The Three Year Exploration Has Ushered In The First Loss In Listing 9 Years: Where Is The Pathfinder?

3 years of exploration failed. Since 2009, Pathfinder never seems to have experienced such a predicament.

Since its listing in 2009, the Pathfinder never seems to have experienced such a predicament.

In April 25th, China's outdoor products brand leader passed the report card of the 2017 listed companies.

Before issuing the report, many people may realize that the performance of the company last year is not too bright. After all, the growth rate of China's outdoor goods market in recent two years has been slowing down year by year.

However, when the earnings report came out, it was still a big surprise. The 09 year old domestic outdoor leading brand, the star company with steady performance in the sports industry, appeared the first loss in listing 9 years.

In 2017, the Pathfinder achieved operating income of 3 billion 34 million yuan, a slight increase of 5.41% over the same period of 2016.

Judging from recent performance, although this data is hard to reach the peak of 3 billion 800 million revenue in 2015, it is still at the highest level in previous years. While operating income is still at a high level, last year, the net profit of the Pathfinder belonging to shareholders of listed companies was -8485.39 million, the first loss since its listing in 2009, while the data for the same period in 2016 was 166 million yuan.

If net profit is deducted from non recurring gains and losses, the Pathfinder lost 185 million yuan in 2017.

Pathfinder 17 years of financial data

In the nine years of listing, the Pathfinder grew rapidly from a small company whose sales volume was less than three hundred million yuan in 2009 to a one billion year new industry star. From 15 years, the revenue of the Pathfinder began to maintain at around 3 billion yuan, and there was a sense of "industry gentry".

But all this huge revenue creation is just a false appearance: in terms of net profit, in 2009, the Pathfinder can still get a net profit of 44 million 34 thousand yuan in the case of a revenue of only 294 million yuan. In the next 6 years, the net profit level of the Pathfinder increased along with the growth of revenue, and reached the peak of 294 million yuan at the end of 2014, which is exactly the same as the total revenue of 09 years.

In 2015 and after, Pathfinder revenue reached 3 billion levels, net profit began to decline and expand rapidly year by year, 15 years net profit (year-on-year) decreased by nearly 30 million, 16 years reduced by nearly one hundred million, 17 years directly loss, net profit decreased by 2.5 billion compared with 16 years.

These three years are exactly the three years of explorer's new business exploration.

Judging from the performance of Pathfinder, 2015 is an important time node, which makes people think of the 46 article that shocked the whole sports industry.

Since its release in October 2014, "No. 46" has opened the door for the rapid development of China's sports industry, and is also true for Pathfinder.

In the 2015, Pathfinder added a number of businesses to travel services, ice and snow operations and sports investment.

But up to now, none of these new businesses has become a new profit growth point, which has been a drag on group performance.

Outdoor travel business in a quagmire

In the tourist service of Pathfinder, Yi you world is the main business entity.

In March 2015, the Pathfinder bought 74.56% of Yi You's market at a price of 230 million yuan.

Before that, the explorer who talked about outdoor travel stock market to the capital market has invested in Singapore online travel platform Asiatravel, China's old outdoor activity website green field and polar travel agency "extremely beautiful".

In the acquisition of up to 230 million of the paction price, the two sides also agreed on the bottom line of the performance in the next three years, but as a pathfinder, they continued to acquire the performance index of Yi Guo's world equity. The business income of Yi you from 2015 to 2017 was no less than 1 billion 500 million yuan, 4 billion yuan and 6 billion yuan, respectively. The net profit after tax was not less than -2500 million yuan, 0 yuan and 60 million yuan respectively, and the net profit after three years was not less than 35 million yuan.

Obviously, Yi you did not achieve the above performance standards.

In 2015, Yi you contributed 1 billion 958 million of revenue to the Pathfinder, with a net loss of 15 million 328 thousand and 800 yuan, which met the expected standard.

But in 2016, its revenue was only 1 billion 88 million yuan, a loss of 20 million 345 thousand and 200 yuan.

In the third year, its revenue contribution amounted to 1 billion 529 million yuan, and the loss reached 21 million 456 thousand and 500 yuan.

Now, the three year performance has expired, and the travel service business of the Pathfinder has not seen any light.

For this very low gross margin business, Pathfinder only gains the "puffiness" on revenue.

