With the rise of “beauty economy” in recent years, the attention of the medical and beauty industry in the capital market once rose.
Among them, for example, Imeik Technology Development Co.Ltd(300896) , Shanghai Haohai Biological Technology Co.Ltd(688366) , Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) these three listed companies related to medical beauty are collectively referred to as “three swordsmen of medical beauty” by many investors
The protagonist that Kim mei’er wants to mention today is the “big guy of hyaluronic acid” in the “three swordsmen of medicine and beauty” – Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) .
Proportion of marketing expenses in revenue
recently, Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) released its annual report for 2021. During the reporting period, Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) achieved a revenue of 4.95 billion yuan, an increase of 87.9% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 782 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.1%
According to the information on the company’s official website, Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) ( Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) ) is a well-known biotechnology company and bioactive material company, which is committed to bringing new life experiences of health, beauty and happiness to mankind. It is a hyaluronic acid whole industry chain platform company integrating R & D, production and sales. The technology of microbial fermentation to produce hyaluronic acid is in an advantageous position.
after the Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) annual report was released, the most concerned is not the sign of “increasing income without increasing profit”, but the company’s soaring sales expenses, amounting to 2.436 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 121.62%, accounting for 49% of the company’s operating revenue
this means that nearly half of the company’s revenue in 2021 is spent on advertising and marketing. What concept? Next door Imeik Technology Development Co.Ltd(300896) ( Imeik Technology Development Co.Ltd(300896) ), one of the “three swordsmen of medicine and beauty”, the sales expenses accounted for only about 11% of the revenue in the same period
Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) annual report explains that the change of sales expenses is mainly due to the increase of employee salary caused by the increase of sales personnel in order to meet the needs of the company’s sales business expansion during the reporting period. At the same time, the sales revenue has increased significantly, the performance of functional skin care products has increased rapidly, and the performance incentives of sales personnel have increased; The company has increased the investment of Tmall and jitter tiktok, and promoted the company’s products and brands through new media marketing methods, such as live broadcast, short video, search engine, social media, etc., so that the cost of online promotion services has increased significantly. In addition, the company publicized the concept and image of the brand and created a national brand by cooperating with Focus Media Information Technology Co.Ltd(002027) and other media companies, participating in exhibitions, holding activities and other offline promotion forms, resulting in an increase in advertising expenses and market development expenses.
it’s just that so many expenses are spent on advertising and marketing, but the boosting effect on stock price does not seem to last long
In July 2021, the company’s share price once hit the high of 314.99 yuan / share, but then the share price fell all the way. As of March 31, 2022, the company’s share price has been reported at 120.99 yuan / share, with cumulative decline of more than 60% .
“drinking hyaluronic acid” advertisement suspected IQ tax
After spending so much money on marketing, Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) also once in in 2021 fell into controversy due to some advertising.
In January 2021, the National Health Commission issued an announcement approving sodium hyaluronate as a new food raw material, which can be used in drinks, chocolate and chocolate products (including cocoa butter chocolate and products), candy and frozen drinks. As a leader in the hyaluronic acid industry, Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) naturally quickly seized the relevant outlet of “hyaluronic acid food”, and announced the launch of China’s first hyaluronic acid food brand “black zero” in the same month. In March, Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) launched the first hyaluronic acid drinking water “shuijiquan”, and then launched the hyaluronic acid fruit drink brand “no way corner”.
in order to make consumers willing to “drink hyaluronic acid” Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) at that time, they also made a lot of efforts in advertising, such as “beautiful drinking water, beautiful drinking water”, “each bottle added 83 mg of Huaxi hyaluronic acid” and “it is as suitable for daily life as ordinary drinking water”
However, food is food, beauty is beauty, Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) this series of propaganda words soon attracted a lot of questions: some people think that the taste is similar to mineral water, and the packaging does not match the price; Someone pointed out that the content of tens of milligrams per bottle is too small, and it is unknown how much hyaluronic acid can be absorbed by drinking; Others directly asked whether Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) makes people “drink hyaluronic acid”? Is there any proof? If not, it may be suspected of “collecting IQ tax”
Faced with many doubts about the consumption of hyaluronic acid from the outside world, Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) although it was emphasized in the latest published annual report that a large number of animal and human oral tests of food grade hyaluronic acid raw materials have been carried out to prove that its hyaluronic acid is non-toxic, non mutagenic, non teratogenic and will not cause human allergy and other adverse reactions, “fully demonstrates the safety of the product”!
However, the company has never been clear about the “effectiveness” of adding hyaluronic acid to relevant products in beauty, health and other aspects… As for whether it is too lazy to mention it or not, the outside world is unknown.
R & D expenses are questioned, and the “confident” response of the Board Secretary
It is worth noting that some analysis points out that oral hyaluronic acid will hardly be directly absorbed by the human body. As a polysaccharide, hyaluronic acid will be digested and decomposed in the gastrointestinal tract after eating, converted into small molecular sugars and then absorbed by the human body. Therefore, the effect of “moisturizing the skin” by oral hyaluronic acid is basically minimal, and most of the hyaluronic acid eaten may be metabolized as carbon water in the form of energy.
Therefore, in addition to being used as a filler in plastic surgery, hyaluronic acid is more injected or applied in order to achieve the effects of “moisturizing” and “wrinkle removal”.
Perhaps in order to improve the effect of “drinking hyaluronic acid”, the company also specifically mentioned in the annual report: at present, the company has established Wuxi functional food basic research center and Shanghai food R & D center, with functional food R & D field, with beauty, joint health and sleep health as the main development and application direction.
However, on the other hand, compared with the sales expenses that doubled in one year and accounted for nearly half of the revenue, the 5.75% R & D investment , published in the company’s annual report, has aroused some investors’ doubts that it is “too low” on the Internet.
and the reply of the company’s board secretary is “it’s impossible to say how much is appropriate. The R & D level of different industries is different.”
Although the Secretary of the board was full of confidence in his response, it seemed that he was not as confident as the former when looking at the trend of the company’s shareholders. As early as last July’s stock price peak, shareholders of the company reduced their holdings on a large scale.
According to the announcement of the company, during the period from June 29 to July 16, 2021, the shareholder Yingrui Wuyuan reduced 4.8 million shares of the company through centralized bidding transactions, accounting for 1% of the total shares of the company, and the total amount of reduction reached 1.38 billion yuan ; In the earlier period from December 24, 2020 to February 22, 2021, 8.64 million shares of the company were reduced through centralized bidding and block trading, accounting for 1.8% of the total shares of the company. The total amount of reduction reached 1.52 billion yuan .
In any case, this Bloomage Biotechnology Corporation Limited(688363) company, which spends a lot of money to make consumers “drink hyaluronic acid”, has handed over the performance answer sheet in 2021. Jinmei will continue to pay attention to the performance of the company in 2022.
