Why Did The "Key Minority" Leave Their Jobs? There Are Many Stories About "2.5" Directors Leaving Their Posts Every Day, And Directors And Secretaries Leaving Their Posts Hand In Hand

A number of listed companies have issued the announcement of top management changes.

According to the tracking data of the 21st Century Capital Research Institute, as of March 11, in less than three months since 2021, there have been 435 core executives of Listed Companies in the A-share market.

Among them, 173 times were the resignation of the Secretary of the board of directors, and 126 times were the departure of the chief financial officer or financial officer.

The reasons for these core executives to leave include personal reasons, job transfer, retirement age, personal physical reasons, etc.

It is worth mentioning that the change of the company's control right, the ongoing or completed asset restructuring, the face of major penalties or the occurrence of illegal acts, etc., are also likely to lead to the change of senior management.

In addition, "cash out as soon as possible" is also one of the important reasons for the turnover of some listed company executives.

As the core personnel who are directly responsible for the company's information disclosure and financial data, the resignation of the directors' secretary, chief financial officer and other core senior management often has a certain negative impact on the enterprise.

"Some of the directors' secretaries and chief financial officers' resignations may be due to changes in their own working environment. Behind this, some signals may be revealed, such as the decline of the company's own benefits, the lack of better development space for their posts, or there may be certain violations of laws and regulations, and they are worried about accountability." Dong Dengxin, director of the Institute of Finance and securities, Wuhan University of science and technology.

"Risk chain": new hope and Goliath sample

The market is very sensitive to the news of the resignation of core executives such as the Secretary and the chief financial officer.

Often a little carelessness will cause the market to "worry" about the company's management level, and lead to a huge stock price shock or negative public opinion.

In the evening of January 27, 2021, goer shares issued two announcements announcing that Duan Huilu, the former chief financial officer, resigned from the post of CFO due to work arrangement, and Feng Jianliang, the head of internal audit, resigned from the post of head of internal audit due to work adjustment.

The next day, the share price of gol shares fell to the limit.

According to the announcement, Duan Huilu joined golfer shares in 2001 and served as the financial director when gol shares went public in 2008. Although he still held the posts of director and vice president after his resignation, the resignation of the financial "veteran" in the key period of the disclosure of the annual report in 2020 caused market dissatisfaction.

Even, some market participants speculate that golfer shares may have financial fraud. In the view of some investors, in recent years, inventory and accounts receivable are high, and continuous financing to alleviate the lack of liquidity and other abnormal behavior.

According to the public data, in the past three years, the receivables of gol shares increased from 7 billion yuan (in 2018) to 11 billion yuan (in the third quarter of 2020), and the inventory increased from 3.5 billion yuan to 12.2 billion yuan, which together reached 23.2 billion yuan, accounting for 78% of 29.8 billion yuan of current assets; the total long-term loans and bonds payable increased from the original 600 million yuan to nearly 6.5 billion yuan (2.831 billion yuan + 3.646 billion yuan).

Later, although goer shares responded on the interactive platform that "Duan Huilu, the former chief financial officer, will continue to serve as the director and vice president of the company, and continue to work as a member of the company's core senior management team", and denounced "some media have taken out of context and made a catch the wind interpretation of the company's normal personnel promotion and appointment".

But the move has not yet reversed the decline in the company's share price.

This is not an example. Another company's new hope of leaving the company's director and chief financial officer at the same time this year has also encountered negative waves.

On January 11, new hope (000876. SZ) announced that Wang Shuhua, vice president and chief financial officer of new hope, and Hu Ji, Secretary of the board of directors, resigned from their positions as senior executives of new hope due to personal reasons. After resignation, they will no longer hold any positions of new hope.

At the time of leaving, Wang Shuhua and Hu Ji had hundreds of thousands of equity incentive stocks respectively, which had not been unlocked.

It is worth mentioning that this is the third time since the second half of 2020 that new hope has announced the resignation of senior executives.

According to the announcement on December 2, 2020, Han Jitao, vice president of new hope, and Wang Weiyong, vice president of new hope, applied for resignation due to personal reasons. According to the announcement on September 7, 2020, Deng Geji resigned from the position of director and President of new hope due to the strategic arrangement of new hope and the change of personal work.

After the resignation of the Director Secretary and the chief financial officer, the share price of new hope fell for several consecutive days, falling more than 5% in January.

The company's performance in 2020 is also lower than expected. According to the data, the company is expected to realize 109.825 billion yuan of operating revenue in 2020, with a year-on-year increase of 33.85%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies is 5.282 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 4.77%, which is significantly lower than the market expected annual total profit of more than 8 billion yuan.

"Turnover tide": 2.5 directors and secretaries leave their posts every day

The reason why the market is so sensitive to the "key minority" is that the market is extremely sensitive to the financial risk of enterprises.

According to the data of Capital Research Institute in the 21st century, the turnover frequency of "key minority" of listed companies continues to be high.

Since 2021, as of March 11, a total of 173 directors and secretaries have left their posts in the A-share market, with an average of 2.5 directors leaving their posts every day, an increase of 30% compared with the same period last year. In the same period, 126 financial directors / chief financial officers have left their posts, of which 17 enterprises have left their posts at the same time.

In terms of industry distribution, the pharmaceutical and biological industry is a high incidence place for directors and secretaries to leave their posts, with a total of 15 directors leaving their posts, followed by 14, 14, 13 and 13 directors of chemical industry, public utilities, machinery and equipment, and media respectively.

In terms of the reasons for leaving the company, the core executives give different factors: personal physical or family reasons, normal retirement or job transfer. For example, the Secretary of the board of directors and financial officer of Yanghe Co., Ltd. for the academic year, the reason for his resignation mainly stems from the general election of the board of directors of the company. At present, he is still a non independent director in Yanghe shares.