Under the circumstances of not being able to scale and control costs reasonably, it is hard for the Pathfinder's outdoor travel story to achieve a happy ending.

In 2015, when Beijing and Zhangjiakou jointly won the right to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2022, Pathfinder also set foot in the ice and snow business.

To tell the truth, the time node chosen by the Pathfinder is ingenious, but fails to get a share in the hot ice and snow industry.

In August 2015, the Pathfinder joint natural person Sun Bo jointly established the "Beijing Pathfinder ice snow holding Development Co., Ltd.", and built the first ski resort in the northern slope of Songshan, Gongyi, Zhengzhou, Henan.

The song top ski resort, located in Central China, opened in January 23, 2016, marking the opening of the Pathfinder's ice and snow business.

But in the past 2017, the expected ice and snow business has become the main reason for the loss of the Pathfinder.

In 2016, due to shorter operating hours, the Pathfinder ice and snow holding company had a revenue of 0 and a net loss of 7 million 581 thousand and 800 yuan.

In the past year, the song top ski resort has passed a full year, with a revenue of only 2 million 158 thousand and 200 yuan and a net loss of up to 62 million 498 thousand yuan, becoming the most important subsidiary of Pathfinder group.

In 2016, the song top ski resort was opened.

At the beginning of the ice and snow business, the Pathfinder had been complacent and planned to enter the southern snow and ice market which was hard to reach in the traditional ski resorts with technological advantages. However, the failure of the song top ski resort gave him a painful lesson.

The recent return of the Pathfinder's business focus indicates that the Pathfinder will gradually fade out of the ice and snow business.

In the hot sports industry in 2015, Pathfinder also entered another new business -- sports investment.

In the three years from 2015 to 2017, sports investment fund is one of the most active sectors in the sports industry. A number of listed companies have participated in it. The sports industry investment fund has been established. The Pathfinder in Yingtan and the sports industry investment center are one of the earlier sports investment funds.

In January 2016, the Pathfinder sports fund completed the first 110 million yuan fund-raising, and completed the investment in Lok world, Fittime, Ogilvy health and ice world and other key projects.

But in the 2016 and 2017 earnings reports, the investment fund lost 4 million 757 thousand and 500 yuan and 2 million 207 thousand and 500 yuan respectively.

For this embarrassing situation, Pathfinder founder Sheng Faqiang once said: "at present, some companies are still in the storage period of value has not been played and released, a few years later, the value will be clearly reflected."

Even though it is quite valuable, the Pathfinder decided to abandon sports investment business.

In the 2017 annual report, Pathfinder said that due to the adjustment of strategic direction of the group during the reporting period, the focus of resources returning to the main business of outdoor products has gradually stopped foreign investment in sports related fields, focusing more on post investment management, resource integration and subsequent gradual withdrawal of existing investment projects.

For these businesses, the already overloaded Pathfinder chose to integrate and exit.

For the first time since the listing, the Pathfinder said that the main business of the company's outdoor sector was affected by the change of management level during the reporting period.

In June 1, 2017, Qian Wei, the chief marketing officer of sports marketing, was appointed president of the Pathfinder group, but chose to quit at the end of November 2017.

Although management changes do have a certain impact on group business, it is worth exploring for the Pathfinder whether the business downturn leads to management alternation or management turnover leads to business slump.

For the Pathfinder, these three businesses are established with the development trend of sports industry.

Although not all follow suit, it is hard to say that it is not a decision making mistake.

Under the guidance of policies, we are in the right direction.

Under the judgement of irrational expectations, investors often underestimate investment risks and overestimate investment returns.

Practice is the only criterion to test whether an investment project is reasonable or not. In the past 3 years, Pathfinder has practiced, but has suffered heavy losses.

In the latter half of 2017, the Pathfinder identified the future development strategy, focusing on outdoor products business and gradually integrating and divesting other businesses, which, to a certain extent, announced the failure of pathfinder for 3 years of exploration and pformation.

After experiencing the loss of industrial fireworks, the Pathfinder wants to slow down the growth of China's outdoor products.

If we succeed again, we need to face a more severe test.

But fortunately, the bonus of sports manufacturing industry is still returning to the main industry and returning to the beginning, which is not a good thing.