Editor | Rao Feixia
On September 3, Gree Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Xiaomi Group and China CITIC Bank. The three parties agreed to carry out in-depth cooperation in industrial funds, financial services, industrial investment, project cooperation and resource enjoyment.
Perhaps the concept of "Dong Mingzhu is Gree and Gree is Dong Mingzhu" is so deeply rooted in people's hearts that many people mistakenly think that this is a joint effort between Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun. ..
In fact, this cooperation has nothing to do with Dong Mingzhu. Dong Mingzhu is the chairman of Gree Electric, and the chairman of Gree Group is someone else. Gree Electric and Gree Group have deep roots, but they are not one family.
Anyone who knows Gree and Dong Mingzhu knows that Gree Group should be regarded as Dong Mingzhu's "adversary", and the relationship between Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu is also dominated by "adversary", that is to say, Dong Mingzhu's "adversary" has joined forces.
Suppose Gree Group and Xiaomi Group go together and have nothing to do with Dong Mingzhu. However, what they want to do, let Dong Mingzhu very mind.
According to the agreement, Gree Group invested 3.545 billion yuan to participate in the investment and management of Xiaomi Industrial Fund initiated by Xiaomi Group, and carried out in-depth layout around high-quality suppliers in the fields of Xiaomi ecological chain and integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet, core equipment and cutting-edge technologies. To help Zhuhai accelerate the construction of intelligent manufacturing industrial clusters.
These are exactly what Dong Mingzhu has been doing in the past 10 years: investing in the mold business for nearly 10 years, controversial mobile phones, rumored chip business, and smart equipment that wants to become the "second main business".
In these fields, Gree Group chose to join hands with others, which is equivalent to denying Dong Mingzhu's past efforts in the industry.
What makes Dong Mingzhu uncomfortable is that this partner is Xiaomi, an enterprise that she thinks has "quality management problems".
There are worse things. Since 2005, Gree has always occupied the first position of household air conditioning. Dong Mingzhu said in an interview on 20 18, "In another five years, no one can surpass Gree Air Conditioning." However, this year, the myth of Gree air-conditioning unbeaten was broken.
The semi-annual report just released shows that Dong Mingzhu's "thief" enterprise Midea's air-conditioning product income exceeds Gree's.
At the same time, the market value of Midea and Gree has further expanded. At the end of 20 19, the market value difference between them was only10 billion yuan. At the close, the total market value of Gree Electric was 329.8 billion yuan, while that of Midea Group was 483 billion yuan, a difference of more than 654.38+05 billion yuan.
In the field of intelligent manufacturing that Dong Mingzhu is most concerned about, Xiaomi Group, which she once despised, is in the upper position; In Dong Mingzhu's proudest air-conditioning product revenue, it is almost the beauty of her lifelong rival, which makes people feel that Dong Mingzhu's era is over?
At the signing ceremony, the representative of Gree Group was Chairman Zhou Lewei, who was once a "young cadre specially trained by the municipal government". 2065438+065438 In 2006 10, Zhou Lewei took over as the chairman of Gree Group, and his predecessor was Dong Mingzhu.
Dong Mingzhu is now the chairman of Gree Electric.
Gree Group, founded in 1985, is the first state-owned capital investment operation platform in Zhuhai, which is 100% owned by Zhuhai Sasac100.
199 1 year, Gree Group invested 30 million yuan to establish Gree Electric.
From 65438 to 0996, after the listing of Gree Electric, the shareholding ratio of Gree Group kept declining. 1998 was 55.35% at the end, but it dropped to 29.74% in May 2007, and then dropped to 18.22% in September 20 16, but it is still the largest shareholder.
In the second half of last year, Gree Electric carried out mixed reform, and Gree Group transferred its 65,438+05% equity to Zhuhai Mingjun Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) at a price of 46,543.8+66 billion yuan, which facilitated the entry of Gaoyao Capital.
At present, Gree Group only owns 3.22% of Gree Electric. It seems that the two companies used to be "father-son relationship" and now they are shareholders.
In fact, the relationship between Gree Group and Gree Electric has always been very delicate. Gree Group often plays the role of "adversary" and sometimes "sworn enemy" of Dong Mingzhu.
