Zhang, who has been in a difficult situation, finally found the "receiver". On the evening of July 5th, Suning.cn issued a number of announcements to disclose its equity transfer plan, introducing Jiangsu SASAC and industrial capital investment. The announcement also shows that founder Zhang and his concerted actions Suning Holding Group and Suning Appliance Group intend to transfer 16.96% of the shares of listed companies to Jiangsu Xinxin Retail Innovation Fund Phase II at an average price of 5.59 yuan/share. At the same time, Zhang resigned as chairman, and his era of control was over.

According to media reports, the second phase of Jiangsu Xinxin Retail Innovation Fund is Suning.cn Capital, led by the state-owned assets of Jiangsu Province and Nanjing City. Participating enterprises include: Alibaba, Xiaomi Technology, Haier, Midea, TCL and other technology and home appliance giants. According to industry analysis, if the average price per share is 5.59 yuan, the above transferor will get about 8.8 billion yuan with the help of this transaction. This means that both Zhang and his old shareholders can cash out a large sum of money. However, what is worrying is that it will also enter the era of "no actual controller" from the era of Zhang.

To be fair, before 2020, Suning.cn's performance is still very good. As a traditional home appliance giant, Suning Appliance began to lay out its e-commerce business after defeating Gome. After some ups and downs and failures, Suning.cn has also achieved some good results.

In 20 17, Suning.cn was selected into the top 500 list of the world with a growth rate of 26.48% by virtue of its operating income of187.9 billion yuan. The growth rate of operating income in 20 18 and 20 19 years is 30.35% and 9.9 1% respectively. However, in 2020, due to the sudden outbreak of the epidemic, people's consumption demand was affected, and Suning.cn's operating income showed a negative growth, with an operating income of 252.3 billion yuan.

Judging from Suning.cn's 2020 annual report, the main problems lie in two aspects: First, the liquidity is insufficient, and the capital chain is at risk of breaking at any time. Current liabilities are as high as124.602 billion yuan, accounting for 9.2 13% of all liabilities, and current assets are only107.484 billion yuan, which is less than current liabilities, so the current ratio far exceeds the warning line. This means that Suning.cn's short-term current assets are insufficient to repay its current liabilities due. Suning.cn faces the risk of short-term debt default.

On the other hand, the debt ratio is too high. According to the annual report of Suning.cn in 2020, although Suning.cn achieved sales revenue of 252.3 billion yuan in 2020, its liabilities reached 654.38+035.243 billion yuan, its assets were only 265.438+02.075 billion yuan, and its asset-liability ratio was as high as 63.77%. If removed, its intangible assets are 654.38+038.

So, how did Suning.cn, once ranked among the top 500 in the world, get into this situation? First, Suning cn is expanding crazily against the market. Zhang, the founder of Suning.cn, is obsessed with offline retail stores. As early as 20 18, he spent 4.8 billion yuan to acquire 80% shares of Carrefour China. You know Carrefour is heavily in debt and dying. As a result, Carrefour successfully cashed out.

As a result, Suning stores came into being. At the peak, there were more than 8,000 stores nationwide. The asset-heavy Suning store did not bring any performance to the parent company, but also dragged down the traditional business. Zhang had to divest Suning Appliance from the listed company.

Secondly, Suning.cn has not fully developed its online business. According to Zhang, I have worked hard on the Internet for many years, but I have found nothing. In recent years, the market cake of B2C has been divided between Alibaba and JD.COM, and Suning has only a pitiful 5.5% market share. In fact, on the surface, Suning.cn is an "online+offline" platform, but its main battlefield is always offline. Because Suning.cn focuses on offline appliance stores or supermarkets, Suning's online development is naturally at a standstill. If the offline development is blocked, there is no possibility of success online.

Third, Zhang has done too many things to "burn money" in recent years. Zhang invested heavily in Jiangsu Suning Football Club of Super League, and at the same time set his sights on Europe. In order to obtain the copyright of La Liga 20 15 -2020 season, Premier League 20 19-2022 season and Bundesliga 20 18-2023 season, Zhang spared no expense to spend 250 million euros, 5 billion yuan and 2.5 billion yuan.

Zhang likes Inter Milan, so he spent 2 billion yuan to buy 70% shares in Italy. It is said that the "Suning Department" burned about 5 billion in the years when it was in charge of the national football Milan. However, investing heavily in sports will only accelerate the depletion of liquidity in Suning.cn and will not bring any return on investment to Suning.cn.

Judging from the current situation, it is also a good thing for Zhang to resign as the chairman, because the shareholders of the second phase of Jiangsu Xinxin Retail Innovation Fund are either e-commerce giants or home appliance giants, such as Ali, Xiaomi, Midea and Haier. In the future, Ali can further open the sales space of e-commerce for Suning.cn, while shareholders such as Midea, Haier and Xiaomi can give Suning.cn their advanced management experience and offline sales channels. This time, after "surviving with a broken arm", Suning.cn may have a new turn for the better. However, as the founder of Zhang, Zhang's era is coming to an end.