The IPO Of Lepu Diagnostics Technology Innovation Board, A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary Of Lepu Medical Co., Ltd., Has Been Spun Off. The Sudden Increase Of Performance Under The Epidemic Situation Can Hardly Cover The Worries Of The Parent Company'S Dependence On Sales Channels

After less than half a year, Lepu medical subsidiary was formally split.

On the evening of December 1, the IPO application of Lepu diagnostics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lepu medical, was officially accepted. The main business of the company is R & D, production and sales of in vitro diagnostic instruments. Up to now, it has been developed into a technology and product platform covering five series of colloidal gold and fluorescent POCT, coagulation diagnosis, biochemical diagnosis, chemiluminescence immunodiagnosis and molecular diagnosis. It is a small number of innovative and platform-based enterprises with technologies and products covering many major fields of in vitro diagnosis in China.

During the listing of the science and technology innovation board, Lepu diagnostics plans to issue no more than 43.3938 million shares and raise 411 million yuan, of which 139 million yuan is used for in vitro diagnostic products industrialization construction project and 273 million yuan is used for R & D center construction project.

On December 2, Lepu medical shares rose 1.51%. As a matter of fact, as early as July this year, Lepu medical made public the plan for the separation of its subsidiaries.

Lepu medical pointed out: "through this spin off listing, Lepu diagnostics will become an independent in-vitro diagnosis business listing platform of Lepu medical, which can give full play to the function and advantages of direct financing in the capital market, broaden financing channels, improve financing flexibility, and improve financing efficiency, so as to effectively reduce capital cost, enhance capital strength, and increase product research and development, capacity improvement and operation The investment in the construction of marketing network will help to enhance its technical strength and industry competitiveness, and enhance its profitability. "

The epidemic led to a surge in performance

According to the prospectus, Lepu diagnostics was established in 2008 and is a wholly-owned holding company of Lepu medical (300003. SZ), a listed enterprise on the gem.

In recent years, Lepu's performance has been growing steadily. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, the operating revenue was 163 million yuan, 226 million yuan and 269 million yuan respectively. The growth rate of business income in 2018 and 2019 was 39.15% and 18.71%, and the net profit was 26.8423 million yuan, 32.7729 million yuan and 34.2803 million yuan, respectively.

Compared with the companies in the same industry, the net profit of Lepu diagnosis is relatively low. Based on the comparison of net profit in 2019, the net profit of hot landscape bio and Shengxiang bio was 33.89 million yuan and 39.48 million yuan respectively; Wanfu biological, the leading enterprise, was 387 million yuan and 340 million yuan respectively.

However, since the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Lepu diagnostics has ushered in a big performance outbreak. The company's overseas market demand for new crown detection reagent products has increased significantly. The company's performance in the first half of 2020 has been significantly improved, with operating revenue reaching 523 million yuan and net profit exceeding 273 million yuan. In the first half of the year, Xinguan detection reagent product revenue was 390 million yuan, accounting for 74.66% of the main business income.

However, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the company's demand for conventional in vitro diagnostic products has decreased, resulting in the company's sales scale of conventional products in the first half of 2020 to be basically the same as that of the same period of last year, without maintaining a stable growth. At present, the new crown epidemic situation in China has been effectively controlled, and the sales of conventional in vitro diagnostic products of the company are in a recovery state. In the future, if there are repeated outbreaks of Xinguan in China, the relevant control measures can not be lifted, and the sales scale of the company's conventional IVD products is at risk of decline.

In terms of specific business, (excluding the impact of Xinguan epidemic situation), Lepu diagnosis's main income comes from coagulation diagnosis products, the latter refers to the detection of thrombosis and hemostasis for coagulation and anticoagulation, fibrinolysis and antifibrotic analysis of patients' blood.

From 2017 to 2019, the revenue of this part of business was 55.86 million yuan, 92.2 million yuan and 116 million yuan, accounting for 35.58%, 41.65% and 43.67% respectively. The gross profit rate reached 86.64%, 87.82% and 89.88% respectively. From January to June 2020, affected by the new epidemic, the revenue of this part was 44.77 million yuan, accounting for only 8.57%.