According to shanghai securities news, Dong Mingzhu once said that "Gree Group has no good projects and assets, only good listed companies (Gree Electric). As a group, it can't develop only by one of its listed companies. It needs to introduce strategic investors, find new projects, optimize industries, and finally have its own hematopoietic function. "
Dong Mingzhu also publicly "spit out" the Zhuhai government and SASAAC: "Gree will go to SAAC when it is in trouble, but SAAC will leave it alone and let us solve it ourselves. However, when it comes to interests, the Zhuhai government will reach out for a long time, and any government decision and SASAC requirements may come out. I am always ready to fight with them and must adhere to the principle. "
The struggle between Dong Mingzhu and Zhuhai government was the fiercest, and the most successful one occurred in 2004. At that time, the Zhuhai government planned to sell Gree to the United States for 900 million dollars. But Dong Mingzhu strongly disagreed and tried to stop the transaction.
Many years later, Dong Mingzhu said in an interview: Now the market value of Gree Electric is more than 90 billion, and the value of state-owned shares is close to 20 billion. At that time, it sold for (almost) $900 million. We have now earned more than 30 billion for our country.
In 20 12, Dong Mingzhu became the chairman of gree group, and the relationship with Zhuhai SASAC was always tense. After 20 16 left office, Dong Mingzhu did not belong to the leadership of state-owned enterprises, but only became a professional manager of listed companies.
The representative of Xiaomi Group is President Wang Xiang, who is one of the four new partners announced by Xiaomi Company on August 16. According to the data, Wang Xiang joined Xiaomi as senior vice president in June 20 15, and was promoted to president of Xiaomi company in June 2019. In April 2020, he succeeded Zhou as CFO of Xiaomi Company. Before joining Xiaomi, Wang Xiang was the senior vice president of Qualcomm and the president of Greater China.
The appearance of Wang Xiang means that this is a cooperation that Lei Jun attaches great importance to.
In the relationship between Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun, the most famous bet is "1 100 million", which was born at the China Economic Person of the Year Award Ceremony in February 13. At that time, Lei Jun thought that the total revenue of Xiaomi could exceed Gree in five years, and he was willing to bet 1 yuan. Dong Mingzhu thought it was impossible, and said that if he wanted to gamble, he would bet 654.38+0 billion.
According to the financial report of 20 18, Xiaomi's total revenue is174.9 billion yuan, and Gree's total revenue is 198 10 billion yuan. Dong Mingzhu narrowly won the bet.
On August 28th last year, Dong Mingzhu said in Beijing that the 654.38 billion bet with Lei Jun had ended, and everyone knew the result. "I don't want 10 billion, I want to gamble with Lei Jun for another five years." Lei Jun responded: "I think we can try."
On August 1 1, at the 10th anniversary conference of Xiaomi, Lei Jun admitted that he was a little blind and confident in his bet with Dong Mingzhu and "regretted it later". Two days later, in the CCTV news relativity program, Dong Mingzhu responded that "Gree has the core technology in the field of air conditioning and is now in a leading position. Gree wants to make China's equipment world-famous while keeping its main business unchanged! Please ask Lei Jun to put forward the goals of his own industry. "
On April 27th, in the CCTV news 1+ 1 program with Lei Jun, Dong Mingzhu said, "Lei Jun and I are very familiar and friends." Although the relationship between the two seems good now, in the past, the relationship between the two was more "right".
20 14 12, Xiaomi technology invested in midea group12.66 million yuan. In a public speech, Dong Mingzhu commented on this cooperation as "two thieves together, a thief group."
Dong Mingzhu Midea is a thief. Because some air conditioners previously sold by Midea infringed Gree's patents, the court decided to compensate Gree for economic losses of 2 million yuan. Xiaomi is a liar, which means that Xiaomi was publicly sued by Ericsson in New Delhi, India for infringing Ericsson's technical patents, and Xiaomi's mobile phone was once banned in India.
Since then, Dong Mingzhu has repeatedly bombarded Xiaomi, saying that "Xiaomi is not a great company, and Xiaomi mobile phone is not a quality product." He also said, "People choose not to use Xiaomi mobile phone because the quality of Xiaomi is not good. No one will say that Xiaomi is too expensive. " It is also said that Xiaomi is an OEM, and so on.
Of course, the real crisis in Dong Mingzhu is not the "rival" outside, but inside Gree.
According to the data, in 20 19, the market size of household appliances in China was 803.2 billion yuan, which was lower than 8 104 billion yuan in 20 104. This means that the domestic air-conditioning industry has entered the era of stock game, and the struggle between Gree and Midea will be even more cruel.
For the air-conditioning industry, which suffered heavy losses under the influence of the epidemic, whoever can bear the risks and minimize the losses will be able to recover more quickly after the epidemic and even reshape the industry structure.
On August 30th, Gree and Midea released semi-annual reports at the same time. This time, Gree, who has always been strong, lost to the United States. In the first half of 2020, Gree's air-conditioning business income was 410.33 billion yuan, while Midea's air-conditioning business income was 64.03 billion yuan. The semi-annual report shows that this is the first time that Midea has surpassed Gree in air-conditioning business for many years.
