Meituan Raises 10 Billion US Dollars: A Platform Without Borders?

In addition to the main business, Internet giants are speeding up the pace of diversification.

On April 20, meituan announced that it would seek to raise nearly $10 billion by issuing additional shares and selling convertible bonds. This amount is the highest in the history of the HKEx. According to the announcement, the funds raised by meituan will be used for scientific and technological innovation, increase investment in cutting-edge technologies in unmanned vehicles, UAV distribution and other fields, as well as general enterprise purposes.

According to the plan, meituan will issue a total of 198 million shares by way of allotment, accounting for about 3.3% of the total shares after the issuance of new shares. Tencent, as an old shareholder, will subscribe for about 11.35 million shares. The price per share was HK $273.8, a 5.3% discount from the previous closing price of HK $289.2. At the same time, meituan will issue a total of nearly $3 billion of convertible bonds due in 2027 and 2028 respectively.

"If meituan wants to expand its business boundary, it is not only limited in the field of food delivery, but also involves in localization services, financial services, and future unmanned vehicles and UAVs." Pan Helin, executive director and professor of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Central South University of Finance and law, said in an interview with the 21st century economic reporter that these business development needs time and capital. Meituan raised 10 billion US dollars at this time to expand diversified business.

Through this financing, meituan will continue to increase the recruitment of scientific and technological talents worldwide. Visual China

Increase vertical investment

On April 19, meituan's new generation of self-developed unmanned distribution vehicle was officially put into operation in Shunyi, Beijing. The loading capacity of the model is 150kg, the volume is nearly 540l, and the maximum speed of distribution is 20km / h. As early as July 2018, meituan launched the unmanned distribution open platform to sell and distribute the automatic driving technology.

In addition to the "small bag" of unmanned vehicles that have been put into trial operation, meituan also released a new concept car and UAV for unmanned distribution. Its unmanned distribution open platform aims to build a complete industrial ecosystem. "The new generation of unmanned distribution vehicle is the latest solution of low-speed real-time distribution based on the demand of meituan's distribution business scenario and for outdoor full scene." Xia Huaxia, vice president and chief scientist of meituan, told reporters of the 21st century economic report that the release of the car marks that meituan has no self-developed products for distribution and has begun to have standardized mass production capacity.

During the outbreak of the epidemic last year, meituan took the lead in deploying unmanned distribution services in Shunyi, Beijing. This is also the first time that meituan's unmanned distribution vehicle has delivered the actual orders of users indoors and in the park, and has carried out distribution on open roads for the first time. Up to now, the distribution service of unmanned vehicles has covered more than 20 communities, with 35000 orders and nearly 300000 kilometers of automatic driving mileage.

It is expected that in the next three years, meituan will land in Shunyi, Yizhuang, Shenzhen and other regions and cities in Beijing to realize unmanned distribution services in business scenarios such as takeout, vegetable shopping and flash shopping.

At present, unmanned distribution mainly involves three important scenes: indoor, semi closed Park and open road. Wang Xing said in a recent financial report communication meeting that no matter how exciting a technology is, it is only a means, not an end. The fundamental purpose of scientific and technological innovation is to serve the public. "Meituan is a technology driven company, and the purpose of scientific and technological innovation is to realize the company's mission. Meituan's business development needs not only software but also hardware, which is the reason why meituan has long invested in the field of unmanned distribution. "

In addition, Wang Xing mentioned that robots are one of the key vertical areas of meituan's investment. He believes that robots are very important as intelligent hardware. Driven by various advanced technologies including robots, there is a huge potential in the field of life services to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

According to the financial report, meituan's major investments in the field of science and technology in 2020 include: Purdue robot (restaurant robot), Yinghe robot, Gaoxian robot, robot used in warehouse and general ontology intelligent robot, as well as the next generation of electric vehicles and automatic driving related companies. In addition, we have also paid close attention to the frontier science and technology fields such as biotechnology and agricultural technology.

"The unmanned distribution vehicle is more accurate to deliver, and can better plan the path. Through the actual operation, we can obtain a set of relatively perfect unmanned driving system, and reserve a large number of automatic driving data and technical capabilities." Panhelin explained that unmanned distribution vehicles are designed to meet specific distribution scenarios. One is that it will take time to land, and the other is to meet more needs under specific scenarios, such as delivery in areas where people are hard to reach, high floors, or assisting delivery personnel to shorten the distance. Therefore, the unmanned delivery vehicle is a complementary technology and will not replace the work of the rider.

In Wang Xing's view, there is great potential in the field of life services to improve efficiency and reduce costs. At present, meituan's R & D team has more than 10000 people, which is one of the largest engineering teams in China. In 2020, the R & D investment of meituan will exceed 10 billion yuan. 21st century economic reporter learned from meituan that through the financing, meituan will continue to increase the recruitment of scientific and technological talents in the world.

Prepare for diversified business

It is worth noting that although the announcement did not mention the community group buying business, the timing of the IPO and bond financing is just when the Internet giant's further overweight investment for fresh e-commerce is surging. The Internet giants regard fresh e-commerce as the next growth story, saying "no investment" one after another.

And the current node is also very critical, "this year, we are still running around, the industry brand has not been solidified, and it is not clear who is the boss." Zhu danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, believes that the industry pattern of fresh e-commerce may take shape next year.

For meituan, community group buying is the key track for meituan to focus on in the future. Wang Xing stressed that this is a once-in-a-five-year or even a once-in-a-decade opportunity, which can create new infrastructure for e-commerce. There are also rumors in the market that meituan will invest in the community to buy racetrack on a large scale.

But in this regard, pan Helin pointed out that community group buying is actually a small aspect. Under the localization service project, with the tightening of community group buying policy, this area will also have development through the way of service in the future. But this is only one of the diversified businesses of meituan.

Recently, tremolo online ordering system. It's not just the chattering sound, but the Internet giants like fast hand, Hello, didi and Baidu are all joining the local life track. According to iResearch, the local life service market is a trillion level market, but the online penetration rate is only 12.7%, and there is still a large potential space.

Facing the aggressive attack of its rivals, meituan chose to issue shares for financing at this time, which really meant "preparing for war". Meituan's performance in 2020 shows that last year, the company's revenue reached 114.794 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 17.7%; during the year, the profit was 4.707 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 110.5%; and the adjusted net profit was 3.12 billion yuan. The operating cash flow increased from 5.6 billion yuan in 2019 to 8.5 billion yuan in 2020. In 2020, the transaction amount of catering delivery business increased by 24.5% to 488.9 billion yuan.

In addition, after the announcement of meituan's $10 billion plan to invest in unmanned technology, the share price of meituan Hong Kong stock rose slightly to HK $293.6 per share as of the previous day. Under the background of high labor cost of delivery, if some orders are driverless, it is expected to improve efficiency and cost.

A person engaged in the unmanned vehicle industry disclosed to the 21st century economic report that the distribution of unmanned vehicles by meituan and Jingdong may be launched in batches in the second half of the year, with a scale of about 100 units. "Many giants have launched unmanned logistics products, but the utilization rate is not very high. Driven by the development of technology and the change of demand, the labor-intensive mode must be transformed into the technology-based and talent intensive mode, but the most suitable scenario still needs to be found. "

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