Visit La Natsu Bell North Headquarters Backlog Stock Sale "As Low As 29 Yuan"

The stock price is down, the market value is cut, the profit is huge, and the inventory is backlog. La Natsu Bell has gone public from the scenery to the difficult position. It only took about two years. On the evening of August 6th, La Natsu Bell announced that the controlling shareholder of the company and the real controller of xingjiaxing shares default, and put the troubled listed companies on the cusp again.

In August 9th, when La Natsu Bell visited the logistics center of Tianjin Xiqing Development Zone, she found that although La Natsu Bell's capital flow was tight, he was still promoting the construction of Tianjin logistics center as the northern headquarters. La Natsu Bell's factory shop had a small traffic volume, and a large number of off-season products were sold at a low price.

Tianjin's project is still "unhurried" during the construction.

La Natsu Bell (603157) was once regarded as the leading brand of women's clothing in China. Data show that, founded in May 23, 2011, the full name "Shanghai La Natsu Bell clothing Limited by Share Ltd", the chairman and president are Xing Jiaxing. The company is positioned as a "multi brand fashion operation enterprise", the main public leisure clothing for women, its existing La Chapelle, Puella and other 12 brands, and invest in seven clothing, OTHERMIX, O.T.R, Siastella and other clothing brands. In 2014, La Natsu Bell Tianjin Corporation officially registered in dasti town. In order to improve the R & D and sales level of the North China headquarters, the group transferred the core management team to the northern headquarters, and settled the northern headquarters in the town of Da Si.

In 2014, La Natsu Bell Hong Kong shares were issued and listed. In September 25, 2017, La Natsu Bell A shares (603157) listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and became the first "A+H" listed clothing enterprises in China. At the beginning of the listing, La Natsu Bell had a maximum valuation of 7 billion 520 million yuan, but as of August 9th closing (5.04 yuan / share), the company's latest market value has dropped to 2 billion 826 million yuan, and the share price has already fallen below the issue price of 8.41 yuan / share.

Since 2015, La Natsu Bell has built the Tianjin logistics center as the northern headquarters in the town of Da Si. The company has said that in order to support the logistics distribution and product sales of the company's outlets throughout the country, the construction of the northern warehousing and logistics center will help the company to establish a more stable and reliable product supply system.

But the construction of logistics center is not ideal. The information disclosed by the company shows that in 2017 and 2018, the project progress of Tianjin logistics center project was 57% and 48% respectively, and the progress of the project was reduced. The company's explanation is that in 2018, the company continued to improve the efficiency of the supply chain through intelligent storage. The management approved the budget for the two new logistics warehouses and corresponding supporting facilities in Tianjin logistics warehouse, and the overall budget of the project rose from 190 million yuan to 296 million yuan.

In July 31, 2019, the company issued a semi annual performance loss announcement that it expects net profit loss in the first half of 2019 to be 440 million yuan to 540 million yuan, down 286.6% to 329% compared with the same period last year. The net loss of non net profit is expected to decrease from 490 million yuan to 590 million yuan, down 364.5% to 418.5% over the same period.

In fact, La Natsu Bell started walking on the "loss" road in the second years after A shares were listed. The 2018 annual report shows that the net profit of the company during the reporting period was 160 million yuan, down 132% from the same period last year, and the net profit of non profit was 245 million yuan, down 164.43% from the same period last year.

While net profit is declining, La Natsu Bell's cash flow is also urgent. According to the 2018 earnings data, the net cash flow generated by business activities during the reporting period dropped 71.71% compared to the same period last year, to 158 million yuan and 557 million yuan in the same period in 2017. Among them, the net cash flow generated by the company's investment activities is a net outflow of 1 billion 310 million yuan, mainly for the purchase of fixed assets, long-term assets and other expenditures of 1 billion 1 million yuan, the investment payment is 205 million yuan; the net cash flow generated by the company's fund-raising activities is net inflow of 787 million yuan, the main purpose is to increase the amount of bank loans.

The net cash flow of the company in the four quarter of 2018 was -1.75 billion yuan, -8128.7 million yuan, -1.39 billion yuan and 553 million yuan. For the first three quarters of 2018, the cash flow dropped sharply, La Natsu Bell said that the increase in inventory caused by the decline in sales resulted in some new brands being in the breeding stage, and the operating capital expenditure increased year-on-year.

La Natsu Bell said that the reason for the cash outflow of business activities in the first three quarters and the larger inflow in the fourth quarter were due to the higher selling price and higher sales income in the fourth quarter.

In 2019, a quarterly report showed that the net cash flow generated by the company's business activities was 289 million, which was -1.75 billion in the same period last year.

In 2018, net profit loss and cash flow are tight. Why do we need to add more than 100 million more investment to Tianjin logistics center? The Beijing News reporter came to La Natsu Bell's logistics construction base in Xiqing, Tianjin, with questions. The company staff said that La Natsu Bell's first phase project had been completed for nearly a year and began to be put into use, with employees working in it. The two phase of the project starts from this spring, and is still being built in a hurry. The overall progress of the project is not fast enough. The three phase has not yet started construction.

The first phase of the building has been put into use, as the staff said, but it is currently used only on the first and third floors of the first phase of the building. The first floor is La Natsu Bell factory store and the third floor is the administrative office.

After showing his identity in the administrative office, he said he would not be interviewed.

