This 24-year-old diversified group that once had assets worth RMB 30 billion took only two years from the outbreak of the crisis to the time it was filed for bankruptcy liquidation.

01

Bankruptcy and liquidation

On November 24, Gangtai Holdings (600687.SH) announced that the company’s second largest shareholder Gangtai Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gangtai Group"), Guosen Securities applied to the court for bankruptcy liquidation on the grounds that it could not pay off its due debts and clearly lacked solvency.

Announcement on Gangtai Group’s bankruptcy application

The announcement shows that Gangtai Holdings has provided illegal guarantees for the loans of Gangtai Group and its related parties without the company’s review procedures. , the total principal amount of illegal guarantees that have not yet been resolved is 2.045 billion yuan, of which the total principal amount of illegal guarantees for Gangtai Group is 593 million yuan.

If Gangtai Group enters bankruptcy liquidation proceedings, the above-mentioned illegal guarantees may cause losses to Gangtai Holdings. The specific impact will be subject to the final ruling of the court.

It is reported that Gangtai Group has raised objections and the court has not yet accepted the bankruptcy liquidation application. There is still significant uncertainty as to whether the court will ultimately accept the bankruptcy liquidation of Gangtai Group.

"Small Debt Market Watch" noted that this is not the first time that Gangtai Group has been filed for bankruptcy liquidation. In April this year, it had been filed for bankruptcy liquidation by Bank of China International Securities, and the case number was (2020) Shanghai 03. number 20.

Bankruptcy and Reorganization Information

In September this year, Gangtai Holdings was also filed with the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court by creditors because it was unable to pay off its due debts and had an obvious possibility of losing its ability to pay. Application for bankruptcy reorganization.

Since the outbreak of the debt crisis, Gangtai Group and Gangtai Holdings have been continuously downgraded by rating agencies. Currently, their main body and related debt credit ratings are both C.

Gangtai Group Rating Trend

02

Debt crisis broke out

According to the official website, Gangtai Group was founded in Taizhou, Zhejiang in 1996 , entered Shanghai in 1999, and has formed a strategic layout of three major industrial sectors: "big consumption, big culture, and big finance" and "four major sub-groups": holding group, financial holding group, cultural group, and real estate group.

Among them, Gangtai Holdings’ main business is gold mining business and the design, processing and sales of gold, diamonds, jade, colored treasures and other jewelry. It is known as the “No. 1 jewelry stock on the Internet”.

Gangtai Group Official Website

From the perspective of ownership structure, Gangtai Group holds 13.13% of Gangtai Holdings and is the company's second largest shareholder.

It is worth mentioning that in September 2019, due to an equity pledge dispute, 24.55% of Gangtai Holdings shares held by the original major shareholder Gangtai Mining were judicially transferred to Huitong Fund. The actual controller of Gangtai Holdings Changed to China Tobacco Corporation.

Original shareholding structure chart of Gangtai Holdings

In June 2018, a "Report on Requesting for Help Gangtai Group Solve the Short-term Liquidity Crisis" opened the door to the "Gangtai Group" "In the corner of the debt crisis, the letter for assistance bluntly stated that "Gangtai Holdings sought help from higher-level governments to solve the short-term liquidity crisis, and financial institutions took measures such as withdrawing loans from it, causing the company to have a liquidity crisis and normal operations have been disrupted. "

Afterwards, although Gangtai Group raised funds to resolve the liquidity crisis by increasing real estate sales, cooperating with external companies, and transferring investment projects, the effect was so minimal that all of its maturing bonds defaulted.

In September 2018, Gangtai Group defaulted on its debt for the first time. Since then, a total of 4 bonds under its name have defaulted one after another, with a total default amount of 1.636 billion yuan; currently, it only has one "17 Gangtai 02" , will expire on September 26, 2022.

Subsequently, the debt crisis of Gangtai Group was transmitted to the listed companies. In April 2019, Gangtai Holdings overdue interest payments for the first time. Currently, a total of two bonds have defaulted, with a total default amount of 78 million yuan; There is only one "17 Ganggu 01" in existence, which will expire in November 2022.

What is even more serious is that in June 2019, Gangtai Holdings was exposed to illegal guarantee issues and was investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

After investigation, from November 22, 2016 to June 13, 2018, Gangtai Holdings provided guarantees for 21 illegal loans of its actual controllers, related parties and other relevant parties. The guarantee The total amount is 5.634 billion yuan, but the guarantee has not gone through the decision-making procedures of *ST Gangtai's board of directors and shareholders' meeting, and the information disclosure obligations have not been fulfilled in a timely manner.

In recent years, Gangtai Group’s gold and jewelry business revenue has dropped sharply, and its profitability has declined significantly. At the same time, expenses and asset impairment losses have increased significantly during the period. In 2018, its net profit loss attributable to the parent company was 1.738 billion yuan, the largest loss in history. First loss.

In the first half of 2019, Gangtai Group achieved operating income of 615 million yuan, a sharp decline of 92.03% year-on-year; it achieved a net profit of -153 million yuan.

Profitability

At the same time, due to the impact of strong financial supervision and tight credit supply, the financing environment has tightened. Gangtai Group has high debt and is relatively dependent on financing, but its credit environment is relatively tight. poor, facing a gradually deteriorating debt repayment environment.