On Valentine’s day night, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) sent “big gift bags” to some employees, but many investors said they were “very hurt”.
On February 14, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) released the first phase of the employee stock ownership plan. According to the published draft, the shares of the employee stock ownership plan came from the 19.5599 million shares repurchased by Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) with the company’s own funds, accounting for 1.28% of the company’s current total share capital, at a cost of 236.039 million yuan. According to the calculation of the reporter, the average repurchase price was 12.07 yuan / share.
The employee stock ownership plan plans to use 19559900 shares of repurchased shares, and the employee subscription price is 1 yuan / share. The total number of employees participating in the employee stock ownership plan shall not exceed 124, of which Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) general manager Wang Wenbin may become the biggest winner. The maximum number of shares to be subscribed is 2.9812 million shares, accounting for 15.24%.
On February 15, the share price of Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) once fell by 5.88%, and the closing price was 8.30 yuan / share, down 4.27%.
236 million yuan repurchased shares, less than 20 million yuan sold
According to the announcement, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) deliberated and passed the proposal on repurchasing shares of the company in 2020, agreeing that the company will repurchase some RMB common shares (A shares) issued by the company with its own funds through centralized bidding for equity incentive or employee stock ownership plan. As of January 15, 2021, the share repurchase plan has been implemented, and Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) has repurchased 19.5599 million shares, accounting for 1.28% of the current total share capital of the company; The highest transaction price of repurchase is 15.50 yuan / share, the lowest transaction price is 9.16 yuan / share, and the total transaction amount is 236039000 yuan (excluding transaction costs). Calculated, the average repurchase price is 12.07 yuan / share.
The employee stock ownership plan intends to use 19559900 shares of the above repurchased shares. The sources of funds are employees’ legal salary, self raised funds and other ways allowed by laws and regulations. The total amount of self raised funds of employees is no more than RMB 19559900. With “shares” as the subscription unit, each share is 1 yuan, which is 91.7% lower than the average repurchase price. It also means that Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) will sell the shares repurchased by the company at a cost of 236 million yuan to employees at a “fracture price” of less than 20 million yuan.
Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) said in the announcement that the purpose of this plan is to further improve the corporate governance mechanism and enhance the overall value of the company; Further deepen the concept of partnership entrepreneurship and strengthen the company’s competitive advantage; Further improve the salary incentive system and pay equal attention to incentive and restraint.
According to the plan, of the 19559900 shares, 14356400 shares are used for employees participating in the employee stock ownership plan for the first time, and the remaining 5203500 shares are transferred as reserved shares within the time specified in the employee stock ownership plan. However, there are not many “lucky ones” who can buy the company’s shares at a low price of 1 yuan / share. The announcement shows that the total number of employees participating in the employee stock ownership plan does not exceed 124 (excluding reserved shares). The specific number of participants is determined according to the actual payment of employees.
According to the published list, Wang Wenbin, the director and general manager of the company, may become the biggest winner. The upper limit of its proposed subscription share is 2.9812 million shares, accounting for 15.24% of the employee stock ownership plan. According to the data, Wang Wenbin did not join Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) for a long time. At the beginning of 2021, the management of Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) was changed. Wang Wenbin was airborne as the general manager of the company and was fully responsible for the operation and management of the company. His term of office was three years, from February 1, 2021 to January 31, 2024. Wang Wenbin himself also has the background of Ali department. Before joining Shentong, he worked in Ali and rookie for many years and held many important positions.
is the performance appraisal goal high?
With regard to the employee stock ownership plan, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) also formulated the company’s performance appraisal and individual performance appraisal. Among them, the company’s performance assessment includes two assessment periods. The first assessment period is “the growth rate of express business volume in 2022 is not lower than that of the express industry in the current year or the net profit returned to the parent company after deducting non profits in 2022”; The second assessment period: “the growth rate of express business volume in 2023 shall not be lower than that of the express industry in the current year or the net profit returned to the parent company after deducting non profits in 2023 shall not be less than 500 million yuan.”
The annual growth rate of the express industry in the performance assessment is the year-on-year growth rate of the business volume of the National Express service enterprises regularly announced by the state post office. It is noteworthy that according to the data of the State Post Office, in 2021, the business volume of national express service enterprises completed 108.3 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 29.9%. Among the four express companies listed on A-share market, Shunfeng, Yuantong, Yunda and Shentong, only Yuantong outperformed the industry with a business volume growth rate of 30.79% in 2021. The business volume growth rates of Yunda and Shunfeng were 29.76% and 29.65% respectively, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) in 2021, the business volume was 11.079 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25.64%, ranking the bottom among the four.
