Kunlun Wanwei's stock price plummeted by 20% due to a "huge shock", and the actual controller's ex-wife plans to cash out over 2.2 billion yuan. Personal | Company | Ex-wife
On June 21st, the stock price of Kunlun Wanwei plummeted, falling 20.01% to 50.34 yuan as of today's closing. The direct cause of the company's stock price shock was a sell off announcement the night before.
On the evening of June 20th, Kunlun Wanwei announced that shareholder Li Qiong, who holds more than 5% of the shares, plans to reduce her holdings of no more than 3% of the company's shares due to personal financial needs.
Li Qiong is the ex-wife of Zhou Yahui, the founder of Kunlun Wanwei, and the third largest shareholder of the company. She currently holds 130 million shares, all of which were separated from Zhou Yahui's divorce.
Kunlun Wanwei also announced that in order to support the long-term development of the company's AGI and AIGC businesses, Li Qiong will lend more than 50% of the post tax income from reducing her holdings to the company, with an annual interest rate of 2.5% and a borrowing period of three years.
Is the company running out of funds from shareholders to creditors? Upon reviewing the Q1 report of Kunlun Wanwei, it was found that the company has sufficient book funds. As of the end of March, the company's monetary funds reached 1.305 billion yuan, with no long-term loans, far exceeding the short-term loan balance of 605 million yuan for the same period. In addition, the financial report shows that the company's financial expenses for the first quarter were 430000 yuan, and the financial expenses for 2022 were 10.34 million yuan. If 50% of the funds are lent to the company at an interest rate of 2.5%, the annual interest generated will reach 25 million yuan.
In the eyes of many investors, obtaining support for the company's business is just a cover up for reducing holdings. Previously, similar cases had become common.
Public information shows that Li Qiong has frequently reduced her holdings in Kunlun Wanwei since 2018. In 2018, she still held 18% of the company's shares. After multiple reductions, as of the first quarter of 2023, her shareholding ratio dropped to 11.13%. But previously, its reduction in holdings was no more than 2% of the company's shares. Based on the closing price of 62.93 yuan on June 20th, the stock price of Kunlun Wanwei has increased by more than four times compared to its lowest point of 11.57 yuan in 2018. Especially since the beginning of this year, with the popularity of artificial intelligence and large models, the stock price has risen by a maximum of 336.7%, with a total market value of 75.24 billion yuan. According to the latest closing price calculation, the expected amount of Li Qiong's reduction in holdings and cash out this time is over 2.2 billion yuan.
The regulatory authorities have taken note of this matter. On June 21st, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange sent a letter of concern to Kunlun Wanwei, inquiring whether the company has used market hotspots to manipulate stock prices and cooperate with Li Qiong's reduction of holdings. And this is not the first time Kunlun Wanwei has received regulatory attention. Previously, Kunlun Wanwei had received attention from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for announcing that it would release a Chinese version of ChatGPT products within this year and plans to acquire AI companies, among other developments related to artificial intelligence business.
This is not the first time in the A-share market that a listed company's stock price has collapsed due to divorce. In early April, 360 announced that the actual controller Zhou Hongyi had reached a property division agreement with his ex-wife, transferring approximately 6.8 billion yuan in company shares to her. The company's stock price fell by more than 20% in April and May.
Since the beginning of this year, it is not uncommon for A-share listed companies to experience changes in their shares due to shareholder and executive divorces, and such companies have been jokingly referred to as "divorce concept stocks" by netizens. According to incomplete statistics from First Financial News, a total of 9 A-share listed companies have disclosed changes in their equity due to divorce since the beginning of this year, including Fubon Group, 360, Tongcheng New Materials, Kexin Technology, Tiandi Digital, Tonghe Technology, Huitian New Materials, Saiteng Group, and Zhuo Shengwei.
On the evening of June 20th, Zhuo Shengwei announced that one of the actual controllers of the company, Tang Zhuang, had terminated his marriage with Yi Gebing and transferred his 6.14% stake in the company to Yi Gebing. According to the closing price of 104.12 yuan per share on June 20th of Zhuoshengwei, Yigebing will acquire stocks with a market value exceeding 3.4 billion yuan.
"From equity to debt, investors should pay attention to whether shareholders are bearish on the company's future operations when the book funds are sufficient. In addition, they should pay attention to whether the shareholding ratio of both parties or one of them exceeds 5% after the divorce and division," a private equity researcher told reporters.
In March, Huang Hongyun's ex-wife Tao Hongxia, the actual controller of Jinke Group, spent 282 million yuan to auction and purchase 162 million shares of the company, with a shareholding ratio of 3.0412%. Combined with her previous 4.34% stake, she became the second largest shareholder of the company. According to the latest financial report of Jinke Group, Huang Hongyun, the largest shareholder, directly holds only 8.8272% of Jinke Group.
