in less than a year, “the first share of AI chip” Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) has received the notice of reduction from shareholders for five consecutive times
On April 20, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) issued an announcement on the share reduction plan of shareholders, saying that due to their own capital needs, shareholders Nanjing Zhaoyin and Hubei Zhaoyin plan to reduce their shares of Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) no more than 2% and 1% in total through centralized bidding and block trading.
According to the announcement, Nanjing Zhaoyin and Hubei Zhaoyin hold Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) 269% and 1.34% shares respectively. This is the second time in seven months that Nanjing Zhaoyin and Hubei Zhaoyin have thrown out the reduction notice, and only five days have passed since the completion of their previous reduction plan. Looking back, since the lifting of the stock ban in July 2021, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) has been repeatedly reduced by many shareholders.
As an AI chip giant, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) ‘s main business is terminal intelligent processor IP authorization, cloud intelligent chip and accelerator card business and intelligent computing cluster system. The company mainly does integrated circuit design and adopts fabless business model. On July 20, 2020, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) ushered in the bell ringing moment after refreshing the shortest time record of the audit of the science and Innovation Board at that time. Under the aura of “the first share of AI chip”, the share price of Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) listed on the first day was as high as 295 yuan, more than three times higher than the issue price of 64.39 yuan, and the market value even exceeded 100 billion yuan at one time.
However, today’s Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) seems to be losing its former glory. On April 21, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) closed at 57 yuan, down nearly 80% compared with the highest point of its share price, and the latest market value was less than 25 billion yuan.
shareholders frequently reduce their holdings
Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) was established in March 2016, mainly engaged in the research and development of artificial intelligence chip products. According to the announcement, at present, Nanjing Zhaoyin and Hubei Zhaoyin hold Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) 269% and 1.34% of the shares respectively, which are the shares obtained before their initial public offering, and have been listed and circulated since July 20, 2021. Therefore, according to the number of Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) shares held by Nanjing Zhaoyin and Hubei Zhaoyin, they plan to reduce their holdings in a close clearance manner.
Nanjing Zhaoyin and Hubei Zhaoyin last threw out the reduction plan in September 2021. The implementation of the reduction was completed on April 15. In this round, the above-mentioned reduction subjects reduced their holdings of 2233709 shares and 1134519 shares respectively, and cashed out 173 million yuan and 88 million yuan.
Nanjing Zhaoyin and Hubei Zhaoyin are not “the first people to eat crabs”. July 20, 2021 is the lifting date of restricted shares of Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) multiple initial original shareholders. Only two days later, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) announced that due to the capital needs of shareholders, Paleozoic venture capital, which holds 3.54% of the shares, plans to reduce the total number of Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) shares by no more than 14151905 shares, that is, no more than 3.54% of the total share capital of the company; Zhike shengxun, a shareholder holding 1%, plans to reduce its total holdings of no more than 4 Xinjiang Guotong Pipeline Co.Ltd(002205) shares, that is, no more than 1% of the total share capital of the company.
On February 15, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) disclosed the results of this round of share reduction, which showed that the cumulative number of shares reduced by Paleozoic venture capital was 3887809 shares, with a reduction ratio of 0.97%, with a total cash out of 381 million yuan. In contrast, Zhike shengxun implemented a clearance reduction, with a reduction ratio of 1% and cash out of 329 million yuan.
However, the Paleozoic venture capital has not stopped reducing its holdings. Two months ago, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) threw out the fourth reduction announcement, saying that the three major shareholders of Paleozoic venture capital, Ningbo Hangao and SDIC venture capital fund planned to reduce their holdings of the company’s shares from March 1 to August 23. It is worth mentioning that this is also the second reduction of Ningbo Hangao. The previous reduction plan was implemented in February, with a total cash out of 594 million yuan.
In response to the intensive reduction of shareholders’ holdings, on April 21, the reporter of international finance contacted Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) as an individual investor. The relevant person in charge of its securities department said that the reduction of shareholders’ holdings does not mean lack of confidence in the development of the company, but is arranged according to their own needs.
performance loss expansion
In fact, in addition to the intensive reduction of shareholders in turns, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) also encountered the resignation of core technicians. A month ago, the AI chip giant suddenly announced that Liang Jun, a core technician and former chief technology officer who had worked in the company for five years, resigned mainly because of “differences with the company”.
Judging from the timeline, Liang Jun with Huawei background joined Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) in 2017 when the latter was “deeply bound” with Huawei Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) 2020 annual report shows that Liang Jun, born in 1976, holds a master’s degree in communication and information systems from the University of science and technology of China, and worked as an engineer at the Beijing Research Institute of Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. from 2000 to 2003. From 2003 to 2017, he worked in the basic business department of Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Hisilicon Semiconductor Co., Ltd. and successively served as engineer, senior engineer, chief engineer, technical expert and senior technical expert. He has served as deputy general manager and chief technology officer of the company since 2017.
Shortly before Guan xuanliangjun left office, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) . During the reporting period, the company achieved an operating income of 721million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 57.12%; The net profit was -847 million yuan, compared with -434 million yuan in the same period last year.
For the performance of increasing revenue without increasing profit, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) said that the company’s operating revenue mainly comes from cloud product line, edge product line and intelligent computing cluster business. During the reporting period, the edge product line mlu220 chip and accelerator card landed in many leading enterprises, realizing large-scale sales of nearly one million pieces, and the income of the edge product line achieved a breakthrough growth over the same period of last year; At the same time, relying on the company’s bid for the infrastructure construction project of Intelligent Computing Center in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, the revenue of cluster business increased significantly compared with the same period of last year.
“During the reporting period, the R & D expenses incurred by the company increased compared with the same period of the previous year; at the same time, due to the equity incentive plan implemented by the company at the end of 2020 and 2021, the share based payment expenses apportioned according to the attribution period increased in the reporting period.” For the net profit loss, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) explained that in addition, the sales expenses increased to a certain extent due to the company’s active efforts in smart chip market promotion and ecological construction.
This is the fifth “loss year” of Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) . According to the prospectus, from 2017 to 2019, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) achieved operating income of 7.8433 million yuan, 117 million yuan and 444 million yuan respectively, with net profit of – 381 million yuan, – 41 million yuan and – 1179 million yuan respectively. In 2020, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) the revenue increased by 3.38% to 459 million yuan compared with 2019, but the net profit still lost 434 million yuan.
The reporter noted that in early February, Sinolink Securities Co.Ltd(600109) which has been rated Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) “buy” or “overweight” since its listing issued a research report that Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) is expected to have a revenue of 670 million yuan to 750 million yuan in 2021 by the end of January, significantly higher than the analysts’ expected revenue of 685 million yuan. Although the revenue is higher than expected, the net loss attributable to the parent is expected to be 765 million yuan to 935 million yuan, which is also significantly higher than the analysts’ expected loss of 784 million yuan. In this regard, the brokerage expects Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited(688256) loss to be difficult to improve and inventory risk to increase.
