Why is the former star fruit chain enterprise not fragrant?
Embrace Cook, the richest woman has the same scenery
The experience of Zhou Qunfei, the founder of Lens Technology, is very legendary. It is a story of counterattack from a working girl to the richest woman in China.
In the early years, Zhou Qunfei, who dropped out of middle school, worked in the Aoya Optical Glass Products Factory, which specializes in watch glass, and went to night school to improve her education while working. The way of the workshop to undertake the order; and then the opportunity provided by a friend, let her entercell phoneglass industry.
In 2001, her friend received an order from TCL for a batch of flip phone panels, and assigned the work of processing the phone panels to Zhou Qunfei, so Zhou Qunfei tried to apply his watch glass production technology to the production of mobile phone panels, using glass The screen replaced the plexiglass screen that was popular at the time. The plexiglass screen is prone to scratches, is not resistant to high temperature, and is easily deformed, while the glass screen solves these problems and is very popular.
In 2003, Zhou Qunfei established Lens Technology, focusing on the research and development, production and sales of protective window glass for mobile phones, and received orders from international brands such as Motorola. And what really made Lens Technology rise isapple’s order.
In 2007, Apple released the first generationiPhone, abandoned the physical buttons of traditional mobile phones and replaced them with a large touch screen, which is regarded as the beginning of the era of smartphones. The glass of the first-generation iPhone touch screen was processed and produced by Lens Technology.
With the blessing of Apple’s orders, Lens Technology’s performance has been rising, and it landed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2015. It was also in that year that Zhou Qunfei once became the richest woman in China by virtue of the skyrocketing stock price of Lens Technology.
According to the 2015 Hurun Global Self-Made Rich Women List, 45-year-old Zhou Qunfei became China’s richest woman and the world’s richest self-made woman with a fortune of 50 billion yuan, making her the biggest dark horse on the list. “No one paid attention to Zhou Qunfei before, but she didn’t expect her to become the most successful female entrepreneur in China and the most successful female entrepreneur in the world as soon as she went public,” Hu Run said.
Subsequently, reports of a cordial meeting with Apple CEO Cook also appeared frequently in the newspapers, and Lens Technology and Zhou Qunfei were the same for a while.
The pros and cons are all about Apple
According to Lens Technology’s financial data, Apple has been Lens Technology’s largest customer since 2012. Over the years, sales from Apple’s orders have accounted for a high proportion of Lens Technology’s revenue.
Taking 2021 as an example, the total sales amount of the top five customers disclosed by Lens Technology accounted for 80.56% of the total annual sales, while the largest customer Apple accounted for 66.49%, and the remaining second to fifth customers accounted for 80.56%. Digits.
This has pros and cons. The advantage is that Apple’s orders are an important source of Lens Technology’s revenue growth. In 2012, the order revenue brought by Apple was 6.255 billion yuan, and in 2021 it has reached 30.098 billion yuan; Cisco’s performance stability has also been greatly affected.
For example, in 2016, due to the decline in sales of Apple’s mobile phones, Lens Technology’s revenue fell by 11.56% year-on-year, and its net profit fell by 16.50% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies fell by 68.88% year-on-year, and the decline in net profit after deduction was even 121.44%.
The bigger risk is that there are still some examples of Apple’s supply chain companies being kicked out.
Oufeiguang, which is mainly engaged in optical imaging business, was once an important supplier of Apple’s industrial chain. For example, in the first half of 2020, OFILM achieved a net profit of 502 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 23 times. At that time, Ou Feiguang said that the overall profitability of the company continued to improve mainly due to the increase in orders from some major customers during the reporting period. The major customer mainly refers to Apple.
But soon after the release of Jinggong’s 2020 semi-annual report, there were rumors that Ou Feiguang was kicked out of the supply chain by Apple. Finally, in the first quarter of 2021, OFILM confirmed the news of the termination of cooperation with Apple. Since then, its performance and stock price have also plummeted. After losing Apple, Oufeiguang will lose 1.945 billion and 2.625 billion in 2020 and 2021, respectively, and lose 874 million yuan in the first half of this year.
Can the car become the second growth curve?
It is worth noting that Lens Technology has also fallen into rumors similar to Oufeiguang. In October 2021, an investor asked a question on the investor interaction platform: It is rumored that your company has been kicked out as an Apple mobile phone supplier, please confirm it. Lens Technology responded that the content is false information and rumors, please do not believe or spread rumors.
In the 2021 annual report, Lens Technology, which has intentionally not mentioned Apple for many years, emphasized that the largest customer is Apple. However, although Apple has not kicked Lens Technology out of the supply chain, the downturn in the mobile phone industry in the past two years has also greatly affected Lens Technology.
In addition to Apple, Lens Technology’s customers includeSamsung、Millet、OPPO、vivo、Huawei、glorymany mobile phone manufacturers. However, in the first half of this year, due to the impact of the epidemic and economic fluctuations, the demand in the consumer electronics industry has been greatly weakened. According to a report by market research firm Strategy Analytics, the global smartphone shipments in the first half of 2022 were 605 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 7.52%. In addition, shipments of consumer electronics products such as notebook computers and tablet computers also experienced a year-on-year decline to a certain extent.
The cold winter also spread to Lens Technology. According to the financial report for the first half of 2022 released by Lens Technology recently, the revenue was 19.183 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.32%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was -305 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 113.20%.
In the context of the poor mobile phone industry, Lens Technology is also seeking breakthroughs in new fields.
After losing Apple, a major customer, OFILM began to make efforts in the field of smart cars. In the first half of this year, OFILM’s smart car products achieved operating income of 596 million yuan, accounting for 7.66% of the company’s current operating income, an increase of 44.31% over the same period last year.
Lens Technology is also following this path. In the 2021 annual report, Lens Technology also disclosed that Tesla, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Ideal, Weilai and other new energy vehicle customers mainly provide car companies with in-vehicle touch display panels, new B-pillars, and new types of automotive glass. Wait. In the first half of this year, Lens Technology stated in its financial report that the company’s smart car business sales revenue increased by 50% compared with the same period last year.
However, the revenue brought by the automobile business to Lens Technology is still relatively limited, and it is still in the investment period.
Lens Technology stated frankly in its financial report for the first half of 2022 that the new parks in Huanghua and Xiangtan are still in the early stages of construction and operation, and the new parks need to be fully certified by customers. Among them, Lens Technology invested 4.531 billion yuan to build the “Changsha (II) Park vehicle glass and large-size functional panel construction project, which is located in Huanghuayuan District.”
In addition to automobiles, Lens Technology has also expanded significantly, extending its business to smart wearables, AR/VR, photovoltaics and other fields, which also require substantial investment.
Conclusion:
In January 2021, Lens Technology’s share price rose to 41.4 yuan, with a market value of 205.88 billion yuan. But since then, due to poor performance, the stock price has also fallen all the way. As of the close of trading on August 30, the stock price of Lens Technology was only 10.95 yuan, with a market value of 54.46 billion yuan. In less than two years, the market value of Lens Technology has evaporated by more than 150 billion yuan. This also greatly reduced the net worth of Zhou Qunfei, the former richest woman in China.
Just like the crossover from watch glass to mobile phone glass in the early years, Zhou Qunfei created a legend of counterattack from working girl to richest woman, and from mobile phone glass to car glass, can he continue to write the legend again? Is it to create another Lens, or can’t get out of the quagmire of losses? This will undoubtedly be a big gamble.