165438+1on the afternoon of October 2, according to the list of centralized cases of operators unconditionally approved from June 65438+1October 65438+July 23, 2022 issued by official website, the State Administration of Market Supervision, China Unicom Innovation and Venture Capital Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Tencent Industrial Venture Capital Co., Ltd. have established new joint ventures.
Affected by this news, China Unicom began to increase its volume in the afternoon and quickly sealed the daily limit. Its share price closed at 3.75 yuan, up 9.97%. At the same time, China Unicom also promoted the rise of communication concept stocks. Zhongfutong (300560), Wei Bei Science and Technology (002 148), Yitong Century (3003 10) and China Tongmai followed suit, while Tencent, which was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, was closed due to the typhoon, and its share price performance was not reflected.
In response to the fierce market reaction, China Unicom 10 announced on the evening of 2 October that today, the company noticed media reports that the operator of the newly established joint venture between Unicom Innovation Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Unicom Venture Capital") and Shenzhen Tencent Industrial Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tencent Venture Capital") was unconditionally approved by the State Administration of Markets.
The company now explains the relevant situation as follows:
Based on the strategic needs of the company to comprehensively promote the digital economy, Unicom Venture Capital, a subsidiary of the company, plans to set up a new joint venture company with Tencent Venture Capital, mainly engaged in content distribution network (CDN) and edge computing business, and based on independent research and development, form a complete CDN/MEC platform capability, operational capability and product innovation capability. The centralized declaration and approval of the above-mentioned operators was published on the website of the State Administration of Markets at 65438 on October 27th, 2022. The establishment of the joint venture company is in the process of promotion, and the establishment registration has not been completed, which has no significant impact on the company's current production and operation. In the long run, it is conducive to amplifying the advantages of both parties and expanding the CDN and edge computing industry chain.
Tencent is one of our long-term strategic investors. This matter is a normal business cooperation between the company and Tencent, and the amount of investment involved does not meet the disclosure standards of the company stipulated in the Listing Rules of Shanghai Stock Exchange (hereinafter referred to as the Listing Rules).
China Unicom actively conforms to the new wave of digital economy development, and under the guidance of the "1+9+3" strategic planning system, takes "big connection, big computing, big data, big application and big security" as its main business, undertakes the responsibility and mission of "serving the national team for digital information infrastructure operation, the main force for building a smart society in digital China with a strong network, and the vanguard for digital technology integration and innovation", and vigorously promotes cooperation.
In the industry's view, the establishment of a joint venture with Tencent's companies can be regarded as another measure of Unicom's mixed reform.
According to the survey, Shenzhen Tencent Xinda Co., Ltd. (Limited Partnership), a subsidiary of Tencent, holds 5.2% of the shares of China United Network Communication Co., Ltd., and lu shan, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent, also serves as the director of China United Network Communication Co., Ltd.
Li Jin, an expert on the reform of state-owned enterprises and chief researcher of China Enterprise Research Institute, told the reporter of Securities Times E Company that the cooperation between Unicom and Tencent was the vane in the field of mixed reform before, and the effect of this mixed reform was further manifested. "The establishment of a joint venture between the two parties is a strategic investment, which avoids the disadvantages of mixed financial investment. From the perspective of ownership structure, the tripartite shareholding of the joint venture company is a reasonable corporate governance structure, while the joint shareholding is more interesting, avoiding the monopoly of state-owned enterprises and state-owned enterprises, and the joint venture company can operate better in the market. In addition, this mixed reform requires the approval of the State Administration of Markets, which was relatively rare in the past and reflected the reasonable guidance of capital. "
Focus on CDN and edge computing services
The reporter of Securities Times E Company noticed that the Second Division of Anti-monopoly Law Enforcement of the State Administration of Markets had filed a case for the remixing cooperation between Unicom Venture Capital and Tencent Investment on September 26th. Judging from the information publicized at that time, the joint venture company established by Unicom Venture Capital and Tencent Investment Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in content distribution network (CDN) and edge computing business.
Specifically, public information shows that Unicom Venture Capital and Tencent Investment Co., Ltd. have signed an agreement, and all parties intend to set up a joint venture company. The joint venture company intends to mainly engage in content distribution network (CDN) and edge computing services. After the transaction is completed, Unicom Venture Capital, Tencent Venture Capital and related employee stock ownership platforms will hold 48%, 42% and 10% of the equity of the joint venture company respectively, and Unicom Venture Capital and Tencent Venture Capital jointly control the joint venture company.
The prospectus also shows that in the Internet Data Center (IDC) service market, the market share of China Unicom Venture Capital in China is 10%- 15%, and the market share of Tencent Investment (self-use) is 0-5%, so the total market share is 10- 15%. In terms of CDN services, the domestic market share of China Unicom Venture Capital is 0-5%, that of Tencent Investment is 5- 10%, that of joint venture (expected) is 0-5%, and that of all parties is 5- 10%. In the edge computing service market, the market share of Tencent's production and investment in China is 0-5%, the joint venture (expected) is 0-5%, and the total of all parties is 0-5%.