In terms of profit, the previous Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) released the announcement of performance pre loss. It is estimated that the net loss attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be 840 million yuan to 950 million yuan in 2021, while the profit in 2020 will be 36.3273 million yuan, from profit to loss.
During the year of 2028, the company’s efforts to maintain the healthy development of the express service network will have a certain impact on the company’s performance. Therefore, the adjustment of the express service network will have a certain impact on the company’s ability to maintain the healthy development of the express service network in 2028. In the first three quarters of 2021, due to the impact of site relocation, project completion delay and other factors, the overall single volume throughput scale was limited, resulting in high operating costs and low capacity utilization, which affected the performance of the company to a certain extent. Combined with its own business conditions, the company appropriately increased financing, and the new bank loans led to an increase in financial expenses.
In addition, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) conducted a preliminary impairment test on relevant assets. Based on the company’s operating performance in 2021, the cash flow and operating profit generated by relevant assets are lower than expected and other factors, some assets show signs of impairment, including the disposal and impairment of fixed assets of about 76 million yuan and the provision for goodwill impairment of assets such as acquisition transfer centers of about 700 million yuan.
From the perspective of performance assessment objectives, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) can meet one of the business growth rate and net profit after deduction. If the company’s performance fails to meet the standard in the first assessment period of the employee stock ownership plan, the corresponding rights and interests can be deferred to the second assessment period, and the corresponding rights and interests will be exercised together when the company’s performance meets the standard in the second assessment period.
Zhao Xiaomin, an expert in the express industry, believes that this assessment target is not high, especially not lower than the growth rate of the national express industry in 2022 / 2023, which even surprised investors.
The reporter sent an interview email to the Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) secretary office today about the factors on which the performance assessment objectives are based and whether the assessment objectives are too low. As of the time of publication, no reply has been received from the other party.
employee stock ownership plan causes shareholders’ dissatisfaction
Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) after the announcement of the employee stock ownership plan, it quickly attracted market attention, and its employee purchase price of 1 yuan / share and performance evaluation objectives also aroused the dissatisfaction of some investors.
Some shareholders recognize the employee incentive, but think the performance appraisal goal is too low. For the price of 1 yuan / share, many investors said they were “injured”.
However, some investors said that there is a 36 month lock period, and the binding between executives and the company is not a bad thing.
Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) said in the announcement that the principle of setting the lock-in period and unlocking arrangement of the employee stock ownership plan is the equivalence of incentive and restraint. There is a partial discount in the transfer price of the employee stock ownership plan, so a lock-in period of 36 months is set. The company believes that on the basis of legal compliance, the setting of a longer lock period can fully motivate employees and have strong constraints on employees, so as to more effectively unify the interests of holders and shareholders of the company, achieve the purpose of the employee stock ownership plan, and promote the further development of the company.
In addition, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) said that the participants determined this time are composed of three parts, and some of them bear the major responsibility of formulating the company’s development strategy and leading the company’s forward direction; Part of the participants are the direct persons in charge of the company’s business unit and management, promoting business development and management refinement; There are also some participants who are responsible for the company’s key projects and important work to promote the implementation of projects and the effective implementation of business. These three participants play an important role in the development of the company. The incentive through the discount grant of the employee stock ownership plan is intended to further improve the company’s medium and long-term incentive mechanism, consolidate the foundation of the human resources system, and focus on key employees and key incentives to retain and motivate this part of the core talents, so as to avoid the competition for talents by peers.
As the once big brother of the express industry, now Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) not only does its business growth not outperform the industry, but also turns from profit to loss. Among its peers, its market value is almost at the bottom. At present, the market value of Zhongtong Express Hong Kong shares exceeds 150 billion yuan, Yto Express Group Co.Ltd(600233) and Yunda Holding Co.Ltd(002120) both exceed 50 billion yuan. Today, Shentong’s share price fell 4.27%. At present, the market value is about 12.7 billion yuan, less than a quarter of Yuantong heyunda.
Since the change of management, Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) has also repeatedly stated to catch up. According to the logistics news, recently Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) held a 2022 Spring Festival mobilization meeting at the headquarters. In the next three years, Shentong will jointly invest 10 billion yuan with strategic partners to solve the production capacity problem.
It is also the cost of “tying up” the company’s core performance with the management. Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) said in the announcement that although the fierce industry price competition has had an impact on the company’s performance, confidence is more important than gold before the industry pattern is completely stable; Continuously enhancing employees’ confidence and fully stimulating and mobilizing employees’ enthusiasm is one of the key tools for the company to enter high-quality and sustainable development.