What is more obvious is the decline in the overall revenue of the two companies. Midea's revenue was 65.438+0.397 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.47%; The net profit returned to the mother was 65.438+03.9 billion yuan, down 8.29% year-on-year. However, Gree's revenue was only 70.6 billion yuan, and its net profit returned to its mother was only 6.362 billion yuan, down by 28.25438+0% and 53.73% respectively. Specific to the air-conditioning business, Midea only decreased by 10.37%, while Gree decreased by 47.89%.
I'm afraid Dong Mingzhu is very unhappy about losing to a "thief" enterprise that he despises.
Dong Mingzhu, who claims that his greatest pleasure is "selling air conditioners", has always wanted to change the fact that 70% to 80% of Gree's income comes from air conditioners.
The biggest risk of a single main business is that if it fails in the air-conditioning business, Gree has almost no chance to make a comeback. Although Midea's challenge to Gree is only a small victory, Gree is very nervous because it is the "lifeblood". Since 20 18, the revenue of Gree air conditioners has accounted for more than 70% of the total revenue for a long time, and it has declined in the first half of this year. It is also because of the serious impact of the epidemic that air conditioners cannot be sold and the proportion of other businesses has increased.
Crucially, the air-conditioning business is the most important profit source of Gree. The gross profit margin has been maintained at around 35% for a long time, and it fell to 32.05% in the first half of this year, which is also caused by the bad market and reduced sales. Although the gross profit margin of other manufacturing businesses such as household appliances and smart equipment is relatively high, it is almost negligible because of its small proportion.
We should know that the revenue of Gree Air Conditioning 20 18 and 20 19 is basically the same. From the market point of view, the total output of the industry increased by 1.2 1% in 20 19, but the overall sales decreased by 0.74% and the total export of the industry decreased by 0.82%.
Overseas, Gree is not as competitive as Haier. Among the three white power giants, Gree has the highest dependence on the local market, and its contribution rate to overseas markets has been below 15% for a long time, and it only reached 17% in the first half of this year, while Midea and Haier's overseas markets contributed nearly 50%.
Gree can indeed gain a foothold in the field of air conditioning for a long time, but what new stories can Gree tell besides air conditioning? This determines how long Dong Mingzhu's era can last.
At the 20 18 cadre work conference, Dong Mingzhu said that intelligent equipment should be regarded as the "second main business" of Gree Electric. 20 13 years, just the production department of automation equipment. On 20/0/5, Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. was established and operated independently.
Around 20 17, Gree split the original smart equipment business into three parts. Nanshui's factory mainly produces robots, Beiling's mechanical research institute mainly produces automatic production lines, and the old factory located in Jinan University mainly carries out upstream technology research and development.
At present, Gree claims to have key technologies in the fields of industrial robots, CNC machine tools, intelligent logistics and warehousing, intelligent detection and automation integration. According to reports, Gree's business not only serves its own automation transformation and upgrading, but also mainly promotes intelligent manufacturing upgrades and upgrade solutions to other B-end enterprises. However, deep cultivation in 2C's light industry field for many years does not mean rapid development in 2B's heavy industry field, which requires long-term technical accumulation and verification. As can be seen from the proportion of income, there is still a long way to go to truly become the "second main business".
2B is not easy to do. Gree has not gained a firm foothold in consumer businesses such as home appliances and mobile phones with mature technologies. Some explosive products have only been introduced in the fields of small household appliances such as rice cookers, water purifiers and air purifiers, but there is still a big gap with traditional powerhouses such as Midea and Haier in the fields of large household appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines.
What worries Dong Mingzhu is that Gree has always been the leader in the air-conditioning industry, but the market competition is becoming more and more fierce. Before the transformation and upgrading of the traditional manufacturing industry, Xiaomi and other Internet upstarts entered high-profile. Will Gree become the second Chunlan air conditioner in her hands? You know, this once air-conditioning overlord has fallen on the road of diversified expansion.
In fact, whether it is smart devices, household appliances, or other businesses including chip business and mobile phone business, it is "much cry and little rain", with large investment, many patents and many awards, but the commercialization has not been significantly improved.
Under the epidemic situation, the more serious the trauma Gree suffered, the more it showed that his physical strength was not enough. The core is that Gree has not found its second growth curve. No one knows whether smart equipment, new energy, mobile phones and chips will become the next pillar of Gree, including Dong Mingzhu himself.
* The title map is from vision china.