Huge profits and tight funds, why did we need to increase 100 million investment last year? The company replied that it mainly focused on reform and adjustment, and the company took the initiative to adopt a strategy of shrinkage adjustment. For more details that have not been disclosed, the company is unable to reply.

Backlog of stock sale, "as low as 29 yuan".

According to reports, the first phase of the La Natsu Bell Tianjin logistics center project is built in front of a factory store, which mainly sells defective products and over season products. Reporters noted that although the factory shop covers a large area, there are many clothes sold, but the traffic is small. At present, the factory store is promoting the promotion in the middle of the year, giving a discount of 65% off of the whole field. Some commodities are as low as 29 yuan, and the slogan of "three clothes and one price at 299 yuan" is played.

Factory store sales staff said that the usual factory shop clothing "hits 50 percent off" primarily, although this discount strength is bigger, but the passenger flow is not big. When asked why the discount rate was so great, the other side said bluntly: the new speed is faster, and the number of people buying is less.

Also visited the Tianjin Yong Wang shopping center in Xiqing District of Tianjin and the European Fashion Plaza and Zhongyuan Department Store in Tianjin Heping District. The staff members said that some of La Natsu Bell's merchandise was as low as 50 percent off. A store clerk told reporters that La Natsu Bell probably went to the new weekly once a week. During the new season, it was more frequent. But "these two years are really not very good. They can not compare with the Vero Moda and ONLY."

Consumers Miss Gong also said, "La Natsu Bell's brands do not seem to see any difference, the style is not characteristic, and it is not fashionable enough to wear casual clothes everyday, but it is not suitable for girls with the pursuit."

The salesperson thinks, the rise of electronic business platform, diverted part of the store source, online pricing is generally lower than the physical store price.

On the one hand is the high frequency of "new" speed, on the other hand, La Natsu Bell's R & D investment is decreasing. The annual report shows that in 2018, La Natsu Bell spent 110 million yuan on R & D spending, down 11.5% from the same period last year, and the number of R & D personnel was 527, with an average of 208 thousand and 700 yuan per capita.

While sales were down, La Natsu Bell's inventory rose rapidly. From 2014 to 2018, La Natsu Bell's stock had increased from 1 billion 327 million yuan to 2 billion 534 million yuan, while the share of current stocks rose from 26.42% to 48.58%. At the end of the first quarter of 2019, La Natsu Bell's inventory reached 2 billion 193 million yuan, rising to 50% of current assets.

How to speed up inventory turnover? In reply letter, the company said it would consider the operation and management of commodities according to the product SKU, store attributes and sales situation. To speed up inventory turnover and return cash as soon as possible, the company will take risk control and inventory improvement measures, such as the establishment of special project teams and expansion of sales channels.

Add to the damage: real control of stock pledge "breach" breach

The problem of product sales has not yet been solved, and La Natsu Bell has also struck the "default" mine. In August 6, 2019, La Natsu Bell announced that the stock pledge of the controlling shareholder and the actual controller Xing Jiaxing was in breach of contract. The announcement shows that up to now, 99.81% of the shares held by the xingjiaxing accumulative pledge company, and its 2 stock pledge repurchase trading agreements with Haitong Securities have already been lower than the minimum performance guarantee ratio, and there has been a breach of contract.

La Natsu Bell replied that Xing Jiaxing himself is actively seeking measures to resolve the risk of default on share pledge, and plans to solve the problem of collateral breach by supplementing collateral, margin or early redemption of pledge shares. The company also said that the actual control of shares pledge matter has nothing to do with the company's business.

A few days before the real control of the Pledged Shares, La Natsu Bell just announced the announcement of the first half of 2019. The company expects net profit in the first half of 2019 to be 440 million yuan to 540 million yuan, down 286.6% to 329% over the same period last year. This year, a quarterly company also made a profit of 9 million 751 thousand yuan.

The 2018 annual report shows that the average gross profit margin of the company's products has decreased from 67.73% to 65.33%. Bottoms, bottoms, skirts, accessories and so on have declined to varying degrees, of which the gross profit margin of the largest share of the sales share has dropped by 2.55% compared with the same period last year.

From 2014 to 2016, the number of retail outlets was 6887, 7893 and 8902 respectively. In the face of such a huge retail network, La Natsu Bell adopted a full direct business mode. By the end of 2016, the company had only 2 franchises. In 2017, La Natsu Bell's number of stores reached 9448, an increase of 6% over the same period last year. In 2018, the number of stores decreased to 9269. By the end of June 2019, the number of offline outlets decreased by more than 2400 compared with the end of 2018.

Analysts said that the advantage of direct battalion is channel control, but assets are heavy and investment is large, which is suitable for enterprises with sufficient capital. Franchisees are more flexible.

La Natsu Bell also said in the earnings report, "multi brand, direct business oriented" business model is facing tremendous pressure of increasing operating costs such as labor and rentals. At present, the company is in the stage of transformation and adjustment. Recently, there are more closed operation outlets. It is the company's initiative to adopt the strategy of shrinkage adjustment and focus on high value business according to the domestic mass garment retail market environment. The company said it will continue to focus on optimizing the channel structure in the future. On the one hand, we should sort out the existing direct channel and resolutely close down the inefficient and inefficient stores; on the other hand, we should implement the way of cooperation between the company's blank county level market and the municipal market with weak direct management capability.