However, although there are some special cases, the stability of executives is closely related to the operation and situation of listed companies. Behind the frequent turnover of most of the directors' secretaries and financial directors, the changes in the operating environment of listed companies are often accompanied.

On January 29 this year, Jiang Ping, vice president, Guo Meiyan, vice president and Zhao Lindi, vice president and Secretary of the board of directors, submitted written resignation reports one after another.

Subsequently, on March 10, song Xiaogang, the chief financial officer, announced his resignation.

Behind the frequent personnel changes, it shows the precarious situation of delisting Jinyu. It was once known as "the first jadeite stock". Affected by the policy of financial deleveraging and other factors, it has encountered difficulties in financing, tight liquidity and deep debt crisis.

The company's previous performance forecast shows that the net profit attributable to shareholders of Listed Companies in 2020 is expected to be about 1.95 billion yuan to 2.45 billion yuan.

In 2019, due to failure to repay the loan and due creditor's rights, Jinyu was withdrawn from the market and applied for reorganization twice by creditors.

However, affected by delisting, the court ruled in February 2021 not to accept. At the same time, Dongfang Jinyu was accused of financial fraud, and a number of relevant responsible persons including Zhao Ning, the then chairman of the board, were punished.

From November 25 to December 22, 2020, the daily closing prices of the company's shares were lower than the par value of the shares for 20 consecutive trading days, which was terminated by the Shanghai Stock Exchange. According to public information, delisting Jinyu will be delisted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange on March 17 and enter the national stock exchange system for trading.

Similarly, in recent years, LianJian optoelectronics Co., Ltd., which has made continuous losses and is beset with lawsuits, is also a representative.

On March 5, LianJian optoelectronics announced that the board of directors of the company recently received resignation applications from Wang Guangyan, deputy general manager and Secretary of the board of directors, and Xi Zhijian, chief financial officer. Wang Guangyan applied to resign from the position of deputy general manager and Secretary of the board of directors due to personal reasons; Xi Zhijian applied to resign from the post of financial director of the company for personal reasons. After resignation, Wang Guangyan and Xi Zhijian no longer hold any positions in the company and its subsidiaries.

Earlier, Xi Zhijian was detained by Nanshan Branch of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau for suspected crime of illegally absorbing public deposits. The relevant matters need to be further investigated by public security organs.

The listed companies are also in a difficult situation. LianJian optoelectronics lost 2.887 billion yuan and 1.38 billion yuan in 2018 and 2019 respectively. According to the performance forecast in 2020, the company's net profit may continue to lose 240 million yuan to 360 million yuan, and the star wearing hat has been settled.

In fact, in the face of frequent turnover of core executives in listed companies, investors have taken the decision to vote with their feet.

According to the 21st century economic report, among the 17 listed companies whose directors and secretaries and financial directors / chief financial officers have resigned at the same time since this year, only two of them have a market value of more than 20 billion yuan, 13 other enterprises have a market value of less than 10 billion yuan, and more than half of them have a market value of less than 5 billion yuan.

"Xingxingmin": increasing punishment

The core reason for the frequent changes of senior management in some "problem" companies is related to the current supervision's increasing accountability to directors, supervisors and senior executives.

This is also the main reason for the departure of "key minority", which immediately leads to "risk conjecture" in the market.

"There are thousands of Listed Companies in A-share market, and hundreds of enterprises change their directors' secretaries and chief financial officers. For many enterprises, it may be for personal reasons, or due to normal personnel adjustment, or it may be because of the booming stock market, the rules of directors, supervisors and senior executives' holding reduction are linked to their resignation, which can not resist the temptation of reducing their holdings. There is a normal flow of personnel in a shares The impact of physical education on enterprises is also very limited. But there are also factors to adapt to regulatory changes, because regulation is being reformed and will become more stringent in the future, requiring more professional people to cope with the new situation. " Pan Helin, executive director and professor of Digital Economy Research Institute of Central South University of Finance and law, pointed out in an interview.

One year after the implementation of the new securities law, on March 1, 2021, the amendment (11) of the criminal law has been formally implemented. The revised criminal law has greatly improved the punishment of fraudulent distribution and information disclosure fraud. In terms of punishment for serious violations of information disclosure, this amendment also adds an aggravating situation of "especially serious circumstances". The upper limit of the prison term of the relevant responsible person is increased from 3 years to 10 years, and the amount of fine is changed from 20000 yuan to 200000 yuan to "concurrently fined", and the upper limit limit of 200000 yuan is cancelled.

It has been the principle of legal construction of capital market to punish the illegal behaviors and protect the interests of investors.

With the implementation of the amendment to the criminal law, the three in one accountability system of civil, administrative and criminal in the securities field has also been formed.

"Under the background of the registration system reform and the implementation of the new securities law, the Director Secretary and the chief financial officer have become high-risk occupations. Both of them are responsible for the disclosure of important matters of listed companies, as well as the signings and signings of major financial reports, including annual reports, semi annual reports and quarterly reports. Therefore, after the implementation of the registration system reform and the implementation of the new securities law, They get nervous, too Dong Dengxin said.

According to the incomplete statistics of journalists of the 21st century economic report, in the year of the implementation of the new securities law, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued 96 penalty tickets, with a fine of up to 4.9 billion yuan, of which 62 were for individual punishment, 34 were for enterprises, and the persons directly responsible for the illegal behaviors of enterprises. A total of 324 people were punished, including 289 individuals and 35 enterprises.

(Editor: Li Xinjiang)

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