Sturgeon Technology. However, repeated listing failures seemed to have made him lose his patience and eventually transferred his 23.8% of the shares to Tianbang shares, a feed supplier of Sturgeon Technology for many years, at a price of 115 million yuan. The price of
feed directly affects the breeding cost of Sturgeon Technology. Because the sturgeon has a long growth period and must be fed every day, it requires a lot of capital investment.
Generally speaking, this is an industry with large investment, long cycle and slow results. The price of caviar is very high (the most expensive can be sold for 5000 US dollars a kilogram), but Sturgeon Technology is not a very profitable company. From 2015 to 2017, its sales revenue was 120 million yuan, 139 million yuan, and 154 million yuan, and its net profit was 40.74 million yuan, 39.47 million yuan and 53.51 million yuan, respectively. Revenue and profit growth were relatively slow.
caviar processing
agricultural breeding is a hard industry. In the breeding base of Qiandao Lake, in order to let the sturgeon that are intolerant of high temperatures survive the hot summer, Sturgeon Technology will transfer them to the terrestrial summer pond for breeding, and cool these sturgeons by extracting cold water from the thermocline. After the high temperature season has passed, they will be transferred to ecological cages to continue breeding. The sturgeon has been grown for 6 years, and it has to be transferred to the flow pond for breeding, which adds to the transportation cost, and there is a risk of death of the sturgeon during the transportation.
During the growth process of any company, there will be problems of this kind. Companies must look forward. In 2018, Sturgeon Technology produced 79.79 tons of caviar. As long as this company steadily raises sturgeon and steadily manufactures its products, it still hopes that it can be successfully listed.
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