On August 29, Stone Technology, which is listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, announced its 2022 mid-year report. During the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 2.92 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.49%, and a net profit of 617 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.4%. This is the first negative growth of this unicorn, which is mainly engaged in sweeping robots, since 2017 and since it went public in 2020.

In 2017, Stone Technology's net profit was only 67 million yuan, but by 2020 it will grow to 1.369 billion yuan in the year of listing, a nearly 20-fold increase in three years. The company also went public in February 2020. But in 2021, the company's performance began to stagnate, recording 1.402 billion yuan, an increase of only 2.41%. The first quarter report in 2022 will still grow by single digits until the mid-term report in 2022 will decline.

Matching the performance from high growth to stall, Stone Technology’s stock price rose from around 400 yuan to 1494 yuan in more than a year after listing, comparable to Kweichow Moutai, with a market value of over 100 billion, and thus won the title of “Sweeping Mao”. However, since its peak in June last year, its stock price has plummeted by about 70% in more than a year, and its latest market value is less than 30 billion.

The 2022 mid-term report shows that on May 26, the "Lei Jun Department" capital Shunwei, which announced a large-scale shareholding reduction plan, made a quick move. In June, it has completed the reduction of more than 80,000 shares. The company's founder team, directors, supervisors, and employee shareholding platforms are also continuing to reduce their holdings simultaneously.

Inventory surged 52%

Sales expenses increased by 90%

In addition to the net profit in the company's mid-term report, a number of key financial indicators such as inventory, operating cash flow, and sales expenses have weakened year-on-year.

During the reporting period, the company incurred operating costs of 1.514 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.69%, faster than the growth rate of operating income. But the most critical drag on net profit comes from sales expenses, which exceeded 500 million yuan in the middle of this year, compared with 262 million yuan in the same period last year, a substantial increase of 91.22%, nearly doubling.

The explanation given by the company is that "in order to further expand the domestic and overseas markets, the corresponding advertising and marketing expenses and the salary of the sales department have increased."

But in contrast to research and development expenses, although the company advertises "continuously exploring cutting-edge technologies to improve human life", the growth rate of research and development expenses is only 13%, which is not only far lower than the nearly doubling growth rate of sales expenses, but also lower than the growth rate of operating income. In terms of absolute amount, the company's research and development expenses in the first half of this year were 226 million yuan, less than half of sales expenses.

With the slowdown of revenue growth and the high increase of some costs, the quality of the company's assets has deteriorated.

During the reporting period, its inventory rose from 595 million yuan to 906 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52%, more than twice the growth rate of operating income. The company's explanation is "mainly due to the increase in stocking of complete machines for new products launched by the company at the end of the reporting period." The proportion of the company's receivables has also increased significantly, of which receivables have increased by 85%, and notes receivable have increased by 179%.

Due to the deterioration of the above-mentioned indicators, the net cash flow generated by the company's operating activities during the reporting period dropped by 80% to only 162 million yuan.

According to the data, the main business of Stone Technology is "the design, research and development, production and sales of intelligent hardware such as intelligent cleaning robots", and its main products include sweeping robots, handheld vacuum cleaners, commercial cleaning robots and floor washing machines.

Shunwei Capital quickly reduced its holdings

The founding team, etc. also continue to reduce

For Stone Technology, which has been continuously reduced its holdings after one year of listing, the reduction itself is nothing new, and what deserves more attention is the rhythm. On February 23 last year, just two days after the ban was lifted, the founder team, directors, supervisors, and various venture capitals proposed a reduction plan. Since then, there has been a wave of reductions every four months.

By March of this year, a large number of shares held by Lei Jun and Shunwei Capital were lifted, and two months later began to join the army of reducing holdings.

On the evening of May 26 this year, Stone Technology announced that the second shareholder Shunwei, which holds 8.87% of the shares, plans to reduce its holdings by no more than 4 million shares, accounting for 6% of the company's total share capital, and cash out about 2.5 billion yuan based on the closing price of the day. The investors behind Shunwei are Xu Dalai and Lei Jun. The above-mentioned shares were acquired in March 2019. Due to the "surprise investment" one year before the listing, the above-mentioned shares promised to be locked for 36 months. Within less than a year of becoming a shareholder, Stone Technology successfully landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in February 2020. At the end of March this year, the above-mentioned shares of Shunwei were lifted. Judging from the consideration for the capital increase at that time, it was only 6.58 million yuan, and Shunwei made hundreds of times in three years.

Judging from the 2022 mid-year report disclosed this time, Shunwei started to implement it immediately after the pre-disclosure on May 26. By the end of June, excluding the waiting time of just over half a month, Shunwei had completed the reduction of more than 80,000 shares. Of course, more reductions will take the time window of the third and fourth quarters to complete.

In addition to Shunwei Capital, several people who previously announced the shareholding reduction plan did not waste any time and continued to reduce their holdings to varying degrees, including Mao Guohua and Wu Zhen, members of the founding team (also former executives) of Stone Technology, and current director Wan Wan. Yunpeng, the company's employee stock ownership platform "Stone Age", and venture capital Gaorong Capital, etc.

However, despite the above-mentioned crazy holding reduction, the number of retail investors of Stone Technology seems to have increased. As of June 30 this year, the number of shareholders of Stone Technology was 7,109, an increase of about 10% from the end of the first quarter.

Dongcai Stone Technology Stock Bar Some netizens said, "After being harvested by capital, it is a piece of chicken feathers", "Reducing holdings every day without taking large orders", "The reduction of holdings is far from the end, and Chang Zong will also reduce holdings soon, and take turns cutting Leek, how can the stock price improve"...

"Chang Zong" refers to Chang Jing, the actual controller of Stone Technology, who is also the chairman and general manager of the company. Currently, he holds 23.2% of the shares of Stone Technology, with 15.5 million shares and a market value of about 7 billion yuan based on the latest stock price. The lock-up period for this part of the shares has been two and a half years, and it will be three years in about half a year, and the ban will also be lifted.

According to the official website of Luoke Intelligent, the company was established in Shanghai in January 2021. "The current number of employees exceeds 400, and it is expected to grow to 1,800 in 2022 and 3,000 in 2023." It said, "We have rich experience in the automotive and Internet industries. We are good at integrating industrial resources and understanding the essential needs of users." "Thanks to the founder's continuous successful entrepreneurial experience, the company's precise business goals, and widely recognized team capabilities, we It has been supported by a number of venture capital partners."

According to public information, Chang Jing is currently challenging another "money-burning" business - Internet car building, and his other identity is the founder and chairman of "ROX Smart".