Industry news

Gree's general meeting of shareholders: the articles of association are not amended in a mixed

Seven directors, supervisors and senior officials all kept quiet about the mixed reform. Wang Jingdong denied that the articles of association had been revised to lay the way for high-level dispatched personnel to enter the management, and said that the future mobile phone business would be at the level of subsidiaries.

On November 18, the second extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of Gree Electric in 2019 was officially held.

To the surprise of the seven directors and supervisors present, the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, which deliberated only two items of the bill, attracted more than 100 shareholders. The huge conference room is full of seats. Among them, there are many investors who come from all over the world carrying huge suitcases and backpacks.

A week ago, Gree Electric first broke into the "e-commerce battle" of the double 11 with 3 billion subsidies in the market, and then announced the postponement of the mixed reform plan for nearly half a year, and the signing of the share transfer agreement between Hillhouse and Gree Group was postponed. These two events are beyond the expectation of investors.

"Gree's performance in the first three quarters was actually very good, but the company chose to give a large amount of subsidies to seize the market at this time. It's a bit radical and can't understand. In fact, the company can steadily expand the online channel. In addition, we would like to know why we will extend the share transfer agreement with Hillhouse. " A private equity investor in South China was interviewed and pointed out.

However, at the shareholders' meeting, seven directors and supervisors kept silent on the mixed reform. Even at the beginning of the meeting, the company did not arrange the communication between shareholders and executives due to the "sensitive" period. Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree Electric, was absent again after the annual general meeting of shareholders.

Until the on-site shareholders voted on the proposal, Wang Jingdong, the Secretary of the board of directors and deputy general manager, said that because the number of on-site shareholders exceeded expectations, in order to thank shareholders for their attention to the company, the management could communicate with shareholders on "non sensitive issues". As soon as the voice came down, the hall clapped loudly.

Amendment of articles of association is not mixed

According to the information read out by Wang Jingdong, 114 shareholders attended the meeting on site, 706 shareholders voted on site and online, representing 2.557 billion shares, accounting for 42.51% of the total voting shares of the listed company.

The meeting deliberated and passed the proposal on Amending the articles of association and the proposal on Amending the rules of procedure of the general meeting of shareholders of the company, in which Hillhouse capital agreed to both proposals.

Although the management has avoided the details and progress of the mixed reform several times, it still can not resist the high attention of the on-site shareholders to the mixed reform. The first question on the spot is trying to find out the clues of the change of the company's control right.

The reporter noted that in the revised proposal, there are two contents that have been widely concerned by the market. The first is to delete the decision that "personnel holding other positions in the actual controller's unit other than directors shall not be senior managers of the company".

Some shareholders questioned that this move may pave the way for the entry of Hillhouse capital, which means that the new actual controller (Hillhouse capital) of the company in the future can send employees to the management of Gree Electric.

However, Wang Jingdong denied the dispute.

He replied: "there is no relationship between (the amendment scheme of this article) and equity transfer, which is the corresponding amendment made by the company in accordance with the contents involved in the CSRC's guidelines on the articles of association of listed companies (revised in 2019)."

Another detail around the proposal is Gree's smartphone business.

In the revised articles of association, Gree Electric deleted "e-commerce: planning and implementation of e-commerce, providing e-commerce platform network development and maintenance". Operating telecommunication business and value-added telecommunication business, information transmission, software and information technology services, etc.

Some market participants pointed out that Gree Electric may give up the mobile phone business.

But the statement was also denied by Wang Jingdong. "You may also be concerned about Gree's (mobile related) application qualification. The mobile business will not be put in the headquarters and parent company link, but the application subject will be placed in the subsidiary company," Wang said. Not all businesses are carried out in the parent company, which has nothing to do with the company's business layout related to mobile phones. "

It needs to be added that at the end of October, Gree's folding screen mobile phone patent just passed the patent certification. However, Wang Jingdong also frankly pointed out that the distance from patent to product is still far away, and it is still in the research stage. (but) in terms of mobile phones, 5g is officially commercially available this year, and the company wants to prepare for a new starting point.

Subsidy pressure will not be transferred to dealers

In addition to the relevant contents of the proposal, Gree Electric's "subsidy" action in the double 11 is also the focus of the on-site shareholders' meeting.

On the eve of the double 11, Gree Electric announced a subsidy promotion of 3 billion yuan in microblog, wechat and other channels. At the same time, it also subsidized consumers who purchased "Junyue" and "t Shuang" series products before the double 11 (January 1 to November 10, 2019).

This "price reduction in disguised form" immediately triggered a huge wave in the market, and even achieved the blow of reducing the dimension of second and third tier brands. On the day of the double 11, the sales volume of the whole platform of Gree Electric Appliances exceeded 4.4 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 200%. The sales volume of the third party platform of Gree air conditioning exceeded 3.64 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 178%. The sales volume of Dong Mingzhu's store exceeded 363 million yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 48 times.

Luo Yamei, an analyst in the Western securities and home appliances industry, once pointed out that the off-season promotion activities are conducive to channel inventory de stocking and reduce channel pressure. At the same time, low-end models account for a relatively high proportion in the current inventory, and the de stocking of low-end models is conducive to the acceptance of new energy efficiency standards by manufacturers. At the same time, the increase of sales promotion is conducive to the increase of Gree's market share