For the reason why the gross profit rate is so high, Lepu explained that its self-developed xifensi thromboelastography instrument is the first thromboelastography instrument on the market in China, breaking the foreign monopoly, and the relevant supporting reagents have gradually obtained the registration certificate and started to promote.

In addition, POCT instruments and reagents are also major sources of revenue for leprosy. From 2017 to June 2020, its (non new crown) revenue was 80.81 million yuan, 91.52 million yuan, 99.19 million yuan and 42.26 million yuan, accounting for 51.47%, 41.35%, 37.36% and 8.09% respectively, while the gross profit rate was 82.48%, 83.19%, 80.38% and 82.31% respectively.

The reporter of 21st century economic report has learned that Lepu hopes to invest R & D resources in three directions of chemiluminescence, molecular diagnosis and microfluidic technology with the help of capital market.

"Through spin off, listed companies can further focus on the business areas they are good at, which is conducive to improving the core competitiveness of enterprises. Lepu medical is going public this time. The latter can use the capital market platform to carry out various capital operations, such as industrial merger and acquisition, to further expand its business scope, enrich its product lines and lay out new research fields in the industry in advance. In addition, the market positioning of the spin off company is more focused, which avoids the problems of difficult valuation and unreasonable valuation caused by business confusion. " Zehao investment partner Cao Gang told the 21st century economic reporter.

Channel dependence on parent company

It is worth mentioning that for the spin off listed companies, the most taboo is that excessive dependence on the parent company leads to poor independence. The relationship between Lepu diagnosis and Lepu medical treatment has also attracted market attention.

According to the public information, at present, Lepu diagnosis and Lepu medical have related transactions such as purchase of accessories, instruments and labor services, reagent sales, property leasing, capital lending, etc.

From January to June in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, Lepu diagnostics purchased raw materials or consumables such as cassettes, suckers, cup bodies, cup lids and machined parts from Lepu medical and its control subjects, as well as instruments and services / labor services such as automatic enzyme-linked immunosorbent workstation, full-automatic fluorescence immunochromatography analyzer, blood lipid analyzer, coagulation analyzer, etc., accounting for the proportion of the total purchase amount in the same period 92%, 14. 77%, 22. 40% and 26. 95% respectively.

In addition, the sales channels of Lepu diagnostics also rely heavily on the parent company and its controlling subjects. At present, Lepu diagnostics has not mastered the direct marketing channels of in vitro diagnosis industry, namely hospitals, centers for disease control, etc., and its sales almost rely on distributors. During the reporting period, the distribution proportion was 92.77%, 90.47%, 90.04% and 97.18% respectively.

Among them, the main distribution channel is the parent company Lepu medical and its controlling body. From 2017 to June 2020, the relevant sales volume reached 13.8 million yuan, 11.97 million yuan, 8.72 million yuan and 57.77 million yuan respectively, accounting for 8.79%, 5.41%, 3.28% and 11.06% of the total sales, respectively. The former is also the largest customer of Lepu diagnosis.

At the same time, Lepu medical and its controlling subjects are also the main sources of accounts receivable for Lepu diagnosis. At the end of each report period from 2017 to June 2020, the accounts receivable of Lepu diagnosis were 43.77 million yuan, 54.84 million yuan, 59.74 million yuan and 44.51 million yuan respectively. From the end of 2017 to the end of 2019, the payable amount of Lepu medical and its controlling entity accounted for 50.96%, 49.13% and 51.89% respectively. By June 2020, the latter's payable was reduced to 2.68 million yuan, accounting for 6.03%.

"Spin off listing can bring a lot of benefits to listed companies and spin off subsidiaries, but in the actual operation process, listed companies and spin off subsidiaries face more risks and challenges, involving business, organization, technology, personnel and other aspects. Among them, the necessity of related party transactions, whether the price is fair or not, and whether there is benefit transfer are the most concerned topics of supervision, and also the matters that enterprises need to pay attention to. " A middle-sized investment bank in South China was interviewed.