“Investors Network” Meng Xing

Towards the end of the year, Hu Wei, vice president of Guoyuan Securities Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Guoyuan Securities”, 000728, SZ), was promoted to president.

Recently, Guoyuan Securities issued an announcement stating that the company received Shen Hefu's written resignation report on December 15. After Shen Hefu resigned as director of the executive committee and president due to a job adjustment application, he still served as the company's party committee secretary, chairman of the board strategy and sustainable development committee, member of the board remuneration and nomination committee, and director of Guoyuan International Holdings Co., Ltd., a holding subsidiary of the company.

At the same time, after qualification review and nomination by the company's board of directors's remuneration and nomination committee, it was agreed to appoint Hu Wei as the company's president and executive committee director. The term of office began on the date of review and approval by the board of directors until the end of the 10th board of directors. After the job adjustment, Hu Wei no longer serves as the company's vice president and deputy director of the executive committee.

Differentiation of self-employment and investment performance

According to data, Hu Wei was born in 1981 and has held positions such as Project Manager at Guoyuan Securities Investment Bank Headquarters, Deputy Manager of Business Division 3 and Business Division 5, General Manager of Investment Bank Headquarters Business Division 5 and Business Division 9, General Manager of the Equity Management Department, Deputy General Manager of the Investment Bank Headquarters, Manager of Business Division 3, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Director, Deputy Director of the Executive Committee, and Vice President of Guoyuan Securities.

According to the company's official website, Hu Wei is mainly responsible for the executive work of the company's six major business committees, including investment banking business, wealth credit business, proprietary business, asset management business, institutional business, and international business, and is also the head of the sponsorship business.

According to the 2023 three-quarter report, Guoyuan Securities's revenue for the first three quarters was 4.934 billion yuan, up 27.68% year on year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 1,426 billion yuan, up 23.00% year on year.

Looking at the company's specific business, the company's net brokerage fee revenue was 691 million yuan, down 9.32% year on year; net revenue from asset management fees was 72 million yuan, up 2.29% year on year.

In recent years, Guoyuan Securities has paid more and more attention to the development of investment banking business. In the 2022 investment banking business quality evaluation results of securities companies announced by the China Securities Association, Guoyuan Securities was awarded Class A, ranking second among all participating brokerage firms.

According to the semi-annual report released by Guoyuan Securities this year, the “14th Five-Year Plan” strategic plan formulated by the company shows that during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the company strives to enter the top 20 in the industry in terms of overall capability rankings and key management indicators. The company will take the lead in investment, focus on the five major development directions of platformization, digitalization, specialization, marketization and institutionalization, focus on the golden circuit of “industry research+industrial investment+industrial investment banking+comprehensive wealth management”, make every effort to enhance the service capabilities of the entire business chain, and build a first-class industrial investment bank with core competitiveness while persevering.

However, Guoyuan Securities's investment banking business did not perform well this year. The company's three-quarter report shows that as of the end of the third quarter of this year, the company's investment banking business revenue was 159 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 74.84%.

At a recent investor research conference, some investors mentioned the decline in the company's investment banking business. In response, Guoyuan Securities said that in the first half of this year, the full A-share registration system was officially implemented, and the investment banking business ushered in new development opportunities. It also placed higher demands on the quality of practice and comprehensive financial service capabilities of securities companies. Competition in the capital market became more intense. Furthermore, the cyclicality of investment banking projects also had a certain impact.

According to Wind data, as of December 18, Guoyuan Securities sponsored a total of 15 IPOs this year. Of these, 4 companies voluntarily withdrew, and the withdrawal rate reached 26.67%.

Also, since this year, the self-operated business has performed the best among all Guoyuan Securities businesses. The three-quarter report shows that by the end of the third quarter, the company's investment income was 1,170 billion yuan, an increase of 1234.58% over the previous year. The company explained that it was mainly due to an increase in revenue from the disposal of transactional financial assets and derivatives.

The quality of practice is being questioned by the market

Although Guoyuan Securities stated in response to investors that the quality of practice is the “bottom line” and “lifeline” of the investment banking business, the fact that the company once acted as a sponsor for Taihu Jinzhang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jinzhang Technology”) is still being questioned by the market.

In July of this year, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange released the “Shenzhen Stock Exchange Issuance and Listing Review Updates” (No. 6, 2023). In this issue of “Listing Review Updates”, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange mentioned a case of on-site supervision. Although the Shenzhen Stock Exchange used an anonymous method to announce the notification company and sponsor agency, some market participants discovered after the proposed IPO company that was withdrawn through screening and experienced on-site supervision that the IPO company in the on-site supervision case reported by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was Jinzhang Technology. At the time, the company's sponsor was Guoyuan Securities.

According to data, in December 2019, Jinzhang Technology signed a “Main Underwriting Agreement” and “Sponsorship Agreement” with Guoyuan Securities to entrust Guoyuan Securities as the sponsor for the initial public offering of shares and listing on the GEM. By June 2020, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Listing Committee accepted its GEM IPO application. In December of that year, the company voluntarily withdrew after 4 rounds of inquiries.

At the time, the fourth round of review and inquiry letter issued by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to Jinzhang Technology showed that there were many problems with the quality of Guoyuan Securities's practice. After investigation by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, it was discovered that the sponsor's verification of the issuer's financial flows and financial transactions with its related parties was incomplete; the sponsor did not carefully check the customer's business scale specified in the interview records, which clearly did not match the issuer's sales amount to the corresponding customer; the sponsor's inspection procedures and disclosure of the final sales situation of the issuer's main customers were inconsistent; the sponsor did not carefully check the differences between the data and communication data contained in the interview records; the sponsor did not carefully check the differences between the data and communication data contained in the interview records; the sponsor did not carefully check the differences between the data and communication data contained in the interview records; the sponsor did not carefully check the differences between the data and communication data contained in the interview records; Inadequate execution .

In response to an inquiry from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Guoyuan Securities replied that during the execution of the project, the sponsor strictly complied with the requirements of the business rules and industry self-regulation regulations formulated by law in all major aspects, strictly enforced the internal control system, effectively verified the issuer's issuance application documents and information disclosure data, made professional judgments and careful comments on the issuer's compliance with the issuance conditions, listing conditions and information disclosure requirements, and was responsible for the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of the prospectus and related documents issued, and effectively complied with the “Registration Measures” The provisions of Article 7.

In the “Listing Review Update” released this year, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange focused on Jinzhang Technology's two major suspected financial fraud issues: the fairness of issuer-related procurement prices and abnormalities in sales revenue for some customers.

Even though Jinzhang Technology had withdrawn its IPO application for many years, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange still believed that the sponsor had doubts about the rationality of the issuer's sales revenue verification method at the time. The sponsor disclosed in response to the review inquiry that it verified that the issuer's sales to major customers matched the customer's business scale and financial data based on the VAT return data provided by the issuer's customers. After additional verification by the sponsor, the amount purchased by the customer from the issuer is estimated from the input tax amount obtained by the customer's VAT return, which is clearly less than the issuer's book sales amount to the customer described above.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange said that the issuer and sponsor failed to provide a reasonable explanation for the above abnormal situation. After on-site supervision, the issuer and sponsor voluntarily applied to withdraw the declaration. (Produced by Thinking Finance) ■