In the future, Storm TV and Storm VR can only make their own blood, and 2020 will become a strategic inflection point.

in the last month or two, Storm Group has encountered a lot of doubts. The biggest of all is that the development of the company is not sound enough and Feng Xin frequently pledge equity

original title: storm Group on the cusp of Public opinion: CEO Feng Xin has pledged equity 12 times this year

with the fall of Letv, the Letv crisis has been spreading throughout the Internet industry. This also makes Storm Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Storm Group"), which has a similar development path with Letv, attracted much attention.

especially on Aug. 4, Stormwind Group announced that its founder, CEO Feng Xin, had used its 5.327 million shares for pledge financing. As of that day, Feng Xin had pledged a total of 49.2137 million shares, accounting for 69 per cent of his shares. For a while, the storm about Storm Group in the market became more and more violent. Some people even worry that Feng Xin will be the next Jia Yueting.

recently, Storm Group released its semi-annual report for 2017. Data during the reporting period show that Storm Group posted a net profit loss of 78.84 million yuan in the first half of the year, down 17% from the same period last year. It is worth noting that the net profit belonging to the shareholders of the parent company is 15.72 million yuan. What is the reason why there is such a big gap between the two data?

in view of a series of financial problems and company development problems, the reporter came to the Pacific Hotel to participate in Storm Group's semi-annual report performance presentation meeting on September 1st and came to the Aoya Exhibition on September 7th to conduct an exclusive interview with Storm Group CFO Jiang Hao.

strong > being questioned / strong >

on September 1st, Feng Xin appeared at the semi-annual results presentation meeting wearing a white shirt and light blue jeans as in previous years. But unlike in previous years, this time, Feng Xin has more gray hair and a new executive, CFO (Chief Financial Officer) Jiang Hao, who is reported to have joined Storm Group in August.

Feng Xin said frankly at the performance presentation: "the past month has been the most difficult period for Storm Group, and the most important central idea today is' transparency'. If it is not transparent, there will be a lot of misunderstandings, so I think we should try to be transparent."

in the past month or two, Storm Group has encountered a lot of doubts. The biggest doubt is that the development of Stormwind is not sound enough, so Feng Xin said: "No matter whether the environment is good or bad, as long as development is a risk, as an entrepreneur, we have the obligation and right to develop at any time."

another query is that not only is Storm Group's business similar to that of Letv, but Feng Xin has also made a number of equity pledges before. This move is also very similar to Jia Yueting's massive pledge stake before the outbreak of Letv's crisis. Feng Xin's move has also been questioned.

data show that Feng Xin's personal equity pledge has reached 12 times so far this year, including an average of one pledge every week in April. As of Aug. 5, Feng Xin had pledged 49.2137 million shares, accounting for 69.98% of the company's shares and 14.82% of the total share capital. On the issue of equity pledge, Feng Xin said that the listing and development of Storm needs basic financial support, but in accordance with the rules of the platform, Storm basically uses his personal pledge for strategic blood transfusion. "but we still have a bottom line for this pledge. We are now less than 70% pledged, and there is still a point of safety."

strong > Financial Storm / strong >

if the Storm Group has been in the midst of a storm of public opinion in the past month or two, then the publication of its semi-annual report has pushed it into the "storm eye".

Storm Group released semi-annual report data for 2017, showing that the operating income in the first half of the year was 830 million yuan, an increase of 67% over the same period last year; net profit was 15.72 million yuan, down 17% from the same period last year; the asset-liability ratio reached 71%, with total liabilities of 1.7 billion yuan.

recently, the reporter attended the semi-annual report communication meeting of the Storm Group, at which Jiang Hao analyzed the financial affairs of the Storm Group: "there has been a lot of negative news recently. I am thinking that whether there is a financial risk when looking at a company or a person, it mainly depends on three things: first, how much money he took and what structure he got the money; second, his repayment ability and repayment structure. See whether he has the ability to repay any arrears in accordance with the rules; the third is the core, that is, what is he doing with the money? Is it eating, drinking, merrymaking or investing? If an investment is made, what is the development of these targets? is it a good target? "

Jiang Hao combined these three dimensions to interpret in detail the financial indicators of Storm Group, including liabilities.

Jiang Hao said that at present, all the debts of Storm Group add up, and after reducing inventory and revenue, the whole debt is 260 million yuan. Does Storm Group have the ability to repay this debt of nearly 300 million yuan? "our annual running water is about 3 billion yuan, and a quarter is about 8 to 1 billion yuan. This kind of running water is fully capable of covering the pressure of debt. Looking at the total assets, Storm Group's assets are now more than 3 billion, most of which are liquid assets that can be realized quickly, because we are light asset companies. From all this, we can see whether there is a risk that we are being pursued for debts and blocked by suppliers. "

based on the financial data of Storm Group over the past few years, the reporter found that the profit and loss of minority shareholders was 86000 yuan, 15.52 million yuan and 290 million yuan respectively during the period from 2014 to 2016, and the profit and loss of minority shareholders was 94.56 million yuan in the first half of 2017. At the same time, in the past five years, the gross profit margin of Storm Group has decreased year by year. It fell from 75 per cent in 2012 to 20 per cent in the first half of 2017; net profit on sales also fell from 22 per cent in 2012 to 9.5 per cent in the first half of 2017.

in an exclusive interview with reporters at the Aoya Exhibition on September 7, Jiang Hao explained these two data as follows: "the most essential reason for the change in these two data is that we have increased the business of Storm TV. Because the TV business is still losing money, its gross profit margin is 7.55%, which drags down the gross margin as a whole. However, it is still down from last year's figures, which had a gross profit margin of 15.3%. Due to the increase in panel prices last year, the impact continued into the first quarter of this year, so these two figures are relatively poor. But in the second quarter of this year, we began to adjust prices, and panel prices are also gradually falling, so Storm TV business will gradually improve. "

strong > No more blood transfusions / strong >

referring to Storm TV, Feng Xin said: "the TV business still needs more than 500 million yuan of external capital investment, and 2020 will be a strategic inflection point. Storm now does not have the resources to television and VR business continuous blood transfusion, can only deliver the first stick, has now been completed, the future storm TV, storm VR can only make their own blood. "

so far, Storm Group is still suspending trading because Storm TV, a subsidiary of the company, is conducting private financing.

Jiang Hao told reporters that it is not convenient to disclose whether Storm TV will continue to merge statements with Storm Group after its successful financing. However, at the same time, it also said that Storm Group's previous financing in the secondary market was only "suspended". "We applied for a fixed increase last year, which is about 1.8 billion yuan. Now we are in a state of suspension. Please note that it is the middle in the middle, not the end of the end. The reason is that we are doing a major asset restructuring, we have to finish this (Storm TV) before we can restart. "

then how does Storm TV improve its hematopoietic ability? How to improve the gross margin of hardware?

Jiang Hao told reporters: "We are mainly divided into two ways, one is the ability of price premium, in addition to raising prices, it is to release new products; the other part is that the premium power of the supply chain is definitely very clear."

Edit: mary