The Zhitong Finance App learned that on October 19, Lan Shili, the actual controller of Wuhan Second Factory Soda, officially announced that Wuhan Second Factory Soda has entered the Hong Kong capital market through a merger and acquisition and has become a listed company on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which also means that Wuhan Second Factory Soda has become the number one soda stock in China.
Raffles Interior (01376), a Hong Kong-listed company, acquired the second factory in Wuhan. On October 18, Raffles Interior announced that it had acquired 51% of the shares of Erchang Soda Co., Ltd. at a transaction cost of HK$25.5 million. The listing approval for the acquisition and conversion of shares was received from the Stock Exchange on September 12, 2023. Therefore, the company will issue convertible notes to the seller in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement.
According to data, Raffles Interior is a Singaporean interior decoration service provider, and its business is mainly distributed in Singapore and Malaysia. Since the announcement of the acquisition in August January, Raffles Interior's stock price has once risen from HK$0.17 per share to HK$0.71, an increase of more than tripled.
Prior to that, many domestic soda brands also impacted the capital market. In 2020, Beijing's Arctic Ocean sought to inject assets such as the Arctic Ocean and Red Star Erguotou into the listed company Dahao Technology through mergers and acquisitions to try to enter the capital market in a curve, but in March 2023, Dahao Technology announced that it had terminated this major asset restructuring. Bingfeng in Shaanxi also planned to be listed on the Shenzhen Main Board in May 2021, but it also withdrew its application materials in May 2022.
However, it only took half a year from the launch of Wuhan No. 2 Soda to its listing in the capital market. At the end of April this year, Wuhan Second Factory Soda officially went on sale. It launched three old soft drinks in orange, pineapple, and banana flavors. The unit price was 3.8 yuan. Currently, the price of mainstream products from traditional domestic soda brands such as Bingfeng, Arctic Ocean, and Dayao is around 5 yuan to 8 yuan on the market.
On October 10, Wuhan Second Factory Soda also launched an ultra-low price of 1.99 yuan in orange juice cans, directly challenging the soft drink faucet brands Coca Cola and Pepsi. Within 24 hours of being on the shelves, it quickly made it to the JD beverage bestseller list.
Lan Shili said, “From the time a bottle of drink leaves its factory in China to the consumer, 70% of the profit remains in the distribution sector. When consumers buy a bottle of products for 10 yuan, the factory price is only 3 yuan. I think this is extremely unreasonable, so we need to rewrite this rule and completely reduce the price of soft drinks”.
It is worth noting that Wuhan Second Factory Soda is the second company under Lan Shili to enter the capital market. In November 2022, Tiancai Holdings (03882), a Hong Kong-listed company, announced the acquisition of 51% of the shares in Wuhan Xiu Life Convenience Store Co., Ltd., which is actually controlled by Lan Shili. As a result, Tiancai Holdings became the first unmanned vending machine in China.