Unicom Venture Capital was established in Beijing on April 29th, 2004+2065438, and its main business is self-funded investment. The ultimate controller of Unicom Venture Capital is China United Network Communications Group Co., Ltd., whose main business is communication, communication facilities services, network access, telecom value-added services and related system integration services.
Tencent Investment Co., Ltd. was established in Guangdong Province, China on September 19, and its main business is venture capital, enterprise management consulting and investment consulting. The ultimate controller of Tencent's production and investment is Tencent Holdings Limited, whose main businesses include communication and social networking, digital content and financial technology.
Guolian Securities said that with the help of Internet giants, China Unicom's CDN and edge computing are expected to make new breakthroughs. "In the past 1 year, the cloud computing business of telecom operators has developed rapidly, and the revenue growth rate is faster than that of Internet service providers. There are variables in the domestic public cloud market Top5. The joint venture between Tencent and China Unicom Holdings has a strong synergy, which further broadens the development space of Unicom Cloud, and the company's industrial digital business is expected to achieve new breakthroughs in the future. "
Previously, he had invested in China Unicom.
In fact, China Unicom is the deep charge of mixed ownership reform of central enterprises. As early as 20 17, Internet companies such as Tencent, Ali and Baidu participated in the fixed increase of China Unicom as strategic investors.
In August of 20 17, the special announcement of mixed reform issued by China Unicom showed that in the process of mixed reform, China Unicom planned to increase its holdings of strategic investors by no more than 9.037 billion shares and raise no more than 6 1.725 billion yuan; About 654.38+09 billion shares of the company were transferred from Unicom Group to the structural adjustment fund agreement, and the transfer price was about 654.38+02.975 billion yuan; In the first phase, no more than 848 million restricted shares will be awarded to core employees, and the raised funds will not exceed about 32130,000 yuan. The total consideration of the above transactions does not exceed about 77.9.1400 million yuan.
After the above transaction is completed, Unicom Group holds about 36.67% of the shares of China Unicom; Strategic investors such as China Life Insurance (60 1628), Tencent Cinda, Baidu Peng Huan, JD.COM Sanhong, Ali Venture Capital, Suning Shang Yun, Guangqi Internet, Huaihai Ark, Xingquan Fund and Structural Adjustment Fund hold about 35. 19% of the shares of the company, further forming a diversified shareholding structure with mixed ownership.
From a business perspective, China Unicom's performance growth in the first three quarters of this year is also quite eye-catching. 101On the evening of October 28th, China Unicom disclosed the third quarterly report. In the first three quarters, the company achieved revenue of 263.98 billion yuan, up 8.0% year-on-year, and its main business income reached 239.65 billion yuan, up 7.8% year-on-year. The net profit was 6.83 billion yuan, an increase of 20.4% over the same period last year. The absolute value of revenue and net profit reached the highest level in the same period since listing.
At the same time, the revenue structure of China Unicom has been continuously optimized, and the industrial Internet business has achieved a revenue of 5310.50 billion yuan, up 29.9% year-on-year, accounting for 22.2% of the main business income. EBITDA was 76.59 billion yuan, up 65,438+0.9% year-on-year.
It is worth noting that Tencent has frequently encountered rumors of being acquired recently.
Recently, it was reported that a China state-owned investment company led by CITIC Group was negotiating with Naspers, the largest shareholder of Tencent, and planned to buy all the shares of Tencent held by Naspers. On the same day, CITIC Group said that the acquisition of Tencent shares was untrue and there was no relevant plan. In addition, Prosus, the major shareholder of Tencent, also denied it.
1 65438+1October1day, Prosus issued a statement saying that the news about CITIC's acquisition of Tencent shares was untrue. Naspers Group will continue to implement the public share repurchase plan announced in June this year, which will raise funds by selling a small number of shares held by Tencent Holdings in an orderly manner on a regular basis. The board of directors of Naspers and Prosus reiterated that they are still full of confidence in Tencent's long-term prospects and continue to believe that the share repurchase plan is in the best interests of Prosus, Naspers and their respective shareholders.
10 year 10 On October 24th, there were rumors that China Mobile might become a shareholder in Tencent. In response, Tencent responded that the news was untrue.
In the industry's view, the establishment of a joint venture between Tencent and China Unicom has nothing to do with the rumors of being acquired. "Tencent Unicom's establishment of a joint venture company is a normal business for Tencent. There are many such cooperations, such as Tencent's shareholding in Sinopec many years ago and Tencent's shareholding in China Unicom. " A senior market observer said.