The trend of industrial capital has always been one of the important concerns of investors. Recently, Haier Zhijia (600690.SH) major shareholder Haier Group's more than 10 billion yuan of trading operations, triggered a heated discussion among investors. Some people in the industry interpret that industrial capital may pay more attention to industrial synergy, not just financial investment.

Relevant announcements over the weekend show that Haier Group plans to continue to sell CICC (601995.SH), which has been held for many years, and if it reduces its holdings as planned, Haier Group may cash out CICC more than 10 billion yuan in two years. On the other hand, Haier Group spent 12.5 billion yuan "premium" to buy a 20% stake in Shanghai Les (002252.SZ).

Haier Group cashes out CICC or more than 10 billion yuan

CICC plunged more than 6% on the morning of January 8 after being sold off by major shareholders.

On the evening of January 5, CICC disclosed its shareholder reduction plan. One of Haier Group's investment platforms, Haier Group (Qingdao) Jinying Holding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Haier Jinying") plans to reduce CICC A shares by no more than 96.545 million shares, accounting for 2% of the company's total share capital, in the next three months (January 11 to April 10). Haier Jinying still holds 0.202 billion shares of CICC, accounting for 4.2 of the total share capital.

Haier Jinying said that Haier Jinying could only implement the reduction operation after 3 trading days from the date when CICC disclosed Haier Jinying's intention to reduce its holdings. This shows that the reduction operation will start as soon as January 11.

On June 13, 2022, Haier Jinying stated that it would reduce its holdings of no more than 0.135 billion A shares of the company through block transactions in the next six months, accounting for 2.8 of the company's total share capital. At that time, Haier Jinying held about 0.399 billion A shares of the company, accounting for 8.26 of the company's total share capital. Since June 2022, Haier Jinying has reduced its holdings of CICC shares in three rounds, cashing out nearly 0.2 billion shares. According to the average stock price of about 40 yuan, the cash is about 8 billion yuan. If the above-mentioned fourth round of reduction plan continues to be implemented, Haier Group has sold about 0.3 billion shares of CICC in less than two years, with a total cash of more than 10 billion yuan.

During 2023, securities firms including Guosen Securities, Hongta Securities, Xiangcai Shares, Bank of China Securities, Hua'an Securities, etc. have issued announcements, saying that their shareholders may be planning to reduce their holdings, or when the reduction is in progress, or have just completed In the last reduction plan, the reasons for the reduction are mostly "business development needs".

Xuan methyl gold CEO Lin Jiayi told the first financial reporter, for Haier Group, its Haier home appliances and medical refrigeration-related business, with Shanghai Laishi blood products related industries, is a business climate investment with a possible high degree of synergy. Since it is a controlling acquisition, the premium is high, which requires more cash flow from the acquirer, and the cost of more than 10 billion yuan may lead to Haier Group's need to sell other assets to raise funds.

12.5 billion yuan to buy Shanghai Laishi 20%

Shanghai Les announced earlier that on December 29, Haier Group reached a strategic cooperation with Killiford, a leading global plasma product company headquartered in Spain (Madrid and Nasdaq are listed in both places, GRFS). Haier Group will acquire 1.33 billion shares of Shanghai Les held by Killiford for 12.5 billion yuan, totaling 20% of the shares, and obtain a total of 26.58 of the voting rights.

After the completion of this transaction, Haier Group will become the controlling shareholder and actual controller of Shanghai RAAS; Killiford will continue to hold 6.58 per cent of Shanghai RAAS shares (0.437 billion shares) and retain seats on the board of directors. In this transaction, the transfer price of each share of Shanghai Laishi should be 9.4 yuan (the latest share price of Shanghai Laishi is about 7.6 yuan), which is not less than 90% of the closing price on the trading day before the signing of this agreement.

The transaction has the support of both boards of directors and is expected to close in the first half of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals. The announcement also said that according to the agreement, Haier Group has the right of first refusal to purchase the remaining shares of Shanghai Les held by Killiford.

Prior to this, Haier Group's indirect holding subsidiary Haier Bio (688139.SH) had already set foot in the blood industry chain. As early as 2018, Haier Biomedical relied on its ultra-low temperature refrigeration technology and began to build an Internet of Things blood solution. At present, Haier Group also indirectly controls Yingkang Life (300143.SZ).

Pan Jun, investment manager of Cheese Fund, told First Financial Reporters that Haier Group has continued to lay out the big health industry in recent years, and currently holds two listed companies, Haier Biology and Yingkang Life. For Shanghai Laishi, Haier Group's stake is expected to empower Shanghai Laishi and enhance the competitiveness of Shanghai Laishi through Haier Group's own accumulated experience in manufacturing and management and industry advantages. Through the layout of Haier Group in recent years, or from the side to prove its long-term optimistic vision for the big health industry.